I pledge allegiance to rice

Work has begun! But don’t expect to get a full detailed briefing on “what exactly I’m doing in Ghana”. Right now I’m in a learning phase – I’ve been given the freedom to travel around the Northern Region of Ghana and basically “job shadow”. I started at the regional level of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) and have started a 7 week tour of MoFA's district offices (one level below regional). I’ve uploaded a map that shows where I’ll be going in the next 2 months – and that’s as much as I’ll share about the nitty gritty details. Below is a story from a trip I took with a regional staff…

Follow along on my Northern Region "District Learning Tour"!

Posing with a Regional MoFA staff - dressed "fine" in a Ghanaian dress

Today I make a pledge – I pledge to only eat Ghanaian rice. This commitment is motivated by meeting with the Kalegu rice group – a group of women who together are leading the way in rice processing – a growing market in Ghana. I met the Kalegu rice group with Luke, a regional staff at MoFA who is to go-to-guy on all “farmer based organizations” in the Northern Region. We made the 4 hour trip to meet with the women and learn from them – how are they successful in the rice processing business and more importantly how are they able to work together?

Kalegu women selling Ghanaian rice

But asking these questions was not so simple! To even begin the field visit, Luke had to push hard to get the money we needed to travel. I give Luke tremendous credit for working so hard to realize a trip that was planned over a year ago! Since he wasn’t certain as to whether he would get the money and be able to go, he didn’t inform anyone about our visit. But money we received and the journey we did take.

When we arrived about 4 hours later, dusty and myself exhausted from the bumpy ride along a pot-hole infested road, I was astounded to see Luke literally jump into work-mode as soon as the vehicle stopped. We were fortunate to come across a community meeting that had in attendance some of the key people Luke was hoping to speak with and so he was able to schedule meetings with the farmer groups for the following day.

Luke’s persistence paid off, and we began the following day by meeting with three groups that grow rice. These groups are composed almost entirely of men (since men in Ghana do most of the food production while women do most of the food processing).

Luke checking out some unprocessed rice grains.

The conversation was enlightening for me, I suppose I had this rather romantic view of “farmer based organizations” – people coming together to support each other with a sort of community spirit – in actuality these groups were mostly formed to get money. Small-loan schemes for farmers are one of most prominent development interventions in Ghana – it seems every project and every organization gives out “micro-credit”. I have mixed feelings about micro-credit but in my humble opinion don’t see it as a “silver bullet solution” that the development community seems to tote them as (you may have heard of the Grameen Bank organisation in Bangladesh that gave micro-credit loans to rural women). With MoFA for example, the recovery rate on the loans they give to farmers is incredibly low, and as a result MoFA staff are asking critical questions about micro-credit.

In short, these men formed a group because that’s the only way they could get a loan. Once Luke finished talking with the men’s rice groups and I had adjusted to yet another bubble full of romantic ideas of development being popped to reveal the reality, we traveled to the local market. Today was market day, so as Luke and I made our way through the lively commerce and past hoards of groundnuts, yams and other produce we came to the women’s group. They were busy selling rice but paused long enough to chat with Luke and post for a photo.

Luke in action, interviewing the women's group.

All of the women - the pride in their faces is incredible!

After we left the women’s group, Luke pointed at a pile of very white and polished looking rice that was also being sold in the market. Luke explained that this rice is imported and that most people prefer the imported rice because it looks nicer (is whiter, less impurities like small stones and cracked rice grains), however, the local rice is actually more nutritious. To add to the ridiculousness, the price for the local and imported rice was the same! Thus was born my pledge – to only eat Ghanaian rice. So far I have been successful in supporting my farmer friends who derive their living from growing and processing rice (although I have been surprised by the number of vendors who sell imported rice!). I shared my pledge with Luke and he quickly jumped on board! More than making a simple pledge to change my consumer habits, the persistence and dedication Luke demonstrated on our field visit reinforced my pledge to work with MoFA over the next year.

PS – Ridiculous market situations seem to be prevalent when it comes to food – check out my friend’s Alanna’s blog on mango processing and exporting in Burkina Faso - http://alannapeters.blogspot.com/2007/09/next-time-you-see-dried-mango-think-of.html