Activities by Country
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QUICK FACTS: GUINEA Size: 245,857 square kilometers Population: 9,947,814 Average annual income: $410 USD Religions: Muslim, 85 percent; Christian; indigenous beliefs Life expectancy: 50 years Languages: French (official), each ethnic group has its own language Ethnic groups: Peuhl, 40 percent; Malinke; Soussou; smaller ethnic groups Population below poverty line: 40 percent Literacy: 36 percent (Source: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, World Factbook 2008; The World Bank 2006) |
Guinea
In Guinea, The Carter Center and its partners are working with women farmers to improve rice production. Building Hope In Guinea, there is new hope for more abundant harvests thanks to a partnership between The Carter Center, the Sasakawa Africa Association, and the Guinean Ministry of Agriculture.
Fighting Disease Increasing Food Production
Led by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Norman Borlaug, Sasakawa-Global 2000, a joint venture between The Carter Center and the Sasakawa Africa Association, has been teaching Guinean farmers how to use new technologies to increase crop production since 1986. This effort, in collaboration with the Guinea Ministry of Agriculture, is part of a larger initiative that has helped more than 4 million farmers improve agricultural production in Africa.
The prescription is simple: Farmers are provided with credit for fertilizers and seeds to grow production test plots. Following successful harvests, which usually exceed previous harvests by 200 to 400 percent, farmers teach their neighbors about the new technologies, creating a ripple effect to stimulate food self-sufficiency in the nation. In 1996, activities concentrated on studying the constraints and possible technical solutions to increasing production of the country's main food crop, rice. About 80 percent of Guinea's rice is produced in rain-fed upland areas, where farmers have been using slash-and-burn methods, moving on to new land after several growing cycles and encroaching constantly into the forest zone, which provides an important source of rain for several West African countries. During that same year, 50 production test plots were established in these upland areas, with half of the plots devoted to cultivation of a crop called mucuna, which was imported from Benin, also a Carter Center agricultural project country. Each year, the fields were rotated between rice and mucuna to improve the available nutrients in the soil. Because women dominate agricultural production in Guinea, in 1997, the program recruited an initial group of 200 local women to participate in cultivation and food preparation activities. Women were given credit to buy maize, cassava, and soybean seeds for cultivation, and then one woman from each group of 20 was sent to Ghana to learn how to prepare these new crops for meals. In 2003, the program began focusing on the production and distribution of improved seeds and rice, supporting research centers in generating improved soil fertility management techniques and strengthening human capacity through continuous training. These activities had the overarching goals of transferring ownership of the projects to Guinean farmers and institutions. Also in 2003, the program facilitated access to 183 metric tons of fertilizer and 23 tons of improved seed to farmers, farmers' groups, agricultural colleges, and research centers. The program also continued promoting an improved variety of rice as part of the New Rice for Africa initiative developed by the West African Rice Development Association. This included assistance in exporting 12 tons of rice and 1 ton of quality protein maize to Gambia, Mali, and Ethiopia. A pilot project in partnership with the government of Japan also was launched to develop agro-industry based on the new rice production. The project plans to tackle two primary issues: gender – more than 80 percent of the participants are women – and the environment. Several areas will be covered in programming, including: seed production, soil fertility management, farm management, and post-harvest technologies. In Guinea, grain quality is often reduced due to poor processing methods. Women are often responsible for removing the grain from its stalks and husks by hand, causing some grain to be damaged in the process. A major objective of the program has therefore been to improve threshing and handling of the rice grain. Such action will reduce the drudgery for women and improve the quality of the produce. Together, The Carter Center and its partners are building hope for a future of abundant harvests. With continued hard work and dedication to environmentally sound cultivation methods, this hope will become a reality. |
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