Agricultura

Alas, this picture isn’t from Guinea (150 points to anyone who can tell me where I did take this picture!), but it’s a good emblem for me these days: I am plotting a move out of ecotourism and forestry, back to the world of vegetables.  I’m hoping to extend my Peace Corps service for another 8 months and work with some local vegetable growers’ cooperatives on post-harvest handling (yes, I hope to make my profs back at UC Davis proud).  Food security is a big topic in West Africa; in a lot of places, the push is to produce enough to be self-sufficient.  In the Fouta region of Guinea, though, we’re producing way more vegetables (and fruits… and coffee...) than we can consume.  It’s a great climate for veggies: the cold winters here mean we can grow crops like broccoli and strawberries that can’t survive anywhere else in Guinea.  So, for us, contributing to food security means getting our surplus to other regions, so that more people in Guinea have access to affordable, nutritious vegetables year-round.  The problem is… fruits and veggies are the hardest crops to transport.  They wilt, they rot, they get smushed.  Since most of our beautiful avocados, shiny eggplants, and plump tomatoes need to travel at least nine hours, in giant trucks, over some harsh roads, before they get to the big markets… well, a lot can go wrong. 

I want to work on helping more veggies get safely to their final destination, by improving post-harvest cooling, sun protection, and packaging; I also want to help farmers use even those veggies that aren’t safe to travel: some of the dead-ripe bananas, bruised tomatoes, or nicked eggplants can be dehydrated for snacks (banana chips = good) or convenience foods (no fresh tomatoes in the market?  Throw a handful of dried ones into your sauce pot). 

The first step is finding out more about how the post-harvest value chain works right now… so I’ve started interviewing veggie farmers, the ladies who buy and sell produce here and in Conakry, and the guys who rent the big trucks; tomorrow I’m hoping to talk to some more people at market, and learn more about the growers’ cooperatives.  I love market day.