Farmers: You cannot grow or eat if you don't pay us royalties!

http://www.counterpunch.org/dixon06062007.html

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We the agri-corporations will destroy you, and sue you if you do not. You stupid hippies you cannot live free.

 

To me these sort of issues are more important than the raging, rampant media bites and panic about dying polar bears. But few understand them or wish to argue with huge corporate interests like Cargill, et al.

 

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded $11.4 million to Purdue University (Illinois, USA) Agriculture to help people in 10 African nations safely store cowpeas, an important food and cash crop, and increase their household income on average about $150 per year. With a one-time cost estimated at a little more than $3 per household, farmers in West and Central Africa will learn how to better protect the crop.

Cowpeas are marketed by an estimated 3.4 million households in those countries. Even though yields are low, the legume is one of the few grain crops that can be profitably exported by farmers in this dry, resource-poor part of Africa. Unfortunately, a pest called the cowpea weevil can consume nearly all the cowpeas stored on farms.

"Because of the storage problems, farmers are often forced to sell their cowpeas at harvest, when prices are at their lowest levels," said Joan Fulton, agricultural economist and project director. "If we teach them how to store the cowpeas properly, they can take advantage of higher prices later in the year."

Proven effective in pilot projects, the Purdue-developed hermetic storage method involves triple bagging the cowpeas in plastic and sealing them tight. It's simple and not a new idea, but most producers in the region do not know about it or have not used the method properly. Not only is the process low-cost - basically the cost of the plastic bags - it's also safer than current practices of either no protection or treating cowpeas with insecticides. "The chemicals add to the expense of storage and create health and environmental hazards," Fulton said.

Purdue will work with partners in Africa to recruit and train technicians who will travel from village to village to educate the mostly illiterate population by demonstrating the proper method for cowpea storage. In addition, the Purdue team will work with manufacturers and suppliers in the region to ensure that appropriate plastic bags are available.

"Through a simple, low-cost and environmentally-friendly technology, Purdue will work with African organizations and program managers to reach more than 3 million households with information and tools to prevent post-harvest losses, a key lever for small farmers to gain access to agricultural markets," said Dr. Rajiv Shah, director of Agricultural Development for the Gates Foundation.

Purdue entomologist and team member Larry Murdock began this work with cowpeas more than 20 years ago when, by chance, he figured out why the storage method works. A colleague experimenting with storing cowpeas in two plastic bags used a chemical in one to kill the weevils and left the other untreated as a control. "He thought that his experiment failed because there was no weevil damage in either bag," Murdock said. "I thought that interesting and started to investigate why that was so." It turns out that the pests become inactive in airtight plastic bags because they deplete the oxygen. As a result, they don't feed and can't reproduce, meaning the population doesn't grow and little or no damage occurs.

"While stored cowpeas may only contain a few insects to begin with, each female can produce 40 or more offspring about every month," Murdock said. "If they have air and are able to reproduce, within a few months you have thousands of weevils and nothing left of your crop."

Plastic bags currently used for storage in the region are often vented or thin and prone to puncture, making them ineffective.

Jess Lowenberg-Deboer, director of International Programs in Agriculture, said the project goal is that within five years 50 percent of the cowpeas stored on farms in the region will be kept in triple-layer plastic bags.

The project will combine some of the oldest teaching methods with the latest communication technology. In addition to village demonstrations, the team may try text messages and videos sent to cell phones. Purdue entomologist Barry Pittendrigh, also part of the team, said cell phones are common, even in areas where residents don't have television. "Cell phone use in Africa is rapidly expanding and may be a good way to reach remote areas," he said. "It's free to receive a cell phone message in most West African countries, so using cell phones will not impose an additional cost on the farmers."

The five-year project will cover the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.

http://africanagriculture.blogspot.com/2007/06/gates-foundation-funds-improved-cowpea.html

 

Will Bill and Melinda be making these bags available to the farmers in these areas at reduced costs or free, or will they have to pay for the use? Are these bags covered under a patent that requires farmers to pay for each usage? Will everyone be required to use them, even though they have found alternative methods to storage.

Is this just another captive market being targeted. Will farmers be required to obtain these bags thus creating a captive market. Things to consider.

Here in the US we can't guarrantee that premium pet foods or tooth paste or even foodstuffs are not tainted by chemicals added by foreign producers to earn the largest buck at the least overhead.

 

Not true. The Chinese denied any corruption to the product for at least three weeks after the bad press hit. And the first reported pet death occurred in February of 2007, the pet food manufacturers denied liability for at least two weeks prior to the first press releases.

Now we are finding anti-freeze in human toothpaste manufactured in China. Guess you know now why you aren't supposed to swallow.

 

What will be the cost to the farmers for these "technicians"? The population of the area may be illiterate, but they have been farming for centuries. Are they now going to be required to produce under a system that requires them to pay for consultants and a specific storage medium that is patented and requires payment for every usage?

Do you have any idea what $3.00 can buy for these people?

 

I even think the dumb africans were aware of this fact of nature. It took a college study to prove it?

 

I'd like to know the amount of the grant Purdue received. How many families could that provide for, and for how many years at 2.00 a day?

 

$3 per household plus whatever their outlay in the first place. It might cost them more in the short term but in the long term it is beneficial. Those useing ''old practices'' are hopefully going to be useing ''new practices'' we should see this as beneficial. It is not mandatory people still have free will.

Yes I do - the point is some farmers are spending far more than this - perpetuating ''bad practice'' - a reduction in their overheads can only be a good thing. Their overall gain in profit due to better practices is only going to be beneficial.
The fears you have and ''things to consider'' are unfounded at the moment.
It is a win win situation from what I can gather. If you find something detrimental in this programme - not based on opinion but based on fact - please free to bring this to our attention.

 

The truth is ''they'' have not done it .
It is not down to them being ''dumb'' it is down to them not being able too afford research into better practices.

 

I depends one what you base "good" practices on. I base my reservations on the fact that people need a certain amount to live on. Not everyone has extra to invest on new methods that industrial countries and those that stand to benefit from installing their new methods will reap without demonstration that said methods benefit anymore than tried and true methods that don't cost anything.

What federal funds or grant monies has Purdue been awarded for this product? I haven't seen any proof that is is going to lower overhead.

 

Perhaps it's down to the fact that they can't afford triple layered bags. Or perhaps they are just too tired at the end of the day trying to feed their families and subsist, that they don't really have the energy to invest in the research that cushy college students and college faculty could invest in during their free time sponsored by federal/US dollars.

 

I'll tell you one thing as a gardener, if those beans aren't thorougly dry by the time they are put in those triple layer bags, they will mildew, and I don't need a college study to tell me that. I suppose there is a company out there that is going to be providing a drying process for 3.00 a family also. That's 6.00 a year these folks have to live without.

 

You'd think if this venture would make such a huge difference for 3.00 a family Bill and Melinda would fund it outright at least for five years. That would probably be small change for them.

Or is it that they expect a return on their philanthropy?

 

Absolutely true on all counts apart from it being funded by federal/US dollars.
BUT - It is not true every African lives in a dickensian dark age - it is just down funding and a lack of knowledge - i don't begrudge knowledge sharing - why do you ?. This is a good thing why are you dragging it down ?.

Please read what is being done - over your prejudicial knee jerk observations.

 

I never said they lived in a Dickensian dark age. You are the only one that has. I respect their knowledge and skills, I wonder if you do.

I only question that they should be required to pay to do what they have done for years, perhaps conserving and selling black eyed peas isn't high on their list.

I am not aware of a western market for these things are you. Why should they expend valuable resources to expand a market that isn't there?

 

I eat maybe two of them(two beans) every New Years day, just because my granny told me it was good luck. I don't buy them on a regular basis, do you?

 

Ok but their ''knowledge and skills'' have not brought them too the understanding that may come from this . It is also putting into practice what could have been known to them previously. It is not new kowledge as such - merely better infrastructure to hopefully put it into practice.

''They'' have not done this ''for years'' .

From what I can gather it is increasing the yearly yeild past what ''they'' were getiing previously. The markets are not new - the yield will be more - thereby more profit and more money for the family.

 

It is interestingly reminiscent of the "green revolution". Of course Gardener would have opposed that too. Did you know you can end poverty by sitting around criticising everything and being infinitely sceptical?