New Sweet Salone post: In which renegades abound
Meryl Olson
I’m writing from Americana Café in Bo, a pitstop on my way from Freetown back to Kailahun District (which is “home” for all intents and purposes). I was convinced this place was Sierra Leonean Heaven #2 (Heaven #1 is a middle eastern restaurant called Basha in Freetown) due to its close resemblance to an American coffee house, but then I found out that it’s operated by these crazy uber-Christians from Ireland who practice street evangelism and implore people to renounce Islam and traditional beliefs, and now I feel a little dirty. They apparently also operate an orphanage, and that fact is allowing me to enjoy my tea and muffin without retching. Oh, but Josh Groban just came on the radio, which isn’t helping. Sorry, Mom. ;)
The past week has been a crazy whirlwind of travel, but really fun and rewarding. I was in Freetown for the first part of the week to help Kari welcome the OneVillage Partners interns who arrived from the U.S. on Sunday. Before that, we squeezed in a trip to the beach with her friends who were visiting. There are some photos on Facebook, and I’ll try to post some more here for anyone who is considering visiting me and would be swayed by photos of a really sweet beach.
Then, Monday through Wednesday of this week, I attended the annual work review conference of the Sierra Leone Agricultural Research Institute (SLARI), during which everyone who does research funded by SLARI gets together to present the research they have done during the past year and propose their research activities for the next year. Bashiru invited me to present my proposal for my work here, since he was presenting his work and he is also a collaborator on mine. I’m glad he did, because it was really interesting seeing all the other agricultural research going on in Sierra Leone, and I met some great people. Also, there was free lunch.
I was a bit frustrated by the direction that SLARI seems to be going. (Warning: This post is about to get rather academic.) Other folks at the conference were also frustrated, but I shall not name them because they receive funds from SLARI and thus cannot afford to criticize it publicly on this here interweb forum, whereas I’m safe unless I get deported, which is highly unlikely because I’m a youngish white woman so nobody takes me that seriously anyway SLARI, along with the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, and Food Security (MAFFS), is strongly promoting a shift from subsistence to commercial agriculture in Sierra Leone. To achieve that, SLARI’s new strategic plan for research focuses on the agricultural product value chain—in other words, including input supply, processing, and marketing in the research. When the Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Sam Sesay, spoke on Wednesday, it was clear that this is part of an overall plan to intelligently develop food systems that will provide a decent livelihood for farmers in Sierra Leone, by focusing on all parts of the food system. However, my impression is that SLARI is misinterpreting this to mean that all farm-level research is now out and ALL research must now focus on processors or marketers. The problem with this is that most farmers in Sierra Leone currently do not currently produce enough to meet their own food needs and sell to the market, never mind earning enough income to purchase outside inputs. Also, SLARI requires that researchers fit into one of several narrow program areas: roots and tubers, cereal crops, horticultural crops, livestock, fisheries, forestry and tree crops, and land water, and environment. This doesn’t leave any room for farming systems or interdisciplinary research. Why would you separate crops into different program areas when farmers intercrop them in the same field, as they do with rice, cassava, and yams?
SLARI is currently dogged by a few other problems as well. One is a lack of transfer of its research from the academic realm to actual farmers. Despite copious efforts breeding rice, cassava, and other crops, most farmers continue to use their traditional varieties. The reasons for this are pretty obvious to me: there is little multiplication and sale of SLARI seeds, farmers couldn’t afford them even if there was, and SLARI breeds their improved varieties with fertilizer, which virtually no farmers can access or afford, so the improved varieties may not actually perform that much better for them.
You would think that with this disconnect between research and practice, SLARI would be looking for innovative new approaches that might better connect farmers and researchers. And in some ways, they are. Dr. Sesay mentioned farmer field schools, which involve farmers in a process of experimentation over an entire growing season. This allows them to learn new concepts and methods in a very hands-on way by testing them out in their own farms. The method was initially developed to teach integrated pest management in Asia and has had considerable success. The FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) has a program in Sierra Leone called SNAP (Sustainable Nutrition and Agriculture Program) which operates farmer field schools all over the place, including in Jokibu. I’m going to meet with their program head in Bunumbu (about 4 miles from where I live) at some point.
I digress. The point is that when Bashiru presented his research, he mentioned using Participatory Action Research (or PAR) methods. In 20 words or less, PAR in agricultural research involves farmers in the research process and incorporates some concrete action into the research that will benefit the farmers who are involved. It’s a complicated and totally imperfect method, and anyone who’s ever heard me talk about it knows that I have my own criticisms about it. It’s extremely difficult to blend the priorities of the international research community (i.e. funders and publishers) with those of farmers, though it can and has been done, for example by one very notable leader of the Agroecology and Rural Livelihoods lab at UVM. However, SLARI’s mandate is to contribute to improving agriculture in Sierra Leone, not necessarily to publish internationally, so such a method would seem ideal, no? Well, when Bashiru mentioned using it in his research, he was heavily criticized for using a method that was “invalid because it was developed by the feminists, and they were just seeking the answers that they wanted to get, so we should not use such invalid methods that don’t actually measure anything.” HOOOOOO BOY. Did we just criticize feminism AND participatory research in the same sentence? One M. Olson was a bit livid but, uncharacteristically, held her tongue to avoid burning bridges with the higher-ups at SLARI.
Fortunately, I am collaborating with several like-minded folks at Njala to publish a small book through SLARI about the potential for agroecology and participatory research methods in Sierra Leone. It will include several introductory chapters about agroecology and PAR and then several case studies from researchers at Njala. So I’m returning to Kailahun District re-energized. Which is good, because I have a crazy month of data collection ahead of me.
In other news, last night Bashiru told me some crazy stories of other Americans he’s hosted, and all I can say is, thank goodness he doesn’t lump all white people into the same category. So please, people, if you’re an 18-year old with daddy issues and looking for a free place to stay while you dick around in Africa and walk around barefoot in hotpants and generally appall your good-natured hosts, please for the love of all that is holy, stay home.
Also, now Chicago is on the radio. Cris, this is a test to see if you actually read my blog. I DON’T WANNA LIIIIIIVE WITHOUT YOUR LOVE. I DON’T WANNA FACE THE NIGHT ALONE.
This absurdly long post was unwittingly sponsored by American Café, home of stronger coffee than anywhere else in Sierra Leone. And Jesus, apparently.
