Tropical Legumes Project

Legumes are the third largest family of plants, and many species among them are very nutritious and/or improve the quality of soil. However they haven’t so far received a great deal of attention to increase yields and help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Soybeans

ICRISTAT, the International Crops Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics are conducting a research and development project to improve the productivity of legumes. This will be funded for three years by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and will act in partnership with the Program for African Seed Systems to ensure the availability of the seeds to African farmers.

Peanuts

Legumes are rich in protein and minerals and sometimes referred to as "poor man’s meat". They hold great promise for fighting hunger, increasing income and improving soil fertility.

Black eyed beans

The research is being carried out in 14 different countries in Africa, as well as in Asia.

Senegal, Tostan and FGM

I mentioned the organisation Tostan's work in Guinea last April. They work primarily in West Africa having started up in Senegal, but they also have programs in Sudan and Somalia.

Today they have been awarded The Hilton Prize, awarded annually to an organisation making extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world. It is worth $2 million (£750,000) which must be going to make a huge difference to their work.

It is especially good to hear this news because only last Friday IRIN published a report saying that female genital mutilation (FGM) was continuing in Senegal 10 years after villagers had claimed to abandon it. In fact, reading further in the article will reveal that a 2006 survey shows a 60% drop in the rate of FGM in villages which had been in the Tostan programme. That seems to be well on course for the UNFPA's aim to eliminate the practice within a generation, and for which the UN is setting up a $44 million fund.

It seems unrealistic to expect to change views which have developed over centuries in a relatively short time. They have been doing incredibly well to have achieved what they have so far but the prize money will allow them to do so much more. I would hope that the people administering the new fund will look at their successful methods.

Til taught by pain, men really know not what good water is worth

Water has featured greatly in the news recently. Too much of it in some places: UK, Pakistan, China, Nepal, Sudan, but not enough in others: Lesotho, Swaziland, Djibouti, and today we hear that the president of Mauritania has asked for national prayers to ensure the rainy season starts soon and provides enough rain.

Countries that have neither too much nor too little have other problems with it.

In Kenya, there is a worry that the Anopheles mosquito, which spreads malaria, will become adapted to living in polluted water and invade previously relatively malaria-free areas like Nairobi. Malaria is now the most common disease in Kibera, one of Nairobi’s slums.

Again in Nairobi, in another slum, there have been demonstrations protesting over cuts in the water supply. There had been cuts for five days in an effort to stop illegal connections to the mains.

In Jordan hundreds of people have been taken to hospital with severe diarrhoea caused by a parasite in the water supply. The parasite, Cryptosporidium, is resistant to traditional water treatment.

In Senegal a water channel running through the centre of Dakar, the capital, has become an open sewer. People, not realising it was intended as a recreation area nor understanding the implications of polluting the water, have dumped rubbish in it, so much so that the water has become stagnant in places allowing mosquitoes to breed.

It’s not surprising then that organisations such as WaterAid exist, whose vision is of a world where everyone has access to safe water and sanitation.

When you read about people being delighted that they can go three times a day to collect clean water from a hand pump, you realise we sometimes need to take a moment to understand how much most of us take safe water for granted, whereas for large parts of the world it is a luxury.