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Muslims say their evening prayers yesterday at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia. Muslims around the world are observing the month long Ramadan. —AFP
Africa’s ambitious return of ancient rice By Fiacre Vidjingninou ne by one, Ali Kassim pulls out the weeds that have grown in his rice paddy. It’s surprisingly rare in Africa, but he is cultivating African rice — once close to extinction after it was pushed aside centuries ago for a higheryield imported Asian variety. Researchers hope to see more and more farmers like Kassim, who is 32 and among about 100 people in Togo’s central Atakpamey region to take part in an experimental program led by the Africa Rice Centre (AfricaRice), based in neighboring Benin. In the small west African country, experts are seeking to change the farm-
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ing habits of a whole continent by reintroducing African rice, or Oryza glaberrima, in the hope of scaling down food crises. Cultivated for about 3,500 years and then close to extinction, African rice was abandoned by most farmers in favour of the Asian variety, Oryza sativa, which has a higher yield and has been imported for about 450 years. But the local rice is more nutritious and researchers are currently working on ways of producing a strain with a higher yield that could enable an increase in production across the continent, which imports most of its rice. “The principal objective (...) is to achieve self-suffiency in Africa in the matter. We are therefore giving priority to the
yield, so that the new African rice can be more competitive against its Asian kin,” said Moussa Sie, head of the research program. With production largely outdone by growing demand, Africa imports 40 percent of the rice it consumes, at the cost of 3.6 billion dollars (2.8 billion euros) in 2008, according to the Africa Rice Centre report for that year. Africa’s dependency poses risks such as during the global food crisis of 2008, when a hike in the prices of basic commodities caused food shortages and riots all over the world. “The basic ingredients exist for another episode like the one in 2008,” warned Papa Abdoulaye Seck, director general of AfricaRice, in an inter-
view last April. “Global rice stocks are low, and El Nino threatens rice production in countries like Thailand and the Philippines.” “Moreover, despite significant increases in domestic cereal production in many countries during 2008 and 2009, Africa continues to depend heavily on food aid and global cereal markets for its leading food staples, rice and maize,” he added. ‘A revolution for our agriculture’ Nevertheless, according to AfricaRice, this cereal is now the main source of food in west Africa, where its consumption has grown annually by 4.5 percent from 1961 to 2006. The new African rice, which
researchers are now testing in experimental paddies, is a mixture of the two, with a majority of African genes, according to Moussa Sie. “The main complaints that were made against African rice were laying, which is a tendency of the plants to lie down when the grains were ripe, and shedding, when ripe grains fall off at maturity,” explains Marie Noelle Ndjiondjop, a geneticist at AfricaRice. “The idea of these experimental fields is to try out different cultures in order to assess the successes and limits of our research in the field,” she added. According to Moussa Sie, “only spreading the culture of the new African rice can provide an appropriate response
to the famine which is raging in our region.” Niger is currently hit very hard by a food crisis, with millions of people struck by drought, who have lost their harvests and their cattle, according to agencies of the United Nations. The Africa Rice Centre pays farmers for taking part in its program and gives them seed. For rice-grower Ali Kassim, the first results already seem satisfactory. “What we see is that this gives a great deal,” he said. “The rice that comes out after the harvest, when it’s sent to the mill to be husked, it doesn’t break. “That’s the reason why we think this is a revolution for our agriculture,” he said. — AFP
Lenin’s back, as French city honors ‘great men’ T wenty years af ter Lenin’s statues began to disappear from post-Communist Eastern Europe, the great revolutionary rose anew as a 3.3 meter (11 foot) bronze in France yesterday. Flamboyant regional leader Georges Freche ordered five huge statues for the southern city of Montpellier, celebrating his heroes Lenin, Winston Churchill, Charles de Gaulle, Franklin Roosevelt and Jean Jaures. Each weighs in at between 850 kilos (1,874 pounds) and a tone and each cost local taxpayers an estimated 200,000 euros (260,000 dollars). They were unveiled on Wednesday and will be formally inaugurated next month. Freche, a former Socialist who was expelled by the party after making what were regarded as racist comments about the French football team, says the art will honor the “great men of the 20th century”. Next year, five more figures will arrive, bringing Mahatma Gandhi, Golda Meir, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Nelson Mandela and Mao Zedong to Montpellier. Freche’s political opponents have criticized the operation as a waste of money and questioned the decision to honor some of the figures. The Green Party has threatened to dismantle the statues, and the right-wing UMP is furious to see its hero-Free French wartime leader General De Gaullestanding alongside the Russian Bolshevik revolutionary Lenin. But Freche, who is presi-
Muslims break fast after sunset yesterday at Dar Al-Hijrah Islamic Center in Falls Church, Virginia. —AFP
Gambling hub Macau to hold pop culture auction elebrity memorabilia including Marilyn Monroe’s bra, Elvis Presley’s hair and a gown that belonged to Princess Diana is being put up for auction in Macau, organizers said yesterday. The items are among several hundred pieces of memorabilia- including an unused ticket to the iconic Woodstock music festival-that will go under the hammer at the October 9 auction in the glitzy Asian gambling hub. Diana wore the burgundy velvet dress to a 1989 event, and Julien’s Auctions, which is running the sale, estimates the gown will go under the hammer for as much as 100,000 US dollars. Other items include a black crystal-studded glove that belonged to late pop star Michael Jackson which is expected to fetch about 50,000 US dollars, as well as Beatles and Jimi Hendrix memorabilia. A vial of Presley’s hair, collected
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French president of the Languedoc-Roussillon region and chairman of Montpellier’s development community, Georges Freche walks yesterday in Montpellier, southern France near a 3.3 meter (11 foot) bronze statue of Lenin. —AFP dent of the L anguedocRoussillon region and chairman of Montpellier’s development community, enjoys strong personal support despite, or perhaps because of, a history of controversial remarks. In a recent inter-
view with the Montpellier local newspaper La Gazette, Freche defended his decision to honor Lenin and Mao, insisting that their political legacy outweighs the bloodshed associated with their regimes. —AFP
by his personal barber, could sell for as much as 10,000 US dollars, the auctioneers said. Marilyn’s black lace and satin bra is one of a number of items belonging to the late screen goddess that will be on the auction block. Highlights of the auction will be exhibited in Japan and Chile before the October sale at a Macau resort, organizers said. The Ponte 16 resort-half-owned by gambling tycoon Stanley Ho’s Sociedade de Jogos de Macau-paid one million US dollars for about 40 Michael Jackson memorabilia items at auctions last year. Ponte 16 stumped up 350,000 US dollars for Jackson’s left-handed glove-worn by the singer when he performed his first “moonwalk” dance in 1983. The items are displayed at a hotel gallery which opened earlier this year. — AFP
Thai Muslim men offer prayers during a government-sponsored gathering during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan in Thailand’s southern province of Narathiwat late on August 17, 2010. —AFP