West Africa

In Sierra Leone it is common to see small patches of unhusked rice on the edge of the road. The rice is put out in the sun to dry – one step in an arduous process that includes: harvesting the crop by hand, separating the grain from the stalk, then partially drying and storing it in the husk. When the time comes to eat the rice, it must be put out in the sun to dry, and then the husk is removed through pounding and winnowing it to finally get to the dry rice, which is then ready to be cooked.

Women often stand over the drying rice guarding it against animals or people going by. But they cannot truly guard the grain from contaminants blowing in the wind.

Having a safe place to dry the grain can be challenging. Ideally, what communities need is a grain drying floor – a cement floor surrounded by fencing and with adequate space for up to ten families to safely dry their grain at a time.

World Renew’s local partner, Christian Extension Services (CES), as part of a project focused on enabling increased production of rice, recently built a grain drying floor in the community of Yoria. The residents of Yoria came together to collect sand, water, and stones and provided the local labor, and CES, with funding from World Renew provided the cement, skilled labor, and fencing materials.

Borbeh Sesay, the chairperson of the village agricultural committee, says, “We used to dry our grains on cloth or on the ground where it usually mixed with stones and contaminants … with this new drying floor that isn’t the case … the rice is safe and clean.”