Décrue Sorghum on the Banks of the Big River, the Niger

Décrue Sorghum on the Banks of the Big River, the Niger

The Niger, known as the great water in Igbo and big river in Songhay, is one of Africa's three great rivers. The rich agricultural lands fringing the Niger River have served as the 'bread basket' for a succession of civilizations beginning at least as early as 300 A.D.

The Niger River enabled the kingdom of Mali to develop a stable economy and contributed to the rise of the Mali empire.

The Mali Empire lasted from 1230 to 1600 A.D. and stretched from Gao and Timbuktu in the East, to the Atlantic Ocean, in the West. The ` Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa, allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the enormous Niger River.

Nestled on the banks of the Niger river is the famous ancient city of Timbuktu. Although, known to some as the ends of the earth Timbuktu was in reality a great center of learning, luxury, and trade.

It was a city where river people met with the nomads and traders who traversed the Great Sahara Desert, and

a city where merchants from other parts of Africa, the Middle East, and even Europe came to its world famous universities.

By the 12th century, Timbuktu became a celebrated center of Islamic learning and a commercial establishment with three world class universities and 180 Quranic schools.

According to the inhabitants of Timbuktu, gold came from the south,

salt from the north,,

and Divine knowledge, from Timbuktu. The advanced culture that developed in the Timbuktu Region was made possible by the Great River, the Niger.

The source of the Niger River lies in the highlands of Guinea ( ) and its course plunges towards the Sahara through Mali until it again takes a southward course near Timbuktu ( ). The Niger then traverses part of the Republic of Niger and then Benin before flowing through Nigeria to the South Atlantic ( ). Environmental conditions in the Niger Basin vary widely. Rainfall decreases from about 90 inches per year near the Niger's source in Guinea,

to less than 10 inches in the bend between Timbuktu and Bourem, as seen here; then, rainfall again increases to 160 inches per year as the river flows southward into the Gulf of Guinea at its mouth in Nigeria.

Just south of the Sahara Desert, the Niger River in Mali creates a lush area of wetlands and lakes in an otherwise arid environment.

Its annual cycles of flooding and the retreat of flood waters encourage a complex web of human economies such as rice farmers who plant deep water rice on its banks,

and farmers who plant sorghum on the banks of the river and on the banks of the many lakes as the flood water recedes,

millet farmers who plant far from its floods on sandy ground,

and pastoralists who enter the delta at the time of low waters after the harvest to graze their cattle and fertilize the land.

In Mali there are two types of sorghum production: rain fed and décrue. Just as Timbuktu is a mystical city, décrue agriculture, as practiced along the banks of the Niger River, and the surrounding lakes, is a form of agriculture, unknown to the outer world. Décrue, is a French word that refers to post rainy season or recession planting of crops, such as sorghum, which is planted in the moist areas, along the banks of the Niger river, as the floodwater recedes,

or, to sorghum and other crops planted at the edges of lakes, after the floods have receded, such as at the edges of Lake Faguibine in Mali, as seen in this satellite photo.

Décrue sorghum is an important crop in Mali. The area in red represents the locations where décrue sorghum is grown in the Mopti and Timbuktu Regions of Northern Mali, just south of the Great Sahara Desert. Décrue sorghum is grown on 2 million hectares in Northern Mali.

There, décrue sorghum contributes significantly to food security, in this hunger prone region of the Sahel. This is a region, where at the end of the six month dry season, much of the rural population is limited to only one meal per day; and unfortunately, when drought is severe, some have nothing to eat. No doubt, this crop is extremely important in the battle against hunger in the Sahel.

Thus, there is need to increase the productivity of the mystical, décrue sorghum crop. The USAID supported INTSORMIL program, in collaboration with the Malian national program, IER, and local NGOs, is doing just that through the development of improved production technologies. These technologies include the planting of high yielding sorghum varieties, seen below, and the transfer of improved agronomic practices to the décrue sorghum farmers.

The growth cycle of the décrue sorghum crop is as unique and mystifying as Timbuktu itself. As the flood waters rise on the banks of the rivers and the lakes, farmers make trenches to assist in water movement away from the lake or river so as to irrigate as much land as possible.

The transfer of the flood water inland is important because, for the rest of the crop season, the field receives no further rainfall or flood water and the only source of water is the moisture in the hydromorphic soil zone.

After flooding, the waters slowly begin to recede,

from the banks of the rivers, and lakes, leaving an area of moist soil that is ideal for sowing of the sorghum seed.

Seed sowing is a laborious activity. A wooden, tool is used to punch a hole in the moist soil into which the sorghum seeds are placed. The wooden, tool has a sharp point which allows it to penetrate the soil easily.

After the hole is made in the moist soil, a second farmer follows the hole puncher, placing seeds in the hole and covering them with a hand hoe.

Seeds in the moist soil germinate and seedlings soon appear. The sorghum seedlings grow rapidly in the moist soil.

Soon it is time to remove the weeds. Weeding is a laborious activity which is done with the aid of a hand hoe.

Weeds, insects and foliar diseases are major pest constraints during the vegetative stage of décrue sorghum growth.

The disease, head smut, is a key problem on the newly developed panicles. Next, the panicles appear and the sorghum plant enters the flowering stage.

The grain development stage is the time that the birds have been waiting for as they relish the ripening sorghum grains and sometimes attack in large masses, darkening the sky. Birds such as the notorious Quelea, are major pests in décrue sorghum.

If the birds haven t removed all of the grains it is soon time for harvest. This is a special time of the year as this is when the farmers reap the fruits of their labors. A good harvest means that there will be sufficient food to eat through the dry season and until the next crop is harvested a year later.

The panicles are removed by cutting with a knife. Then panicles are tied in bundles

and this man. and taken to the threshing site. Means of transportation to the threshing site vary. Some carry the panicles on their heads, such as these women,

Some use donkey carts as transportation to carry the sorghum heads to the threshing site.

or they may be taken to the village where they are placed on roof tops and allowed to dry in the hot tropical sun. Once the sorghum heads are dry, The sorghum heads may be stored on a threshing floor in the field,

they are threshed to remove the grain. Threshing is done by the women. They may thresh by beating the sorghum panicles on the ground with a stick, or, they may use the mortar and pestle method. The mortar is made from a tree trunk which is hollowed out.

There is no need to leave the babies at home. They peacefully sleep as they are rocked by the movement of the pestle, back and forth, in and out of the mortar, like pistons in a supercharged gasoline engine. Threshing is truly a time of intense social interaction for the village women.

and resort to group singing and dancing during their break periods to celebrate the bountiful sorghum harvest. To combat the boredom of threshing some of the more experienced women have become artists in the way they handle the pestle,

The threshed grain along with an abundance of chaff is removed from the mortar and placed into a basin made of a gourd, and then winnowed in the wind to remove the chaff from the grain.

taken to the village and stored in these grain storage structures, made of mud and straw. Storage huts, filled with sorghum grain from the recent bountiful harvest The newly threshed and winnowed sorghum grain is placed in polyethylene bags and

mean food security, for the rural Malian families. The smiles on the faces of the villagers the children and their mothers mean only one thing their thankfulness and profound joy of knowing that they can expect at least two meals a day throughout the coming dry season; unfortunately, a joy that not all northern Malians can express.

As another bountiful harvest season comes to a close, a beautiful sunset appears over the décrue sorghum fields in northern Mali, a sunset that is a portrait of a bright future with abundant food.

At the end of a long, hard day in the field, the décrue sorghum farmer places his hand hoe over his shoulder and returns to his home in the village. As he traverses the path towards his home, a satisfying thought passes through his mind with God s help, the harvest this year has been good, and I have provided abundantly for my family as we again face the dry season that is rapidly approaching.

And, as the warm, glowing sun sets over the beautiful, mystical Niger, the Malian farmers that live along the banks of the big river are eternally grateful for the annual cycle of flooding and recession that provide the water and nutrients that promote growth of the décrue sorghum plants and provide the bread of life for their families.

by XA TA Âf{ÉÜàÊ [x ÇÜ v{á Assistant Director