Agri News, MN
10-23-07
African agriculturalists impressed with Iowa's farmers
By Jean Caspers-Simmet
Agri News staff writer
CRESCO, Iowa -- Northeast Iowa farmers and Iowa State University Extension
staff joined hands with African agriculturists last week to share information on
how people farm here.
Representatives from Sasakawa Africa/Global 2000 came to Northeast Iowa for
a banquet to honor Norman Borlaug, who is president of their organization.
The group toured the John and Kay Reis farm at Cresco and the Northeast Iowa
Research and Demonstration Farm at Nashua. They also visited Golden Grain
Energy at Mason City and saw Borlaug's boyhood farm at Protivin.
John and Kay Reis and their son Jason and his wife, Jen, raise corn, soybeans
and hay and feed cattle on their farm northwest of Cresco.
They have a farrow to finish hog operation with John's brother, Ron.
Kay, a retired teacher and avid quilter, showed the women in the group some of
her quilting projects.
John Reis said he tries to no-till as much of his farm as he can because it helps
in conserving soil. It also saves trips across the field. He said that since he has
no-tilled earthworm activity has increased dramatically.
"A big issue for me is to preserve the soil," John said. "There is also a cost
savings with no-till as far as the equipment you need and the time involved."
The Reis family sell corn to an ethanol plant, and they buy back DDGs to feed to
their cattle.
Jason Reis assisted members of the group in driving their tractor equipped with
GPS equipment.
"The tractor ride was very nice, very modern, very comfortable," said Emmanuel
Kayayo who is Sasakawa-Global 2000 director in Uganda and an engineer.
Tareke Berhe, who lives in Ethiopia and is regional director for rice programs for
Sasakawa-Global 2000, said soil conservation is important in Africa where soils
are shallow and torrential rains can wash those soils away in a day.
"We're all about promoting improved agricultural production," said Wayne Haag,
Sasakawa-Global 2000 regional director for quality protein maize in
Mozambique. "We promote no-till in Africa for the conservation but also because
they do a lot of tillage by hand and much of that falls on the women. No-till
reduces the labor load and the weeding burden."
Sasakawa also promotes value added ventures like livestock production and
small scale processing.
"In Africa the farms are 5 to 7 acres so even if production increases, the standard
of living is pretty low," Haag said. "We are looking at ways for farmers to come
together in cooperatives to feed livestock, buy inputs, market crops or do some
processing."
During a lunch prepared with produce from the Nashua research farm, Uganda's
Kayayo and Marcel Galiba, Sasakawa Africa country director in Mali, said they
marveled at the productivity of Iowa farms. Africa also has good land, water and
people, but government policies have prevented agriculture from thriving.
"A part is missing to make it happen, but I still have a lot of hope," Galiba said. "I
have hope that one day we can make it happen, to bring our people out of
poverty."
Fran Mueller, president of Self-Help International and a Waverly farmer, told the
group about work Self-Help does in Ghana with Quality Protein Maize in
cooperation with Sasakawa/Global 2000. Through the nutrition program school
children drink a corn beverage and eat corn cakes each day.
"After two years there has been a significant increase in growth rate and
disappearance of the orange hair and listlessness that come with being
malnourished," Mueller said.
The mission of Sasakawa Africa-Global 2000 is to promote the scaling up of
modern agricultural technologies that increase the productivity and incomes of
resource-poor smallholder farmers in Africa without harming the natural resource
base.