Local farmers visit Africa

A couple of local farmers spent two weeks in Africa earlier this month to investigate the use of soybeans on the continent. Larry Marek of Riverside represented the United Soybean Board and John Heisdorffer, who farms near Keota, represented the American Soybean Board.

The United Soybean Board paid for the trip, the purpose of which was to promote soybeans and to see how humanitarian efforts are going that supply the people with soybeans. Marek said the United Soybean Board expects African countries to become soybean consumers in the coming years as they develop, just as China has become a major soybean importer since its development over the past few decades.

The group that went consisted of four Americans, one of whom was the head of a humanitarian organization called the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH). His name was Jim Hershey and he had been to Africa numerous times to check up on efforts to introduce soy-based products into the local cuisine as a source of protein.

The goal of WISHH is to educate the African bakers about the uses of soybeans, which include substituting wheat flour for soy flour. Heisdorffer said soy flour produces a greater volume of bread once its baked and it has a longer shelf-life than wheat flour.

Marek and Heisdorffer left the States July 31 and returned Aug. 12. Over those two weeks they visited soybean farms in Uganda, Ghana and South Africa. They said 80 percent of people in Uganda farm and, consequently, the farms are very small. A typical farm was an acre to half an acre. Marek said the farmers were just barely raising enough food to feed their families.

Most of the farmers plant and harvest their crop by hand. Heisdorffer said the group made suggestions to the locals about how they could improve their yields. For instance, the farmers in Uganda planted their soybeans two feet apart, which is much farther than a typical farm in the U.S. where nine seeds are planted in a foot.

Heisdorffer said the farmers were leery of planting the seeds so close because then they?d have to buy more seeds, and they don?t have the money it. Marek said the interest rate in Uganda is 26 percent, so it?s nearly impossible for small farmers to get a loan.

The group members were surprised when they visited South Africa and met people with very large farmers. They met a white farmer whose farm was 2,400 acres. He grew corn, soybeans and hay, and owned a self-propelled sprayer. He had visited the U.S. several times to purchase farm equipment. Heisdorffer said the man?s farm was as up-to-date as his own in Iowa.

Heisdorffer and Marek saw stark contrasts in wealth between white and black South Africans. The white farmers owned large tracts of land and had modern machinery, while the black farmers lived on single-acre farms. They met a progressive black farmer who had invested in a four-row planter and who wanted to combine his beans. Unfortunatley, the combine could not make it over the bridge to his field so he had to harvest the beans by hand.

Marek said that one of the things that surprised him initially about Uganda was seeing women sweeping the ground outside the homes, even though it was just barren dirt with no grass. He later learned that they were cleaning the area because they would later thrash soybeans on that ground. They hit the beans with paddles until they came out of their pods and then take them to the market in town.

Overall, Marek and Heisdorffer said it was a successful trip and that they were encouraged by the inroads soybeans have made in the African economy.