Photo: Richard Nyberg, USAID | Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain
Fonio, one of Africa's oldest cultivated grains, takes just days to germinate and can be harvested in as little as six weeks. Given its greater nutritional benefits and drought resilience, academics and policymakers say fonio should be grown more widely, along with other indigenous foods. “You have lots of indigenous crops that people still eat today but have been neglected by funding agencies, the international research organizations, but definitely not by consumers," says agronomist Michael Ghanem, co-founder of the Forgotten Crops Society. Fonio now appears on high-end restaurant menus, doctors recommend it for diabetes patients, and aid organizations and health food brands promote it. While colonial rule disrupted intercropped African farming systems to grow cash crops for export, indigenous grains are better suited to surviving when grown together with other crops, unlike mainstream imports like wheat, rice and maize, which require the ecosystem to be adapted to ensure the right conditions.
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