Agriculture
The rice that came back to Casamance
For twenty years the valleys were too salty to plant. Then a group of women started rebuilding the dykes by hand.
Salt water pushed up the valleys during the dry years and stayed. Rice will not grow in it. A generation grew up buying imported rice in a region that used to export it.
The repair is unglamorous: earth walls, rebuilt every year, that keep the salt out and the rain in. There is no machine for it that anyone here can afford.
Four harvests in, the valley closest to the village produces again. It is not the whole region. It is one valley, and it took eleven years.
Editorial desk
Afro Daily Village
The team that edits, translates and checks everything published here.
Stories from the village 🌍
New films, new stories and what we found on the road — once a week, in your inbox.
No spam. One click to leave, any time.