Baobab - My Favorite Tree and its Juice

I’ve always been fascinated with big trees. Growing up in Colombia’s Cauca Valley, the beauty and magnitude of the Ceivas (Ceiba Pentandra) tree was an essential part of my childhood and its fantasy. I would see these giants on our trips around the countryside and think that they must be in charge of the forest: so tall and thick, they must control where other trees grow and animals dwell. I wasn’t the only one creating mythologies out of Ceibas. These giants were also sacred to indigenous cultures such as the Mayans, who thought that Ceibas were the link connecting heaven with the underworld - Xibalba.

Across the Atlantic, the Ceibas’ older cousins are equally fascinating. Growing in hot and dry climate, the baobabs (Adansonia Digitata) are part of the quintessential African landscape of most countries in the sub-Saharan region. Like the Mayans, many African cultures consider these remarkable trees a Godsend. In addition to being a revered meeting place for the community, the Baobab has plenty to offer for those living in harsh climates. Many cultures pound its bark to create ropes and textiles. The white flowers and green foliage are also edible. The water-proof fruit shells are hard as metal, and many people use them as calabashes or containers.

But if you already have a clothing and kitchenware and are not too keen on eating flowers, Baobab Juice is for you! Each fruit has dozens of small seeds covered in a yellowish pulp. This vitamin C-rich pulp makes a refreshing, effervescent drink called ‘Baobab Lemonade’ (despite the lack of actual lemons in the juice). Here in Malawi it’s Baobab season and I enjoy the juice so much that I decided to try making it at home. 

Here is how:

1. Travel to Africa and go to a place where it is hot and dry
2. Wait until the end of the rainy season when Baobabs start to fruit
3. Go to a local market and buy at least three large Baobab fruits
4. Find a hard surface, hold the fruits with a towel and smack them against the ground (hard!)
5. Try again, but harder!!!
6. Once they crack, open the outer shell to expose the seeds
7. Pull out all the pulp and put it in a big pot of warm water
8. Stir for a couple of minutes and then leave it sitting for a couple hours
9. Once the brown seeds are visible and the pulp is completely dissolved, drain the juice
10. In a blender, mix the juice with some lemon juice (here are the lemons!), sugar, and ice
11. Enjoy!

Notes from the Field - Seeds and Voucher Fairs

Right before the Shire River meets the mighty Zambezi, in the Southern tip of Malawi, lay two of the poorest district in the country. This beautiful valley, dotted with baobab and sugar cane plantations, has very erratic weather, ranging from dry spells and droughts to flash floods.

Traditionally, development agencies have used seed distribution to help farmers mitigate the impact of these climatic shocks. Using the ‘Seeds and Tools’ methodology, farmers were given seeds based on what the development agency considered most appropriate. Unfortunately, this approach was based on a flawed assumption – that farmers are passive recipients of seed, instead of dynamic agents relying on a combination of formal and farmer networks to acquire seeds.

‘Seeds and Tool’ approach was therefore plagued with many problems: farmers often consumed (instead of plant) the distributed seeds, or tried to sell them in other markets. More troubling, given that these seeds may not have been adapted to the particular ecological conditions of a community, crops failed completely, leaving farmers worse off.

A much better alternative is the Seed and Voucher Fairs (SVFs). The principle of giving vulnerable farmers seed to help them cope with the losses from climatic shocks remains the same. SVFs, however, are fundamentally different in that they empower farmers by giving them a choice. Instead of distributing seeds from the formal sector, SVFs provide farmers with vouchers. Each voucher has a monetary value that farmers use to redeem seeds from local and regional suppliers. And it’s the availability of these local seed suppliers what makes the fairs successful, as they act as marketplaces where farmers can chose the bundle of seeds that best fit their preferences (soil, area, taste, market etc.).

The pictures in this post are from a recent SVFs conducted in the Chikwawa district. Farmers in some areas of the district had lost part of their crop to heavy rain and flash floods. Using the SVFs, we distributed seeds for the winter season which starts in April and ends in June/July.  A successful winter season would help farmers compensate for some of the losses from the last harvest.

Farmers rely on residual moisture and irrigation to grow crops during the winter season. The cold climate of April-June reduces evaporation rates, providing enough moisture for plants to develop. There are two important elements for a good winter harvest: first, farmers need to ensure the soil has enough mulch and organic material to retain water in the soil. Conservation agriculture provides a good toolkit on how to do this, using maize stover and other crop residues. Second, because the winter season is shorter, farmer need short-maturity seeds that reduce the need for irrigation when it starts to get hot and residual moisture is used up.  

During the fair, we brought local vendors of sweet potatoes, maize, groundnuts, beans, cowpeas, fruit trees, and vegetables (Mpiru – Mustard, Bonongwe – Amaranth, and Kamganje – Rape). Each farmer received vouchers to exchange for 10kb bundles of Orange-Flesh Sweet Potatoes, 5kg of Maize, beans, and cowpeas, 2 mango trees, and small package of vegetable seeds.

While SVFs are a much better alternative than ‘Seeds and Tool’, this approach is logistically more complicated. Establishing the right price for the vouchers, identifying the venues, mobilizing the community, and working with vendors are all things that require a lot of planning with multiple stakeholders. Last minute problems are bound to happen. During one of the fairs, one vendor ran out of sweet potato vines and another one didn't show up. In another fair, the extension agents told farmers to show up at a different time for the fair. We also had problem with farmers standing in line for way too long. In any case, these are minor issues that can be adequately addressed – we told farmers to pick up the maize and sweet potato at another nearby fair and we streamlined the process to redeem the coupons in the subsequent fairs.

Farmers in this part of Malawi continue to grow at subsistence and sub-subsistence  levels. They have few incentives to increase productivity as market links are weak and farm investment too expensive for farmers to afford. And while SVFs do little to address these underlying problems, the fairs help farmers ensure they can at least cope with the immediate damage caused by harsh weather. Having enough food to feed their family is the first step in supporting farmers as they transition from subsistence to commercial agriculture production. 

Useful resources:

• Seed Vouchers and Fairs A Manual for Seed-Based Agricultural Recovery in Africa -  
• Strengthening Smallholder Farmer Seed System