Fonio, an ancient grain that has been grown as a subsistence crop in West Africa for more than 5 000 years, might just turn into a cash crop for Mali.This comes as a new venture in Mali, called Sustainable African Foods (SAF), has announced plans to increase fonio exports. SAF is an agro-processing operation built by two companies: Mali’s leading shea butter manufacturing company, Mali Shi SA, and US-based Chef Pierre Thiam’s West African food company, Yolélé. Plans are afoot to increase the planting and processing of this drought-tolerant, gluten-free product.A co-investment grant of $1.98 million, funded by the US Agency for International Development (USAID) through Prosper Africa – a US government initiative that connects American and African businesses with new buyers, suppliers and investment opportunities – will be leveraged to make the venture possible. Plans for the increased export of fonio also include market development and promotion in the US, supply chain development, and the establishment of a new Mali-based processing centre.Through SAF, Yolélé and Mali Shi will build a supply chain that traceably connects smallholder farmers living in extreme poverty with local and global markets for biodiverse, climate-resilient crops through efficient processing. The Prosper Africa-supported project is expected to create 13 714 agricultural jobs in Mali and $4.5 million in collective smallholder sales in the next two years. “Efficient processing has always been the missing link preventing farmers from earning livelihoods from fonio,” said Thiam. “Fonio is easy for smallholders to grow, but turning it into food is hard!“We devoted a lot of resources to finding a technical solution to industrial-scale processing.”
