Into Africa

The Benson Institute enters new territory as it begins work in the African countries of Morocco and Ghana.

 

"We need to be involved in places other than just Latin America." This thought voiced by BYU’s Dean of the College of Biology and Agriculture, R. Kent Crookston, describes the feelings of the whole staff of the Ezra Taft Benson Agriculture and Food Institute. Since 1975, the Benson Institute has worked in several Latin American countries. In the new millennium, resources and opportunities have converged for an expansion into Africa.

Morocco and Ghana are the first two African countries to collaborate with the Benson Institute. In May of 1999 Dr. N. Paul Johnston, Benson Institute director, and Dean Crookston traveled to these nations to initiate Benson Institute programs. Individuals have been selected to head local Benson Institute staff, research sites have been selected, and some preliminary studies have already been completed.

Morocco

About half of Morocco’s 29 million inhabitants live in rural zones. The official language of Morocco is Arabic, but university classes are taught in French, and many Moroccans also speak Berber. The annual per capita income averages US$1208. Morocco has a history of stability and peaceful relations with the United States. On the coast the climate is mild but the Atlas Mountains farther inland see snow in the winter months (Interactive).

Several general needs exist in Morocco. According to data presented at the October Administrators Conference, 27.7 percent of Moroccan children show signs of stunted growth, indicating long-term malnourishment. Iron deficiency anemia is widespread, as are deficiencies in iodine, folic acid, and Vitamin A.

Dean Crookston lived in Rabat, Morocco’s capital, during the 1980s and advised three Moroccan doctoral students while a faculty member at the University of Minnesota. He recommended working with Morocco’s Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Science (IAV), which he referred to as "the best agricultural school in all of Africa." Political stability, educational facilities, and the presence of malnutrition are driving factors that motivated Benson Institute work in Morocco.

After their initial visit to Morocco, Dean Crookston and N. Paul Johnston named Dr. Mohamed Oussible as the Benson Institute’s coordinator in Morocco. Dr. Oussible is a professor of agronomy at IAV and a former doctoral student of Dean Crookston. Dr. Oussible and Dr. Mbarek Essatara, IAV faculty member and the Benson Institute’s nutritional advisor, form the nucleus of the applied research team in Morocco.

Oussible stated that "there is a nutritional problem and there is a lot of work we can do in terms of crop production and animal production. There is the possibility, too, to introduce a new crop, or some new animals, or improve the growth of the (common breed of) chicken."

Oussible and Essatara attended the Administrators Conference in October (see article on page 14). In November, Dean Crookston and Dr. Johnston again traveled to Morocco. They visited the sites that had been chosen for the work, a group of three villages in the Middle Atlas Mountains. They also met with five master’s students who will work with the Benson Institute, one each in the areas of nutrition, crops, animal production, animal diseases, and economics.

Recently, there has been an increased amount of Benson Institute–related activity in Morocco. In April 2000, Dr. Von Jolley of the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture at BYU went to Morocco with Dr. Johnston. While there, they again visited the Benson Institute work site and received preliminary reports from the students doing research.

Currently, Dr. Richard Thwaits of BYU’s Animal Science Department is researching hydatid disease in the Middle Atlas communities. Hydatid disease is passed from sheep—an animal commonly raised in Morocco—to dogs to humans; it causes cysts on the liver and other organs, sometimes resulting in death.

In July, Dr. Eric Jellen of BYU’s Department of Agronomy and Horticulture will visit Morocco to investigate the possibility of introducing the South American grain, quinoa, as a supplement to the oats which are commonly cultivated there.

Ghana

Ghana, with a population of 18 million, has a tropical climate and shares borders with the Ivory Coast, Togo, and Burkina Faso. English is the official language of Ghana, though several tribal languages are spoken. The literacy rate is 65 percent across urban and rural areas. Per capita yearly earnings average US$1310, with 45 percent of the gross domestic product and 55 percent of the nation’s employment stemming from subsistence agriculture (Interactive).

Ghana has several conditions that concern the Benson Institute. Vitamin A, iron, and protein are deficient in the diets of many of the rural inhabitants. These deficiencies can lead to blindness, anemia, and hindered physical and mental development. A standing concern in Ghana is malaria. The majority of the fatalities from malaria occur among children under five. According to data presented at the Benson Institute’s October Administrators Conference, Ghanaian children contract malaria an average of three times per year.

Agricultural problems plague the nation as well. Most Ghanaians are subsistence farmers. Many do not know how to store the food they grow, so during the dry season they simply go hungry. Practices of animal production are also quite primitive.

While at the University of Minnesota, Dean Crookston also advised three Ghanaian graduate students; those students provided the initial connections for the Benson Institute expansion. Upon arriving in Ghana for an initial visit in May of 1999, Johnston and Crookston began associating with the faculty at the University of Science and Technology in the city of Kumasi, intending to structure the Benson Institute program from the university level as they did in Morocco. But upon visiting Kpong, a small town of approximately 3000 people located 165 miles southeast of Kumasi, another plan began to take shape. Kpong is the home of a research station for the University of Ghana. Crookston and Johnston met with Francisco Adjei, who introduced them to his wife Sarah. Sarah, who owns a local business and teaches English, guided them through Kpong and the surrounding areas.

After much deliberation, Johnston and Crookston chose Kpong to be the headquarters of the Benson Institute efforts in Ghana. The town lies 50 miles to the northeast of Accra, Ghana’s capital, near the Akosombo Dam on the Volta River. Mrs. Adjei was chosen as the coordinator for the Ghanaian program.

While visiting Ghana a second time in September 1999, Dr. Johnston spent several days with Mrs. Adjei planning the groundwork for the Institute’s projects in Kpong. Mrs. Adjei and her husband arranged for meetings between Johnston and various educational contacts. Johnston met with Ben Ahunu, Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Ghana in Accra. Johnston also visited with Ed Darkwa, a plant pathologist and director of the Kpong research station, and Peggy Oti-Boateng, a nutritionist at the University of Science and Technology and the wife of a Kpong research station faculty member.

Also during the September visit, various potential work sites were visited. Okwenya, a town 20 minutes south of Kpong, was tentatively chosen. Peggy Oti-Boateng was officially added to the Benson Institute’s team as the nutritional advisor. Besides her key role as nutritionist, Oti-Boateng also serves as a link to the University of Science and Technology in Kumasi, with which the Benson Institute will maintain ties.

In December of 1999, Dr. David Kooyman, chair of the Animal Science Department at BYU, visited Ghana. While he was there, the village leaders of Okwenya, which is home to about 200 families, officially accepted the proposal of the Benson Institute to work there. After this confirmation, Adjei and Oti-Boateng began an agricultural and nutritional survey of the town. This study included an investigation of the eating habits of children and the crop and animal production by families.

In March 2000, Dr. Kooyman visited Ghana to follow up on the progress there. He visited Okwenya and met again with Ed Darkwa. Kooyman also initiated contact with the Legon campus and research station of the University of Ghana, which is 50 miles from Kpong.

In March, the Benson Institute team asked the village chief in Okwenya to set up his own team of individuals to work toward improving the quality of life. The village chief chose a team including himself, the schoolmaster, and specialists in crops, animals, and nutrition. This village team will work together with the Benson Institute team members to implement solutions found through research in the community.

The Benson Institute focuses on assisting students with pertinent thesis research, but other opportunities to help students and rural communities exist. Mrs. Adjei explains that "in Ghana if you finish your university education you have to serve the country for one or two years. (Graduates) can work with the Benson Institute during that time."

Besides sponsoring Ghanaian student research, the Benson Institute is also allowing BYU students opportunities to work there. At the end of April 2000, interns Chad Gasser, Shannon Gasser, and Lisa Burt and master’s student Jaycie Fidel went to Ghana with advisors Kooyman and Dr. Phil Allen of the BYU Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. Fidel is working under BYU nutrition professor Dr. Lora Beth Brown on a nutrition education strategy. She will return again in August to continue her research.

In July, Arlin Hatch, a Ph.D. candidate at BYU, will go to Ghana to do research on the learning capabilities of children in Okwenya. Hatch will also return in August to continue her work.

While in Ghana in April, Drs. Kooyman and Allen met with the king of the Volta region, who is also a former university professor. Though the king and village chief are traditional leaders and not civil leaders, their support is essential to the success of Benson Institute projects in Ghana. Coupling this support with university connections in agronomy and animal science, the Benson Institute can ensure that applied agricultural research reaches rural communities.

In addition to addressing health and agricultural issues, the Benson Institute can provide assistance to local researchers. Dr. Johnston cited an example of such an opportunity: "I met with the personnel of the research station of the University of Ghana. They’ve been trained at some good universities, but they’re at a standstill. The country has no resources. One fellow was working on a soybean program to try to get soybean production in Ghana. Protein deficiency is really an acute problem. If we came we could be really helpful and get the program off and going."

By involving Ghanaian university students in the search for solutions to Ghana’s agricultural and nutritional problems, the Benson Institute prepares upcoming Ghanaian professionals for service to their country. Most importantly, families in rural communities will gain an understanding of health principles that will improve their quality of life. Dr. Johnston comments, "We hope that within the next couple years we can start to see some real change on the community level based upon some of the things that we’re trying to do."

Looking Forward

Things are going "far better in Africa than I hoped," says Dr. Johnston. To continue successfully, the Benson Institute’s headquarters at Brigham Young University is integrating new languages and cultures into its program to accommodate the Moroccan and Ghanaian projects. Dr. Johnston said, "We’re getting great faculty participation. People are apprehensive at first about going over, but after they go they love it and want to return."

Peggy Oti-Boateng made a wise observation about one impact of the Benson Institute expansion: "There’s nothing like firsthand experience with a country and a people. We gain a lot of respect for one another. And we, in a little way, bring the world closer and reduce prejudices."

Works Cited

"Interactive CIA World FactBook 1996." Online. Available: http://www.theodora.com/wfb/abc_ world_fact_book.html (29 Oct. 1999).