Western and Central Africa
Why Bagui and Assitan Treasure Groundnut
He hoards
it as an investment for the future. She sells it to pay her children’s tuition fees.
Bagui Traore and Assitan Konate are farmers from two villages in Mali who grow groundnut,
or tiga as it is known in the local Bambara language.
Bagui lives in Bambabougou and is the head of a 12-member family. Assitan lives in Ouenzindougou and is the mother of 11 children. Both treasure groundnut, especially ICRISAT varieties-but for entirely different reasons.
His Story
Fired with an ambition to become a seed producer, Bagui refuses to sell any part of his harvest from a groundnut variety that he has christened Waliyar-tiga after Farid Waliyar, the ICRISAT scientist who gave him the seeds, as part of on-farm trials. Bagui liked the variety so much that he wanted to distinguish it from other groundnuts by giving it a special name.
Waliyar-tiga, or ICG 7878, is a variety that was identified by Waliyar
from ICRISAT genetic resource collections. After testing it at the ICRISAT Research
Station at Bamako, Waliyar found that it was tolerant to early and late leaf spots and
rust – the three most destructive diseases in the region. The variety also gave high
pod and haulm (stem, used for cattle fodder) yields. He therefore included it in on-farm
trials that he conducts with farmers’ participation in collaboration with the
Institut d’Economie rurale (IER) in Mali.
“From the 500 grams seed that ICRISAT gave me, I have made it to more than 1 ton,” Bagui said proudly. “I have already got a long list of farmers who want to grow Waliyar-tiga. Like me they admire its big pods and seeds. Waliyar-tiga is not attacked by diseases and in our house we like its sweet taste.” He also added that it is easy to identify the variety from a distance, because the crop looks unusually green and healthy.
