Baobab: Highlights
Baobab: Highlights |
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"Beans are everything. You think about beans, you dream beans," says Reuben Otsyula, at the beginning of Baobab's latest production, Bean Dreamers. Reuben is a plant pathologist with Kenya's Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), based in Kakamega, Kenya. He's lived in the region all his life. He knows what he is talking about.
Bean Dreamers, a fifteen minute video, shows the important work being done in eastern and central Africa to ensure that one of the continent's most valuable sources of protein not only survives, but flourishes. Taped on location in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya, farmers and scientists tell how new research work is improving the lives of ordinary farmers; the nutrition of millions of Africa's poorest people. We see how plant diseases and pests like root rots and bean stem maggots nearly wiped out beans in many regions and how now farmers are using environmentally sound techniques to restore fertility to their overworked soils. We see how a women's co-operative, working at the grassroots level, has started a small bean seed production business to ensure high yielding, good quality seed is available to local farmers in Uganda. Finally, we see the important role played by farmers actually participating in research.
Canada has a special stake in this vital work in eastern and central Africa. The Canadian International Development Agency, CIDA, was one of the key funders which helped sustain the bean research networks.
Allen King composed original music for Bean Dreamers, which also features songs by the Mhai Women's Group (the seed production coop) from Uganda. Neema Mugala, a Tanzanian, narrates. Video and audio post-production were done at Sound Venture in Ottawa.
Bean Dreamers was produced for CIAT, the International Center for Tropical Agriculture. Copies for educational use are available through Nathan Russell at the CIAT Communications Unit, AA 6714, Cali, Colombia, or by contacting us at Baobab Productions Inc, 126 York St., Suite 221, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1N 5T5.
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