Taste for money - an innovation by Nigerian women

Thousands of West African women earn a cash income by making daddawa (a protein-rich seasoning made from locust beans and used for soups and stews) in low-capital input, small scale enterprises at home, and selling it in local markets. Now Nigerian farm women in the Kafanchan area have developed a soybean-processing technique which is much more efficient in terms of time and input than locust-bean processing. The women fry the soybeans, grind them to remove the skins, and boil them only once for about six hours (less than a quarter of the time used for locust beans). The fermentation takes the same time as for the locust bean, so the great saving is that of water and fuel in the cooking time. Another advantage of using soybeans is that the women can now grow their own beans in the fields traditionally allocated to them by their husbands or fathers instead of having to buy locust beans or tree-harvesting rights. For more information, contact; Anne Waters-Bayer, Rohnsew eg 56, D-3400 Gotingen, GERMANY