BAFATA, 7 August 2008 (IRIN) - Boubacar Seidi is a rice-farmer in Contuboel, Bafata Region, 80km east of Bissau. He is participating in the World Food Programme's (WFP's) food-for-work scheme through which villagers are encouraged to diversify their crops in exchange for food given during the growing season. The programme covers 29 villages in the Contuboel and Sonaco zones.

"Last year we produced a small crop because we had bad rains. We saw neighbouring villages were improving their harvest by digging dikes to store rainwater but we didn't know how to do it.

"So we decided to organise ourselves and started by setting up a committee. There are 258 of us living here and between us we farm 14 hectares of land. At the beginning of the planting season we went to a local organisation Guiarroz and to the WFP to ask them for help, and they taught us how to dig the ditches.

"We are preparing the land so we can transplant our rice seeds from nurseries around the village out to the rice fields in August.

"Guiarroz also put us in touch with an NGO [non-governmental organisation] that would provide us with rice seeds and now WFP is giving us rice to eat while we plant our harvest.

"People tell us we must become less reliant on rice and grow other crops like maize. We now grow peanuts, sorghum and maize in the lowlands around the village. But it is only the men who plant these crops - rice is women's work and if they don't grow it, what will they do? That is how we balance things here; we have always done it this way.

"We used the seeds to set up our own cereal stock to distribute seeds and food to each family in the village. Most of the stock has been bought up so we're running very low now. Another organisation has promised to give seeds for [haricot] beans but we have not received them yet. We don't have quite enough seeds for our rice crop either - but we are hoping for a better harvest this year.

"Now that we're more organised, when we have problems we go to Guiarroz and they try to help us. They helped us when rain from dikes overflowed into our rice paddies.

"We are preparing our land but we do it mostly by hand so it takes weeks. We have rented two bullocks from a man in the village to do it more quickly and with them we think it will take 20 days. We have to pay US$23.50 per day for the bullocks and it is hard for us to afford.

"We are also starting to plant onions and other vegetables so we can raise additional money to pay for children's school fees - they cost about US$47 a year.

"The rains have been good so far, so we are hopeful. It can't be any worse than last year."

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