Kenya: how brokers have turned the agricultural economy upside down
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France 24
a day ago
- France 24
Chad hopes 'green charcoal' can save vanishing forests
But the charcoal they were making is known as "green", and backers hope it can save impoverished Chad from rampant deforestation. Chad, a vast, landlocked country of 19 million people perched at the crossroads of north and central Africa, is steadily turning to desert. It has lost more than 90 percent of its forest cover since the 1970s, hit by climate change and overexploitation of trees for household uses such as cooking, officials say. "Green charcoal" aims to protect what forest is left. Made from discarded plant waste such as millet and sesame stalks or palm fronds, it is meant to save trees from being chopped down for cooking. The product "releases less emissions than traditional charcoal, it doesn't blacken your pots, it has high energy content and lasts up to three times longer than ordinary charcoal," said Ousmane Alhadj Oumarou, technical director of the Raikina Association for Socioeconomic Development (Adser). "Using one kilogramme of green charcoal saves six kilogrammes of wood." The group has installed a production facility in Pont Belile, just north of the capital, N'Djamena. There, workers grind up burnt plant waste, then mix it with gum arabic, which helps it ignite, and clay, which makes it burn more slowly. The resulting black nuggets look like ordinary charcoal. Like the traditional kind, it emits CO2 when it burns -- but less, said Souleymane Adam Adey, an ecologist at the University of N'Djamena. And "it contributes to fighting deforestation, by ensuring the trees that aren't cut down continue to capture and store carbon," he said. Refugee pressure The conflict in neighbouring Sudan, which is facing one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world, is adding to pressure on Chad, which has become home to more than 800,000 Sudanese refugees since 2023 -- double the 400,000 it already hosted. "Desertification has progressed in the regions that have been hosting Sudanese refugees for the past two years," said Adser's director, 45-year-old businessman Ismael Hamid. Adser invested 200 million CFA francs (about $350,000) to launch the project, then won backing from the World Bank, which buys the charcoal for 750 CFA francs per kilogramme. The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, distributes the charcoal in refugee camps in eastern Chad. But Hamid said he hoped to expand production and slash prices to 350 to 500 CFA francs per kilo to make "green charcoal" available and affordable nationwide. The plant currently produces seven to nine tonnes per day. "If we want to meet the country's needs, we have to increase our output by at least a factor of 10," said Hamid, calling for subsidies to support the budding sector. Environment Minister Hassan Bakhit Djamous told AFP the government was working on a policy to promote such projects. "We need to bet on green charcoal as an energy source for the future of our country," he said.
France 24
22-05-2025
- France 24
India's mother tongue teaching spells reading success
After a spontaneous "papa", the children unanimously agree on "papaya" -- spelt out at the top of their lungs by the entire class. But for these children, born into an Indigenous tribe in Rajasthan state, learning to read in a language neither they nor their parents speak is a challenge. To break this pattern, authorities launched a programme in two Rajasthan districts to teach students to read in their mother tongue. Months after the experiment began, there is progress. "I used Hindi language with the children, but I could see that they were not responding well," said their teacher, Jashoda Khokariya. "They were scared, and were not able to answer my questions," she added. "Now, it's a miracle -- there is not a single child who is not able to respond." Indian school enrolment rates are high -- but performance is much lower. One key problem in the world's most populous country, where 1.4 billion people speak a mosaic of over a hundred languages, is that primary school teaching is often in a language the children do not understand. 'Multilingual society' At the age of eight, only 39 percent of Indian students reach the required reading level. At 15, the situation is even worse. The rate drops to 10 percent. Poverty, early marriage and poor teacher training are all to blame -- but language plays a part too. "We have a multilingual society; this needs to be accounted for when children come to school," said Saadhna Panday, from the UN children's agency (UNICEF). "Several studies have demonstrated that children learn best in the early years in their mother tongue." But this is rarely the case. In many Indian states, students are taught in English and Hindi, of which families may have little knowledge. Since 2020, the national education ministry has said that primary education in students' mother tongue is a priority. Rajasthan ticked all the boxes to host a pilot project. A survey in nine of its rural districts revealed the magnitude of the task: 250,000 primary school students speaking 31 languages. Three-quarters of them are far from understanding -- let alone speaking -- Hindi. 'Many obstacles' The programme faces multiple hurdles -- one of these being that teachers are not trained to use the children's language for formal teaching in the classroom. "There were many obstacles," said Shweta Fageria, director of Rajasthan's State Council of Educational Research and Training centre. "We first created dictionaries by using the local dialect," she added, before making them trilingual with Hindi and English. At the Kuwadi Nichala Fala School, a spartan concrete building on a dusty hill, 13 first graders -- aged around five to six -- leaf through the dictionary every schoolday. It is a far cry from the other side of India's education system -- the ultramodern technology institutes whose prize pupils are snapped up by Californian tech giants. In the sweltering heat, the top student deciphers a few lines. He is still far from mastering reading in his native Wagdi -- a language with more than three million speakers, according to the last census. But he is making great progress, like all the students in his class, according to his teacher. "They can now read words," Lakshmi Kumari Patel said. "At this age, it takes time for a child to be confident, to actively participate," she added. "Now they are more expressive... engaging in conversations without hesitation." - 'Abysmal' schooling - Parents are now more involved too. Since they speak the language being taught, it's up to them to support their children by having them read and telling them stories. Lalita Parmar, 62, understands the benefits that her grandchildren's education can bring. "They will be able to get a job, then they will earn and eat," she said. "If one gets a job, the whole family will benefit." The state government, UNICEF and a local partner have given themselves two years to succeed and, if necessary, to expand. "Through the programme in Rajasthan, we have seen an improvement in children's attendance at school... teachers are more structured, more planned in using the learning materials available in the classrooms, parents are getting more involved in schools," said Panday from UNICEF. "We expect children to have better learning outcomes." The future of India and its economy depends on it, writes economist Ashoka Mody in his recent book, "India is Broken." "The quality of school education in India remains abysmal," Mody wrote, noting how competitors were progressing. © 2025 AFP
France 24
25-04-2025
- France 24
Kenya: how brokers have turned the agricultural economy upside down
01:49 18/04/2025 High cost of cheap chocolate: Amid cocoa crisis, prices surge in mass-produced low-quality chocolate Africa 18/04/2025 'Two hundred years on, 'the legacy of colonialism' remains firmly intact in Haiti and across Africa Americas 15/04/2025 Sudanese poet Emtithal Mahmoud: 'Don't help us without us, none of us are free until we're all free' Analysis Africa 15/04/2025 Sudan's civilian infrastructure — hospitals and health centres, 'have almost stopped functioning' Analysis Africa 15/04/2025 Sudan faces deepening crisis as civil war hits two-year mark Africa 15/04/2025 Sudan: 13 million displaced in world's largest humanitarian crisis Africa 15/04/2025 Sudan in 'world's largest humanitarian crisis' after two years of civil war Africa 12/04/2025 Thousands of children raped in war-torn DR Congo, UNICEF says Africa 12/04/2025 Sudan war: Humanitarian crisis deepens as battle to control west intensifies Africa
