Read the following text and answer the quiz below.
[1] Half smiling through crinkled eyes, Moussa Ndiaye watched a combine machine harvest his northern Senegal rice paddy. He expected a good haul, but not just of grain. His field is part of a study that aims to fight one of the world’s major parasitic diseases and increase rice yields by adding fish to paddies. The fish can then be caught and sold for profit: a rare win-win-win for local farmers.
[2] In Senegal, rice and fish are ubiquitous dietary staples and practically a matter of national pride. Growing the two side-by-side is logical, those involved say. Such nature-based solutions are part of a growing trend in science, and so far, the results have been promising. In the pioneering study, fish eat snails that cause the parasitic disease schistosomiasis. The fish also fertilise the rice with their faeces.
[3] Ndiaye’s village, Lampsar, is in the lower valley of the Senegal River, near the border with Mauritania. People here have long lived off fish from the waterway, not ones reared in rice paddies. “Since our youngest age, since our grandparents, we have fished. We’re Waalo-Waalo,” the 80-year-old said, referring to an ancient kingdom that people in the region still identify with.
[4] The area is also known for schistosomiasis. It is a disease caused by parasites released by freshwater snails, which are common in the paddies. Ndiaye has had the disease three times. His sons who work in his fields have also contracted it. It causes symptoms ranging from itchy skin to organ damage, and even death. It can be treated with medicine, but that does not prevent reinfection or mitigate the time and money lost from missed school or work.
[5] The World Health Organization estimates 254 million people require preventative treatment and that 94 per cent of those needing treatment live in Africa. Transmission of the disease has been reported in 79 countries, it says.
[6] Scientists introduced Nile tilapia, which fertilise the fields, and African bonytongue, which eat schistosomiasis-causing snails, into the paddies. More than 40 farmers across multiple villages participated in a pilot study and follow-up research. “It’s not just a one-hit punch; we’re really tackling a lot of challenges,” said Emily Selland of the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, the United States. She is a lead author of a paper on the pilot study published in the journal Nature Sustainability.
[7] “We came at this from the disease angle first,” she said. But then there was “the nutrition angle, the economic angle, the sustainability and ecological angle”. Her research found that adding fish boosted rice yields by 25 per cent and increased revenue for rice-farming households. There were also fewer snails in fields with predatory fish.
[8] At an aquaculture facility at Gaston Berger University (UGB) in the city of Saint-Louis, Nile tilapia rippled the water’s surface in a large concrete basin. From here, some 15 minutes southwest of Lampsar, the fish will head to research paddies belonging to AfricaRice. The centre will conduct similar studies but in a controlled environment. “Our intention is that, once we have the expected results, this be scaled up across many African countries,” said Ali Ibrahim, a regional representative for AfricaRice.
Source: Agence France-Presse, September 15
Content provided by British Council
