blog #3

Polgreen, Lydia. "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice ". The New York Times. 25 Jan 2009. 8 Feb 2009 http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/world/africa/26senegal.html.

A main source of living in Africa is rice production. It is their primary crop that helps them to gain money. It is also what stables the Senegalese diet. But after investing and borrowing to expand their production, the farmers also run the risk of being wiped out as food prices drop. When prices rose last year and countries stopped exporting, this country had no supply to replace it. They were left with no profit. This is because they are left to rely on their crops instead of money like the U.S. But high prices could make their crops competitive. The price of producing rice locally amde it more expenseve that imports as a result. Arona Diakhate said, “It simply didn’t pay to grow rice,” “Why grow something you can’t sell? It doesn’t make any sense.” This makes total sense in the fact that if you need money, you are not going to sell something that you know wont sell. Without production this year, workers would become poor with no land and no supply of crops. This could impact our world greatly.