Où sont les femmes ? Avec leurs gestes pleins de charmes

To learn about my involvement in a dairy value chain assessment study targeting smallholder women in India, read here.

The good thing about interviewing dairy sweet traders is that one gets to sample the goods... We were treated to a cup of custard when we interviewed the owner of this sweet shop in Hyderabad. I then purchased some sweets, just to make it worth the time the owner spent answering our questions about his business.


Où sont les femmes
Patrick Juvet, Paris by night, Decca international

Photo: ILRI/Jo Cadilhon

Tell me more, tell me more, how much dough did he spend?

To learn about the lack of coordination in the farmed fish value chain of Uganda, read here.

Summer nights
John Travolta, Olivia Newton-John, Soundtrack from the original motion picture Grease, Paramount

Photo: ILRI/Jo Cadilhon

Luxe, calme et volupté

I have just come back from one week of African holidays with my Uncle Tom and Aunty Betty, visiting me from Singapore.

We went for three days of safari in the Masai Mara, staying in a tented camp just outside the parc with outstanding overhead views of the park savanna. The food served was very well prepared with hot soup every evening when the temperatures went down. Hyenas and other wildlife provided background noise at night. Although our guide and driver was surprised by the difficulty of stalking the big cats in this part of the park, I was extremely content. Wherever we went, we could spot numerous elephants all the time. I just could not tire myself of observing these majestic and ever-active animals.

After a short rest in Nairobi the three of us flew to Zambia to see the Victoria Falls. The waterfall was very impressive, particularly so on the Zimbabwean side. There was little water on the Zambian side of the falls due to the dry season. I particularly enjoyed our river sunset safari on small motor boats taking us into the small channels of the Zambezi river to observe numerous birds, the wary hippos submerging as soon as they would see the boat and more unconcerned elephants crossing the river, bathing or grazing in front of us. As they introduced the open bar on the boat, the boatmen and rangers told us: 'the more you drink, the more game you will see...' They served us some delicious snacks on a small river island after having checked that no big animals were hiding in the bushes.

L'invitation au voyage
Henri Duparc, Gérard Souzay, Gérard Souzay Vol. 1, Documents

PS: So it was with great sadness that I came back from all this natural beauty and peace to a Nairobi under shock from the still ongoing terrorist attack in one of the major malls of the city.

And every mountain and hill made low

Well: it did not feel like it...
Read my impressions from two days of mountain biking in Northwest Vietnam here.

Messiah
G-F Haendel, Howard Crook and The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock, Archiv

Photo: Lee Brimelow

Every valley shall be exalted

Read here about my working in a Vietnamese mountain resort on building partnerships for a research program on HumidTropics farming systems in the mountainous region of Northwest Vietnam.

On the evening after the meeting I went to sample traditional ethnic minority Hmong food at the new branch of The Hill Station restaurant on Fansipan street in Sapa: simple sauces with forest herbs that replace the usual Chinese spices in the meat stews. An interesting change from the delicious Vietnamese food.

And on the next day I went to see this:

Messiah
G-F Haendel, Howard Crook and The English Concert directed by Trevor Pinnock, Archiv

Photo: ILRI/Jo Cadilhon

In every life we have some trouble

Click here to read about the quintuple whammy of low Internet connectivity, patchy mobile phone service, no accommodation, bad roads and no electricity faced by the actors in the agricultural and food system of the Upper West Region of Ghana. Take a closer look at the photo, then reflect on the resilience these people need to keep doing business.

Don't worry, be happy
Bobby McFerrin, Don't worry be happy, EMI

Photo: zen Sutherland

Ils étaient trois petits enfants qui s'en allaient glaner aux champs

Read here what three young professionals in agricultural research for development thought of their field trip in rural West Africa to study livestock value chains and innovation platforms.

La légende de Saint Nicolas
Traditional French song, harmonized by Gevaert
Les petits chanteurs à la croix de bois, Marianne Mélodie

Photo: ILRI/Jo Cadilhon