Wanted: An agriculture scientist of the Carver type

The Malawi economy suffers the frustration of a man who tries to climb a wet anthill. When he has gone half way towards the top, he steps downwards and must start again. Again, he makes progress towards, but downwards he steps again.

In Malawi, times of bumper harvest and ample foreign exchange reserves alternate with famine and current account deficits rather rhythmically for the economy to reach the take-off stage.

Malawi should breed its own George Washington Carver. This is not the first time I have written about this famous black American scientist whose experiments at the Tuskegee Institute reinvigorated agriculture in southern United States.

Born a slave of a white man called Moses Carver in 1864, even when a year later slavery was abolished George Washington remained with the Carven. When he was 10 or 12 years old, he began roaming in other part of south of US looking for jobs and education. In 1896, he graduated with a master of science in agriculture at Iowa State Agriculture College. He then went to Tuskegee Institute as a teacher.

The founder of Tuskegee Institute of the famous Booker T. Washington was disliked by black extremists for advocating gradual change towards racial business, teaching religion and other filed would advance the cause for black civil rights better than those who simply engaged in rhetoric. George Washington Carver’s work at Tuskegee proved Washington right. A person who makes real contribution to society will not be denied recognition.

In 1910, Carver got permission from the principal to devote more time to research at Tuskegee than to teaching. This was the beginning of a turnaround in the economy of the southern states which has depended on one crop, cotton, just as Malawi depends mostly on tobacco.

Growing cotton on the same soil for centuries had depleted the soil. There was need to enrich the soil and find an alternative to cotton.

Dressed in faded clothes, Carver invented 300 different used for crop such as peanut and sweet potatoes. Among products he created from peanuts were milk, cheese, flour woodstain and cosmetics. From sweet potatoes, he made vinegar, rubber ink and glue. He also developed a hybrid from cotton as well as plants which developed large vegetables.

In those pre-Martin Luther King days, Carver got the recognition of the great men of the time. He met Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, the father of Indian independence president Mahatma Gandhi, president Franklin Roosevelt and won several medals.

Those men and women, young and not very young among us who have talents for science should try to rescue the Malawi economy by emulating George Washington Carver’s methods and dedication to duty.

Carver found other uses for crops which had been viewed as of no commercial value. Potatoes, cassavas, tomatoes, groundnuts and beans grow in abundance in Malawi. Would our scientists try as Carver did to make by-products out of these, the products that would have a higher value?

Tobacco has no future as a source of cigarettes because most countries have virtually banned smoking due to the ill health it causes. Would our scientists try to find alternative uses for tobacco and reprieve our country’s cash cow? Remember, what the mind can conceive, the hands can do. Remember also that the marvels of science which we now take for granted such as mobile phones were not long ago thought impossible to achieve.

We learn from history that maize, cassava and sweet potatoes were introduced to Africa by the Portuguese from Latin America. This was about the 16th century. Before that time, what was the staple food of our ancestors? If our ancestors were able to live on staple foods other than maize, why do we think only ugari (Swahili) or mgaiwa (Chichewa), maize meal is food?

High sounding academic qualifications are of no use unless they are put into use in improvement of the economy.