Quarter 3: Different Culture

From the high global food prices last year, the price of unprocessed rice in Senegal has been falling, and now it is only two dollars away from what the minimum profit is. With a country like Senegal with 13 million people who eat about 600,00 tons of rice each year, the imports from Asia are more significant and less expensive than the locally grown rice. Last year, when the food prices raised dramatically, many countries slowed down exports, leaving Senegal with little food, because of its little supplies to replace that much food. This quickly caused riots, and the president made plans to increase agricultural production to create more self-sufficiency. Another problem for rice farmers is that they produce about 80,000 tons of rice a year, and it is usually a struggle to sell that much so most of the time it is not worth growing rice. Which is creating problems for the rest of the country because if some people don't make a significant they will not go back the next year to produce more rice, which could then lead to a shortage of rice for the country. The farming aspect of the culture of the people in Senegal are similar to the culture of the one of India, in the time period of when Nectar in a Sieve is set, because their economy is based so much off of their agriculture.

Polgreen, Lydia. "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes on the Future Price of Rice." New York Times. 25 January 2009. 8 February 2009.

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