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When a child is born, we give him or her fonio.
Women who have delivered are massaged with fonio.
What I mean when I say the child is given fonio,
is that on the day of the naming ceremony fonio is put into the calabash
used to wash the child’s head for shave.
As such it is part and parcel of our tradition.
We believe in fonio in our tradition. In many of our events,
such as marriages, naming ceremonies, fonio is included.
Fonio is associated with almost everything that we do.
Fonio has a valuable function in our tradition as such,
and we want the whole world to know its value and importance.

This laboratory is rather unique in French speaking countries of West Africa.
It mainly carries out research in nutrition and food, often directed
towards malnutrition of the mother and child.
But we are also interested in local food,
especially the metabolic effects of these foods, such as okra or fonio.

Fonio can grow in poor soil, with little water,
thus it's something you can grow several times in the same year,
and can adapt to various environments.
It concerns not only Senegal, but also other arid countries,
where water is an issue, such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger,
and it is a cereal that can extend over a wide proportion of Sub-Saharan Africa.

Fonio contains no gluten, some people are allergic to gluten found in wheat.

Its nutritional qualities meet current needs in terms of malnutrition,
for example, but also for future needs such as chronic disease,
diabetes, obesity and high blood pressure.

Fonio cultivation doesn't requires any pesticide,
which means organic production, and this is what people want to eat now.

You can have fonio for breakfast, lunch or dinner. It is for all meals.

In the past, we used it as porridge, for breakfast,
and with peanut butter sauce for lunch or yassa with fonio or rice and fonio.

Fonio will certainly contribute to the world food supply,
which depends on water, and water will become scarce.
And small crops that need little water will have an important role
in feeding the 9 billion people that we will be one day.

The Most Nutritious Grain You've Never Heard Of