Guinea/Boffa: Women in Lonkin district start extracting palm oil

The extraction of red oil is an activity that has taken the place of market gardening in many districts and especially in Lonkin district, located 47 kilometers from the urban municipality of Boffa. In place of market gardening which was practiced by the majority of the population.

Already there is advanced deforestation in this region, marked by the drying up of rivers and carbonization. Not to mention the devastation of crops by oxen. Unable to carry out market gardening, the women of Lonkin district have turned to the extraction of red oil.

This extraction activity contributes to the household's food consumption but also constitutes a source of income for these different households. However, the materials they use are less adapted to the profession.

Farmata Camara met at the oil extraction sites and said that she had been extracting oil for several years to meet the family's needs, but that she was encountering difficulties due to a lack of equipment:<< Here this activity helps us a lot, but it's very difficult to practice, especially turning the crank to crush, there it requires energy. Sometimes we pay young people to help us to pound, on the contrary it is what we do. The interest that we earn, often it does not happen to what we have invested. Because having a palm diet is very difficult with the pickers and the price per diet varies between 5,000 fg to 6,000 fg. It's a very tiring job and sometimes we get sick because of this physical work, but what can we do, there is no other way. We ask the state to help us, because that's what we know and our family depends on it, we have children. We can't just stick to lowland work, because the oxen every time, they devastate it at harvest time. It has discouraged us a lot," said Farmata Camara.

The hair machine that these women use was obtained thanks to the different contributions from the different groups, to enable them at least to alleviate some of the difficulties they face.The president of the said district Yakhouba Soumah explains: << In front of this machine, it is several women from the different districts around us who come here to crush their hair and others even extract their oil. See the big pots on the fire, that's where they cook the nuts, in spite of it's a physical and tiring work, but they are preBut they come here to crush the nuts, and it's more than before, because right now they're using the pestle and mortar. As far as this machine is concerned, it is thanks to contributions from the different groups I kept, we had the common idea, it is to We had agreed to buy a machine in Fria and that helped us a lot, despite the crank and it's not easy to turn it.As for the State, we thank it through ANAFIC for having offered for the first time a health post, so we ask it to help us to have a modern hairdressing machine >>, said the district president of Lonkin Ykhouba Soumah.

Source: www.guineenews.org