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Array ( [1] => <p>Nimba, Liberia, early Nov 2007. A survey the following year found varietal diversity to be quite low within each field (1 to 4), but overall 52 names for upland rice varieties were found in the area, though this may contain some duplicates. Some of the varieties include both African rice (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian Rice (O. sativa).</p> [2] => <p>Swamp Rice Nursery in an Upland Rice Field, Nimba, Liberia, early July 2008. This interesting movement between two rice environments may be an adaptation to labour coordination constraints between the upland and swamp farms. There may however also be seedling growth advantages from the nutrient flush after burning the upland farm.</p> [3] => <p>Traditional Swamp Rice Farming, Nimba, Liberia, early July 2008. These swamps, in which there is no water control, are often, as in this case, at the bottom of the slope of the upland farm. Generally speaking higher priority for the deployment of household labour is given to the upland rice farm in this area, but individual household situations differ.</p> [4] => <p>Harvesting Wild Rice, Dakoro, Niger, mid Nov 2001. This rice, locally called <em>jan kai</em> (red head) in Hausa may be either <em>Oryza barthii </em>or <em>O. longistaminata</em> (though I suspect the former). In this particular locality, the start date for harvesting is controlled by the village chief. I unfortunately missed this colourful event three weeks earlier, but is resource control institution analogous to the <em>tongo </em>regime described by Freudenberger et al. (1997) in the Gambia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.</p> [5] => <p>Irrigated Rice Field, Ouro-Madiou, northern Senegal, early Sept 1997, i.e. the rainy season crop. The Diama barrage (completed 1986) theoretically enabled a second dry season crop but this hadn't been done since 1994 (credit was one issue). I think a patch is being replanted here after the broadcast seeds failed. Out-planting from a small nursery is an alternative, apparently higher yielding method but was only done on c. 15% of local fields because of its high labour demands.</p> [6] => <p>Yarbayon Clan, Bong County, Liberia, September, 2012. Upland rice can tolerate temporary submersion and thus despite its moniker, can also be found in lowland settings. The river shown here is high after recent heavy rain, but not quite in flood. I was assured that the field behind was planted with upland rice varieties and have been told the same in similar settings elsewhere in Liberia.</p> [7] => <p>Left bank of the Rio Nuñez, near Kamsar, Guinea, November 2013. The inhabitants of this region, here the Baga Sitem, have been adapting rice technology to the micro-environments of the coast for about a 1000 years (Fields-Black, 2008). In the foreground can be seen flotsam on the estuarine beach: the rice fields behind have been hewn from the original mangrove vegetation. Through the use of earthen bank enclosures, probably dug with fulcrum shovels, the fertile soil is desalinated through skilful water control.</p> )
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