Rice Farming

In Senegal, rice in one of the most consumed products. Their population of thirteen million people consumed over 600,000 tons of rice each year. Some people there have based their whole lives off of the rice crop that they grow. They base their whole year and the coming years off of growing the rice. Another thing they base their lives off is how much the rice is selling for. The price has steadily dropped since its peal last year, which was thirty dollars for a one hundred ten pound sack of rice. In order for farmers to make a profit, they must sell their sacks of rice for twenty dollars or more. At the end of last year, the price was right around twenty two dollars a sack. Last year, when the price of rice rose, many bad things happened. There were riots over the high prices. The anger between people was so great that the Prime Minister of Haiti has to resign. Even though these high prices were bad, this let millions of farmers compete for rice selling. This competition led many people help make more money, which helped people a great amount. The rice crisis is a big problem that will hopefully one day be resolved.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/26/world/africa/26senegal.html

Polgreen, Lydia "West African Villagers Stake Their Fortunes On The Future Price Of Rice." New York Times. 25 January2009,12 February 2009.