SANOUSSI DIAKITE FINALIST OF AFRICAN INNOVATION AWARD:"My machine is a contribution to the development of solutions to develop Africa"

. "This award is proof that my machine had an impact on the development process in Africa"
. "Before I invented this machine, fonio was considered a lost cereal"
. "There is no people that is with creative genius"

Sanoussi Diakité is professor inventor of fonio husking machine that has revolutionized the world of African technological research. This machine he developed has led him to be selected among the ten finalists for the Award africiane innovation, in which more than 900 candidates from 45 African countries had applied. In this interview he gave us, he returns to his research, the meaning and significance of this distinction. It also discusses the impact of this discovery on the African people and issues in the strategy of growth and development in Africa.

Introduce yourself to our readers.
I am inventor Professor, Director General of the National Office for Professional Education. I am a professor of mechanical science and technology production, that is to say, mechanical engineering, a researcher in food equipment and I serve at the Institute of Food Technology. I just Kolda in southern Senegal, Casamance. I did my primary school in Kolda. My middle and secondary levels, as well as my studies in Dakar.
You're one of 10 finalists for the innovation of the African to be awarded on May 7 next in South Africa is that we can explain the process that led to this distinction?
The price for a machine that I developed. This is fonio husking machine. Which is an innovation. I am very pleased with this distinction. It is a distinction which was acquired on 900 candidates from 45 African countries. I feel honored. It is a recognition of the work done, but it is also proof that the machine is an innovation that has an effect on the development process in Africa, the process of growth, wealth creation. It is all of these elements that appear throughout this selection. I can only be proud to have been the cause of such a contribution to the development of my continent. Ultimately, what is remembered is the contribution to the development of solutions to develop Africa. My machine is one of those solutions.
What are the features of this machine?
The machine has solved a problem. This is the problem of fonio. Who is an African cereal that we have every interest to develop. Since it contains huge assets. The problem was shelling. My machine has solved this problem. It has been proven in the field. It operates in eight African countries. The challenge of this machine: hand, it takes 2 hours of time to dissect 2.5 kg. Existing machines that handle grain proved ineffective for fonio because of its thinness. Because we account up to 2500 grains per gram of fonio. The fact that there is no solution so far and existing machines were not effective, it has created a constraint to the development of fonio. So that people have even abandoned the cultivation of fonio. Even though they know it is good, but they have abandoned, because it's hard. I invented this machine. It breaks 5 Kilos in 8 minutes and cleanly in a single pass. What is good is that technology must demonstrate its effectiveness over time. This is not only a point at a time, in a moment that technology must demonstrate its effectiveness. It must do so in time and space. This is what my machine proved. This distinction is that its meaning. The machine showed its worth in time and space.
How long research that you did it take to develop this machine?
This machine is in Senegal for a long time. It took me about three years of research. But technology aims to evolve. Take any technological product that evolves over time while maintaining the principle. Because it must be correlated with the perception of the community that uses it. It evolves with the ways of perceiving, it also evolves with new tools and new materials being discovered. Take the example of the phonograph, invented it when there were no electronic components. Once these components have existed, functions that are inside these electronic components were used in the principle of the phonograph. This has changed. The ancestor of the DVD player is the phonograph. That's how a technology. It does not stop evolving. Do not say we finished thinking about technology. It continues. What is important is to be in tune with the needs. These are the needs, aspiration and demand should control the solution. Since we do not invent for ourselves, we invented because there is a need, a necessity. They say necessity is the mother of invention. It is very important to know.
What is the impact of this machine on the lives of Senegalese and African populations?
This has radically changed things. Radically. The relief work of women. When a woman is able to say: I will prepare fonio for dinner and wait up to 18 hours to start working, it was unthinkable a few years ago. He had to prepare fonio for dinner, start work three days before. Now you can get up an hour earlier, to dissect and prepare. That changed as the situation of the grain. This put her in the spotlight. We saw all the interest there is. With this machine, specialists in other fields have been interested in the cereal. Nutritionists. There is a researcher at the Ita named Djibril Traore, who did his PHD on fonio and fonio showed that was good for diabetics. He discovered extraordinary things on fonio. Agronomists were also interested in fonio, cultivation techniques have been developed. Whereas before, fonio showed no interest in that whatsoever. Because we felt it was marginal. But now, growing fonio resumed. The machine has played a role in that. The final impact is the repositioning of fonio in food strategies in our countries. Fonio will install as a credible alternative to the power of our people. The catalyst element is the machine that I developed. Because that is what allowed people to say that they can get back into the culture of fonio.
With this machine, fonio can provide practical solutions to the food crisis that hit the Sahel?
Absolutely. Fonio is a cereal that does not need much water to grow. Fonio grows on poor soils. When we sow fonio, it grows. This is proven. In traditional societies, it is the land end of the cycle that are used to seed fonio. This means that in times when there is climate change, where drought is gaining ground, fonio will position itself as the most profitable crop cultivation economic element. This will require less investment and less development. This produces more results on the diet. A kilo of fonio costs 1,400 F on the market, the other impact is that there is economic activity fonio. How many processing units have now put in the processing and marketing of precooked fonio. I give you the example of Mrs. Ada Aya Ndiaye Kédougou, it exports tons of precooked fonio. The transformation was made possible by this machine. This is the machine that created interest in fonio. This is an African cereal. The corn comes from Latin America, rice comes from Mesopotamia, millet comes from India, but fonio comes from us in Africa. Ibn Battuta in 1200 already evoked fonio in these trips. The flat fonio he found in Sudan. Fonio is a cereal which is regarded as the functional food. That is to say, food and medication at once. Because it has properties to fight against diabetes. Fat is the first enemy of the diabetic. When you eat fonio, there is no stock of fat. Dr. Djibril Traore will explain the nutritional value that is in the fonio. In the treatment of certain diseases, fonio is recommended. I recommend the book by Professor KERHARO, a professor of botany, who wrote about fonio. He showed that fonio is effective against intestinal meteorism and diuretic treatment. All this has meant that fonio is a strategic element. As we talk of Bordeaux wine, fonio is of West Africa, which will distribute worldwide. This will be a feature of our area. This is why the machine helps to implement. The emergence of a die. It's not the machine that is the most important thing is fonio is most important. When you look fonio, we look at the society in which it is consumed. These are 16 African countries that consume fonio. This is how consumers? Besides what is exported. How many people can get into the fonio and earn a living because the machine is available. It is this social transformation that is supported by this social innovation what the machine. We still need to prove. It does us no favors in the scientific and technical world. It looks at us with negative stereotypes. We must show sufficient rigor with ourselves. The battle of Cheikh Anta Diop to get people to understand the world and impose universal knowledge he was carrying, it is the same type of battle that must be taken. Because we quickly said what Africa has invented? So there is no nation that is endowed with genius creativity. It's just that in the international trading system, there are groups who want to impose their law and subject states. It is up to us to show that we know where we are going and we have enough strength to carry our own aspirations. Before I invented this machine, fonio was considered a lost crop. You had to have an experience to understand that he has a special social issue. For me, with this price, Africa said, "Sanoussi, you have reason to believe that from the beginning, you have reason to believe that fonio is not lost cereal and you invest in a solution for its emergence. " This is important. Believe this is also to believe that understanding our own issues can only proceed from our own process.
There are how many units have been reproduced?
There are no large-scale manufacturing. This requires investment. It will come. This award helps to linking with investors that may be interested. There are hundreds of companies located throughout West Africa machines. The national agricultural research fund and food of Senegal supported a project to disseminate this machine, a pilot broadcast that lasted two years. It was just to watch the level of adoption by pre-established criteria and indicators, the level of adoption by communities who can use this machine. The findings are very positive. There is a second phase of large-scale dissemination is planned for availability in just put the machine or machine services. In some places, people have traveled dozens of kilometers to enjoy the services of this machine.
Does the Senegalese authorities are aware of this distinction and the accompanying measures?
I am a collaborator of President Macky Sall. I gave him an official correspondence informing him that I was selected as one of the ten that price. I know this is something he will appreciate its true value. Because it is always attentive to the action that creates the emergence in Africa. This machine is an action. Act to create the emergence in Africa. But this is not the verbiage or a figment of the imagination. This is something that poses solutions at the community level. It is also an approach, an approach in the way of what he wants Senegal is in the march towards development. This invention is a kind of demonstration that shows the confidence he has placed in me by putting me at the head of the National Office of the professional training that this distinction is an extension of that trust. I am a man of action in his footsteps for the development of Senegal.
Then you are the right man in the right place?
I fight. I have always believed in me. I apply sufficient rigor on myself, I do forgive me anything, no weakness. I think that to be effective it must be required to oneself.
HAROUNA FALL