In Mayotte, food sovereignty still threatened, six months after the passage of Chido

Along the road that crosses the city of Dembéni, in the center-east of Grande-Terre, the main island of Mayotte, around twenty sellers of fruits and vegetables have carefully arranged their goods, in small regular heaps on plastic tables, Monday, May 26. But some of these informal stalls, which are found everywhere on the island, have changed. “There are no more bread fruits, no guava or papaya”Chibaco list. Cyclone Chido, which hardly touched Mayotte on December 14, destroyed almost all of these cultures typical of the archipelago. In their place, the saleswoman had a stack of imported carrots and potatoes. “We started to replant, but we must still wait …The thirty -something is impatient. So, we eat potatoes, even if we prefer bread fruit. “

Behind these small upheavals in the Mahorais racing bags – increasingly filled with fruits, vegetables, fish and meat from elsewhere – hides a very real threat for the 101st French department. That of loss of His food sovereignty and part of its culture. A risk identified for many years on this fertile archipelago which has to face the increase in the very strong population with sparse and not very mechanized farms. But the annihilation caused by Cyclone Chido gave the subject to the center of the Mahorais table.

After leaving the main road and markets for about twenty minutes in the tall grass, we guess an agricultural exploitation, surrounded by tree trunks without branches. “With Chido, everything has been erased”Sighs Ben M’Sa under his cap. Here he cultivated a multitude of species typical of the Mahorais garden, a model of polyculture that present Mayotte Hebdo. “Cassava, everything is gone. Bananas, everything is gone …”List the farmer, serpe in hand.

Not enough to give him his arms. Ben M’Sa intends to revive these lands, cultivated by his father and his grandfather before him. “I have to buy cassava plants. But what price will be at the age of twenty euros? And the banana plants? Before, it was two or three euros”He worries, while agents from the department come to visit him.

“We need the market and barter in Mayotte. It is important for social cohesion. With imports and supermarkets, where is conviviality?”

Ben M’Sa, farmer

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Carnet and pencil in hand, civil servants share the observation of the farmer. “We have a food habit here: it’s cassava and banana! Today, people are reduced to eating preserves and rice coming from the outside”Analysis a development agent.

At the end of May, which also marks the end of the rainy season, the state services continue to go around the farms to support farmers. Almost six months after the passage of the cyclone, the extent of the work remains immense, but some typical species of the island could see the day more quickly. This is the case of banana trees, who come out again from the ground.

This plant has a very useful feature for surviving natural disasters. “It is not a tree, it is a rhizome; when you cut it, the banana can leave, because the bud is at the ground”explains Joël Huat, agronomist researcher at the Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development (CIRAD) and project manager in Mayotte. “On will have new banana regimes by the end of the year “he welcomes himself. Ditto for cassava, another annual plant, “whose seed potential is at ground level”completes the researcher.

For other species, the perspective will be much more distant. “The trees have lost their arms and it is not rebuilt in a year”explains Joël Huat. Especially since the expectation could also come from the lack of agricultural equipment, already underdeveloped on the island.

At the edge of the Mayotte lagoon, it is the state of the Mahoran fishing that the returned boats illustrate. “With Chido, the ships were completely destroyed”, explains Régis Masséaux, president of the Maritime Syndicate of Professional Fishermen Mahorais. In its blue and white fish – an institution on the island – the tuna and the swordfish of the Mahorais coast had to be replaced by imports from Madagascar and Reunion since its fleet was destroyed.

The massacre also concerns informal fishing, which is widely practiced around the island using frail wooden boats and which usually feeds many inhabitants. On these boats, fishermen are rarely formed and the safety standards, which are not very respected. The disaster could allow the sector to finally structure itself, wants to believe Régis Masséaux. But not anything. “I ask the state not to open the doors of Mahoran fishing to large outside companies”he insists.

“Behind the disasters, there are opportunists. Some are already eyeing Mayotte’s territorial waters, but we don’t want it.”

Régis Masséaux, President of the Maritime Fisheries Syndicate Mahorais

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To get their heads out of the water, the fishermen’s representative enjoins the public authorities to rebuild the fishing pontoons necessary for the resumption of activity as quickly as possible. Six months after the cyclone, some are still damaged and only a few rare boats have taken over the sea.

A blow for an island engaged for several years in an ambitious food sovereignty plan (Pdf). Its objective: cover 100% of fruit needs and 90 to 100% of the island’s vegetable needs by 2030. “This plan has taken a big blow. It will be shifted by at least a year”Estimates Joël Huat, who regularly performs missions in Mayotte with farmers. If the reconstruction of farms is still “shy”According to the researcher, all actors “Roll up the sleeves” to move forward.

Public authorities, unions and associations all want to relaunch the island’s agricultural machine. “The food distribution is very punctual, it is necessary Immediately think of how to resume a normal life “Explains Christian Causse, member of the National Bureau of French Secours popular French, who went to Mayotte several times, the suitcase full of seeds. Like all environmental associations, he also alerts the importance of keeping the diverse model of the Mahorais garden and not falling into monoculture.

An opinion shared by Fouad Ali, farmer in the north of Grande-Terre. “We must find our culture and respect our territory”, he insists. On his ground, almost all the trees were destroyed by Chido. But the local president of the Defense Movement for Family Operators (ModeF) has already started to replant typical Mayotte species. According to him, a priority project, before major infrastructure projects already announced by the authorities. “We are told about a new airport when we have not yet rebuilt agriculture and fishing”he blows. Before adding: “Our earth is very fertile, there are a lot of fish. We should not be afraid.”