History of Natto and Its Relatives (1405-2012 - SoyInfo Center

e better for monogastric animals than it is for dairy. They
have a research and development program for new soybean
varieties. They also contract with a winter nursery in Chile
for reproduction during the winter. They buy about 55,000
tonnes/year of soybeans for processing into animal feed and
for exporting to the Pacifi c Rim. They are one of the largest
companies in Quebec that buy soybeans and keep them in
Quebec. The big trading houses buy soybeans then export
them mostly to Rotterdam, Netherlands, to the European
crush market. Prograin keeps its Maple Glen varieties
identity preserved. They screen soybeans to sort them into 3
sizes. The big beans (18/64 inch and over) are sold to Japan
for use as green vegetable soybeans, the medium sized beans
(500 tonnes/year) are used in the Chinatown in Quebec to
make tofu and soymilk, and the small soybeans are used by
3 companies for making soy sprouts in Quebec. They have
a natto program as well. Address: Semences Prograin Inc.
(Micronisation Canada Inc.), 145 Bas Riviere Nord, St-
Cesaire, Quebec, J0L 1T0, Canada. Phone: (514) 469-5744.
1494. Lombardi, Joyce. 1995. Re: History of growing and
using soybeans in Chad. Letter to William Shurtleff at
Soyfoods Center, Feb. 4. 3 p. Typed, with signature. [Eng]
• Summary: “Thank you for your response and enthusiasm
for our soya work in Chad. I am forwarding your letter to
people in town who are very involved in spreading the good
bean throughout the land. One, an agronomist from Togo
named Dr. Akintayo, has come to Chad for soy propaganda
only. He has recently produced a book which will be of
great interest to you, and is also very involved in training
soybean trainers at the Centre de Formation Professionale
d’Agriculture (CFPA), a farm extension service launched
about 6 years ago by Swiss development workers.
“It is in fact from a Swiss-Italian development worker
that I got the idea, and later the seeds, for soybean cultivation
in my village. I had enjoyed ginger-fl avored soymilk
at his villa, and had heard him extoll the soil-enriching
properties of the soy bean, so when people in my village
began complaining about the low rates they were getting
from the state’s cotton company, I asked if they had thought
about planting another cash crop, like soy. I was told it had
been done in the past, but people here don’t really known
how to do much with soy beyond what you call dawadawa,
fermented sauce. So a few weeks later, after more
discussions with villagers, who told our health team that
famine was their biggest health worry, the Comite de Sante
de la Paix was born. Its mission–to grow, sell, and popularize
the soybean in the village of Bessada, Chad.
“As far as I can tell, the farthest back anyone can
remember planting soy in our region of southeastern Chad
is 10 years ago [i.e. in about 1985]. Most people credit the
above-mentioned CFPA with introducing the crop here 6
years ago. From its base in town, the CFPA also has several
outposts in smaller towns (i.e. Koumra) and villages (i.e.
© Copyright Soyinfo Center 2012
HISTORY OF NATTO AND ITS RELATIVES 460
Modjibe) near, or within a 20 km radius of Bessada. Farmers
report success with the crop, especially as our soil is ‘tired’
from a constant rotation of cotton, millet and peanuts. People
report that one 100 kg sack fetches between 23,000–50,000
cfa ($41-90) compared to half that for a sack of millet. The
main buyers seems to be ONGs run by ex-pats [expatriates]
or missions. Local buyers make dawa-dawa, or ndi, as it is
called in the Sara language here, and several women in my
village report making sojateen, or soybean coffee. However
the cost, between 150-500 cfa per kg is prohibitive, and soy
is still seen as a luxury food here. For comparison, millet
is about 50-100 cfa/kg, and peanuts a bit less. Nonetheless,
people generally know that soy is good for the body and soil,
and were very interested in our collective soybean fi eld.
“So, on July 17 1994, our rather ad hoc health team–
made up of four men previously elected as village health
delegates and 10 ten traditional birth attendants, old women
with lined, tribal-scarred faces, canes, strong wiry hands–
planted 6 kg of soybeans on a cleared ½ hectare plot, known
here as a corde... Millet and cotton had been planted on our
plot before, the debris cleaned away with the usual bushfi re
method.
“Our yield, just barely over 100 kg, was dismal.
Reasons: we planted too late in the rainy season,
which begins in May/June, and harvested our beans on
Thanksgiving Day. Akintayo informed me that we planted
the 120-day variety, which is what the CFPA has made
available to folks here. Also, we only weeded twice, and very
late in the game. The tribulations of collective labor as I’m
sure you remember from your Peace Crops days. Third, our
soil is rather sandy, and I’m told soy prefers clay and shade.
Indeed, we remarked that the plants growing in the shade of
a karite tree produced very well while the plants in the shade
of an ndil tree produced a lot of foliage but not much bean.
A farmer 7 km away reported a yield of 250 kg from 4 kg of
seeds on a one-corde plot. He planted earlier and had better
soil. His village has a water table of 23 meters, ours is 47.”
“So, now, the sack of beans sits in my hut, away from
mice and thieves, until we move it to a communal silo with
another sack we’re buying on credit. We have siphoned
out some of the beans already to stage a big village-wide
soybean transformation day, January 25, run by two
animatrices sent by the CFPA in nearby Koumra. The two
women journeyed out on their red moped to teach the
health committee members, representatives from church
and women’s groups, 25 total participants, to make soy
milk, cheese (tofu), fried tofu, beignets (spicy tofuburgers
made with the residue [okara] whose name in Japanese I
saw in your Book of Tofu), cake, steamed pate with fi sh
and tomatoes, sweet donuts, and cake. The consensus was:
porridge (I forgot to mention it above), spicy beignets and
cake. Those were the big hits. People were shocked that
one could bake a delicious cake there under the mango
tree outside our clinic. Our tools were 3-rock fi res, wooden