In an offlist response to my post on Fonio Day (7/27) David Brenner asked if there was more information about Sanoussi Diakité's fonio dehulling machine. Well, I found all that and a lot more - all but the first and the last two in French only. Per the title of this email, I'll broaden the scope slightly to mention mechanical threshing of fonio (which is still typically harvested by hand, as far as I know), but still focus on dehulling.
Since we're now in August, with fonio as the millet of the month, I'll summarize this information below as a matter of record, for those who have an interest in dehulling technologies for fonio and in general (it's not as simple as one might think). In the process, a picture emerges of how the fonio dehulling technology has continued to develop, especially since the early 1990s, and what its impact has been on fonio production.
A good starting place is within a book on fonio from the 2010s, first published in French, and then in English translation. See chapter 6 on improving post-harvest technologies, which mentions early interest in mechanizing fonio processing - in Guinea during the early 1900s..Mechanical dehulling is discussed in a section of that chapter beginning on page 93 in the English edition, and page 106 in the French. The "Sanoussi" dehuller is the one originated by Mr. Diakité.
For deeper dives into the design and operation of various dehullers, there are a number of shorter documents. First, one from 2004: In it, several dehullers ("décortiquers"), and indeed approaches to dehulling, are discussed. Diakité's was evidently the first (dating back to the 1990s), and is called here by his first name "Sanoussi." Other dehullers apparently use different methods
Dramé, Djibril, Claude Marouzé, Gouyahali Son, Francis Loua, & Jean-François Cruz, 'Décorticage du fonio : Rapport de synthès
e," Projet CFC/IGG - (FIGG/02) - Amélioration des Technologies Post-récolte du Fonio (CIRAD-IER-IRAG-IRSAT), Juin 2004 (31 pages) https://agritrop.cirad.fr/607531/1/ID607531.pdf
Then there is a 2005 book by some of the same authors about an improved dehuller, built on the experience of the earlier machines: GMBF evidently stands for the four countries involved in the design: Guinea, Mali, Burkina (Faso), and France
Marouzé, Claude, Djibril Dramé, Francis Loua, Gouyahali Son, & Patrice Thaunay. Décortiqueuer à Fonio GMBF: Dossier de fabrication. Projet Fonio CFC/ICG - Amélioration des Technologies Post-récolte du Fonio. L'Harmattan, 2005.
So, from the mid-2000s it seems that the GMBF dehuller was the focus of attention, at least in Guinea, Mali, and Burkina Faso. See for example a 2016 study report:
The latter document reports that farmers credit dehullers with saving fonio from abandonment as a crop. This, because of the time and labor previously necessary
to dehull it
(mostly on the part of women).
This is a theme mentioned also in a short video featuring Mr. Diakité. "Sanoussi Diakité, inventeur de la décortiqueuse de fonio," BBC Afrique, 16 April 2022
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PxB3vyhUZPE . Given the date of this video, one has the impression that Mr. Diakité continues work on his dehuller, and that it is very much still in use in Senegal, at least.
A 2018 article discusses fonio dehulling technology from the point of view of innovation and diffusion. From this, you get a sense of the background of some of the work. Interestingly, it notes that two Malian women discussed mechanization of fonio dehulling with CIRAD researchers in 1993 - the same year of Mr. Diakité's invention in Senegal. This brief piece does not give a sense of other initiatives or how they figure in current usage, nor does it go into details about the technology itself, but is another piece of the story:
Ferré, Thierry, Ignace Medah, Jean-François Cruz, Marie-Hélène Dabat, Pierre-Yves Le Gal, Matthieu Chtioui & Agathe Devaux-Spatarakis, "Innover dans le secteur de la transformation agroalimentaire en Afrique de l’Ouest," Cahiers Agricultures, 27 1 (2018)
https://doi.org/10.1051/cagri/2018004
Despite the impression one might get from the above that mechanical processing of fonio (and especially dehulling) is becoming more widespread in West Africa, it is apparently unknown to some growers. This 2020 article about the work of Minnesota-based Terra Ingredients mentions women in a co-op they work with, processing fonio by hand (the traditional way), and that ""the fonio soon will not be processed by hand." It further mentions that "The company spent 12 months on what he [Terra Ingredients director Peter Carlson] said was an 'R&D nightmare' as it worked to create a mechanized way to process fonio." There is no mention of how the abovementioned efforts fit in their research and development process. Terra Ingredients is the major importer of fonio in the US, and supplies various enterprises with the grain; the source of this article; North Dakota-based Stone Mill is one of their partners for late-stages of processing fonio.)
What Terra Ingredients and their Senegalese partner CAA are bringing to the processing, and in particular dehulling, of fonio are developing is larger-scale processing, both for export and local urban markets. For more on CAA, see:
https://caa.sn/about-us/ . For mention of the Terra Ingredients - CAA partnership "to build a modern processing facility in Dakar, Senegal for processing and dehulling," along with how Stone Mill in ND fits into the supply chain, see:
https://www.terraingredients.com/fonio/supplychain/ . (Possible details on their approach to dehulling will have to wait for a later posting...).
Anyway, there's clearly a lot going on in the "fonio space" in West Africa, the US, and internationally. It seems that the small scale dehullers that began to come on the scene in the 1990s were revolutionary, both for local producers and for beginning the local commercialization of fonio (I saw some of that in Bamako in 2000). That foundation has permitted more ambitious efforts, including exports (by enterprises such as Yolélé), as well as the most recent larger-scale efforts mentioned above.
From a North American perspective, ths may be interesting information for consumers and vendors. Further technical details may be of interest for discussions of dehulling of small millets in our region, as David suggested. I personally wonder whether there is a potential for small scale dehullers for artisanal producers of alternative grains.
Don