Rice

Rice from the “bolanhas” – paddies won from the mangroves – is the staple food; Bissau-Guineans are among Africa’s biggest rice eaters.

Rice is an annual grass growing to 1–1.5 m, with its spikelets gathered in a drooping panicle. It is one of the world’s most important cereals and the staple food of more than half of humanity. It is grown in flooded fields or, in upland varieties, on dry slopes. In West Africa it is grown alongside the native African rice, with which it is crossed to produce the hardy NERICA varieties.

Significance in the country

For centuries the Balanta and other coastal peoples have turned mangroves into rice paddies – bolanhas – surrounded by dykes, which rainwater gradually leaches of salt. In Guinea-Bissau rice is eaten with almost every meal, and the Tombali region is regarded as the country’s granary.

Where it grows

Throughout the country: “mangrove” rice on the coast and in the estuaries (especially Tombali, Quinara, Oio and Cacheu), and rice grown in valleys and on dry fields in the eastern regions of Bafatá and Gabú.

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