Disease-resistant manioc and higher yields: what do they mean?

Manioc varieties that are resistant to cassava mosaic virus produce more than traditional varieties. The increase can be striking -- as the women from Ngamba (shown here) have learned. And producing more inevitably changes conditions in the farmer’s household. There is less chance that the children will go hungry. Young children have a better chance of surviving. The family probably will have extra manioc to sell. There is a better chance that parents can cover school fees for all their children. With a little extra income, they can afford more regular health care. By almost any standard life improves for semi-subsistence farm families that adopt high-yielding, disease-resistant varieties of manioc in the central Kwilu region of Congo.

But what does this improvement mean? What does it say about the world, about us, about ultimate realities, about God? The answers depend a lot on a person’s assumptions. I assume that God created the world. Creation was meant to be good, wholesome, adequate to the needs of all God’s creatures. Many of the solutions to human problems or human needs remain as yet undiscovered in the amazing diversity of Creation. As a Christian, I assume that God intends for humankind to thrive, to enjoy God’s bounty. Stewardship of creation is a key charge, the ultimate guarantor of that bounty.

But the context also shapes the answers. For many of my neighbors, poverty is a given of life. For some families, hunger is all too common and famine is an occasional (maybe inevitable) hardship. Most families are stuck with subsistence agriculture because there are so few other ways to make a living. An adequate living is hard to wrangle. People see malevolent spirits at every turn and suspect that even close neighbors might be agents of misfortune. Many people attribute poverty to someone else’s ill-will and ability to steal good fortune by using magical power. Jealousy, sensitive to split-hair differences in fortune, sours relationships and raises suspicions about how someone might have gained an advantage (however small) over her neighbors.

So tripling yields of manioc or doubling yields of palm oil, with all the positive consequences for family health and well-being, represent for us God’s blessing. They are not the fruits of theft by magic, nor blessings we want to keep to ourselves. They are God’s provision in a very hostile world, the sign that God is near and concerned about our well-being. They point to God, who reveals Himself to us, who offers to save us from the real power of sin, and who leads us into His presence. My purpose here in Congo is to explain and show that as clearly as possible, every day. The signs are visible; but interpreting them for our neighbors is our greatest challenge . . . our greatest privilege.