In 2013, Nfamara Badjie and his wife, Dawn Hoyte, bought a 6-acre farm in Ulster Park, New York, in the Hudson Valley.
In 2013, Nfamara Badjie and his wife, Dawn Hoyte, bought a 6-acre farm in Ulster Park, New York, in the Hudson Valley. They soon realized the fields were muddy – almost wetlands – but Badjie didn’t mind.
“I said, ‘That’s the one I’m looking for, the wetland is good for the rice,’” Badjie said, flashing an easy smile. “Dawn said, ‘No, you can’t grow rice here. Are you crazy?’”
Few farmers attempt to grow a warmth-loving crop like rice in the Northeast’s short growing season, but Badjie and Hoyte are experimenting with rice-growing methods to suit New York’s climate on their Ever-Growing Family Farm. It’s the only commercial rice farm in New York state, and one of a handful of small rice farms in the entire Northeast.
Badjie is guided by generations of farming experience. Before moving to the United States in 2005, he had spent his whole life in rice fields in the Gambia, West Africa. He belongs to the Jola people, from the Gambia, Senegal and Guinea Bissau, who have been farming rice for 1,000 years. Now Badjie, Hoyte and Moustapha Diedhou, a Jola farmer from Senegal, are successfully building their rice farm, and a Cornell agronomist is helping them optimize their crop.
Read more at Cornell University
Image: Nfamara Badjie works in a handmade rice paddy on his farm in Ulster Park, New York. (Credit: John Munson/Cornell University)
