The Contingency of a precious alga: Spirulina

I was in N’Djamena, the capital of Chad. It was one of the last days of my mission in this country, which, along with Burkina Faso and Niger, is a partner in the CISAO project called “RUSSADE” focused on higher university education.
Besides the usual formal meetings and visits to various university sites and laboratories, the local colleagues told me about a unique yet abundant treasure of their country: spirulina from Lake Chad. This is a unique place in the world, around which dozens of ethnic groups and about 20 million people revolve, but it is at risk of disappearing.
Spirulina is not the only treasure of the lake. There is salt, or natron, which was used by the ancient Egyptians; kreb, a wild and little-known cereal that still saves the lives of nomads during periods of famine; there are Kuri cattle with enormous horns filled with alveoli, which according to local legends, serve as floats when the animals go grazing in the lake; there are monitor lizards, whose valuable skin is sold abroad, and millions of red-billed quelea, small birds very common in Africa that—although they can sometimes threaten crops—are one of the most important sources of protein in the local diet. And then, around the lake, there are unique artifacts, tools, and knowledge, such as reed canoes, earth dams for water management, and half-moons to retain organic matter in the soil and enable the cultivation of plants and vegetables.
But let’s get back to spirulina. This green alga with a high protein content, locally called “dhiè,” is not, in truth, exclusive to Lake Chad. It grows naturally in many other lakes worldwide—in China, North and South America, Africa, and can even be “cultivated” in special reactors. But only around Lake Chad does spirulina continue to be an irreplaceable resource in the local diet. This alga is indeed rich in vitamins, minerals, and proteins; in the market, purified or cultivated spirulina is sold at very high prices both for human consumption (it is the most valuable source of vitamin B12 for vegans, but it is also used to make doughs and seasonings) and for animal feed (Arab horse breeders spend exorbitant amounts on this alga…).
In Lake Chad, spirulina grows naturally thanks to ideal climatic conditions, is harvested by hand by women using basins, and then dried in the sun in the form of cakes, which are crushed into small pieces or ground into powder. The taste is typical of algae, and foods seasoned with spirulina turn a more or less intense green. The production or collection costs are extremely low compared to cultivated spirulina, which has the advantage of being cleaner and free from salt and sand residues that are present in the Lake Chad variety. However, purifying it would not be an expensive process, and during my visit to N’Djamena, we discussed the possibility of starting a project to collect and sell purified spirulina for the local market and export. As mentioned earlier, the climate of the lake is ideal for the rapid and abundant growth of this alga, and the selling prices would certainly be very competitive compared to spirulina cultivated in heated water reactors found in European or North American countries. Unfortunately, the idea remained on paper: fears of the country’s political instability and the increasingly oppressive presence of Boko Haram terrorists around the lake have canceled any new cooperation projects with Chad.

Prof. Riccardo Fortina