KADUNA, Nigeria — In a flowing cream hijab, Karima M. Imam walks through her fields in scrubland in northern Nigeria as workers harvest a gnarled brown root that has turned gold since COVID struck: ginger.
“If I had the capital, I’d plant more. People are looking for ginger now, and there is not enough,” she said at her five-hectare farm on the outskirts of Kaduna.
As the pandemic rages, people around the world have sought to guard against illness by turning to so-called halo foods. While scientists have dismissed many claims on social media about how superfoods can fend off the virus, their positive role as part of a healthy diet is widely acknowledged.
As demand for halo…
Keep on reading: From Nigeria to Brazil ‘halo’ crops reap pandemic profits