Fwd: [Food-news] Ecology and Agriculture reinforce each other for Food Security

[Guest guest]

--- foodnews >

> *www.foodnews.ca <http://www.foodnews.ca/>*

>

> *Editor's Note: *This article discusses a new study

> on the state of

> Africa's soil --documenting a key link between

> ecology and agriculture

> and how they have to reinforce each other. The

> stressed, nutrient-poor

> soil particularly in sub-Saharan Africa produces

> poor yields. These

> findings suggest that food security measures should

> incorporate

> sustainable, affordable plans for soil

> rehabilitation.

>

>

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_T\

ype1 & call_pageid=971358637177 & c=Article & cid=1143760212955

>

> * *

>

> *Africa** faces barren future*

>

> *Overworked land loses fertility:* Report

> Continent's ability to feed

> itself eroding

>

> Mar. 31, 2006. 05:22 AM

>

> KAREN PALMER

> SPECIAL TO THE STAR

>

> Kampala, Uganda--Africa is in danger of losing its

> ability to feed an

> already hungry population because its farmland is

> rapidly becoming

> barren, a major new study warns.

>

> More than 80 per cent of farmland in sub-Saharan

> Africa, where one in

> three people is undernourished, is so depleted of

> nutrients it has been

> rendered infertile, the report notes.

>

> " This is severely eroding Africa's ability to feed

> itself, " Nigerian

> President Olusegun Obasanjo said yesterday. " To feed

> people, we must

> also feed the soil. "

>

> Researchers from the International Centre for Soil

> Fertility and

> Agricultural Development, who tracked soil

> conditions across Africa for

> more than two decades, say population growth is

> leading to an

> over-cultivation of farmland.

>

> Farmers who once rotated crop production, moving

> from plot to plot to

> allow soil to regain its fertility, are now forced

> to grow crop after

> crop on the same land, " depleting the soil of

> nutrients while giving

> nothing back, " says the report.

>

> An estimated 70 per cent of Africans rely directly

> on farming for their

> food supply or livelihood. But the " soil health

> crisis " means crop

> productivity has remained stagnant, while cereal

> yields in Asia have

> tripled over the past four decades.

>

> " The news is not good, " said Amit Roy, president of

> the U.S.-based

> non-profit soil centre, during a telephone

> conference in Washington

> yesterday. " The soil health of the African continent

> is in decline and

> there is significant mining of nutrients. "

>

> Roy said at least 170 million hectares -- nearly 80

> per cent of all

> African farmland -- is so barren it cannot produce

> even one tonne of

> cereal per hectare a year -- a third of what soil in

> Asia or South

> America produces.

>

> The findings have major implications for the

> continent's ability to feed

> itself. Already, some 43 million tonnes of cereals

> are imported to

> sub-Saharan Africa each year at a cost of $7.5

> billion (all figures U.S.).

>

> But despite that, an estimated 200 million people go

> hungry each year.

> Without radical change in agricultural practices,

> the report predicts

> that by 2020, Africa will have to import 60 million

> tonnes of cereals,

> which would cost $14 billion.

>

> " African aid is never, never going to end food

> insecurity, " said Firmino

> Mucavele, chief executive of the New Partnership For

> Africa's

> Development secretariat. Nigeria's Obasanjo is chair

> of the implementing

> committee of the African Union-sponsored

> secretariat.

>

> He said too many nutrients are being removed from

> the African soil, and

> not being replenished with suitable fertilizers.

> " The environment is

> being damaged by the quality and quantity of

> fertilizers used, " he said.

>

> Africa's rate of fertilizer use is one-tenth the

> world average, although

> commercial farmers grow peanut, cotton and sugar

> cane crops that are

> notoriously high consumers of soil nutrients.

>

> A cruel irony is that fertilizers cost up to six

> times as much in Africa

> as the rest of the world. A June summit will look at

> ways of lowering

> that cost, including the possibility of producing

> fertilizer in Africa,

> and promoting mineral and organic fertilizers. The

> ultimate objective is

> to reduce or eliminate hunger.

>

> There also needs to be more investment in

> irrigation, Roy said. Only 4

> per cent of arable land in Africa is watered

> artificially, while nearly

> 40 per cent of land in Asia is irrigated.

>

> And the problem needs to be managed immediately, Roy

> said, since farmers

> are encroaching on even more fragile ecosystems,

> like forests and

> savannahs, in search of new land to till.

> Researchers found 50,000

> hectares of forest and 60,000 hectares of grassland

> are cleared for

> farming each year in Africa.

>

> " Without the green revolution, we'll never be able

> to create our own

> resources and decrease poverty, " Mucavele said.

> " Without a green

> revolution, we'll never really control our own

> environment. "

>

>

------

>

> /Karen Palmer is The Star's stringer in Africa /

>

>

>

> --

>

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