Africa Renewal (New York)
Michael Fleshman
7 September 2006
Emily Miyanda is luckier than most farmers in hunger-plagued Zambia. With 6 hectares of irrigated land only a dozen kilometres from the capital, Ms. Miyanda produces maize and vegetables for the big Lusaka market. She hires her neighbours to help with planting and harvesting. But even with those advantages, she is squeezed between the high costs of what she needs to buy and the low prices her produce fetches at market. "We'd like some government support in buying seeds and fertilizer," Ms. Miyanda told the BBC earlier this year. "That would make life easier."
For tens of millions of people in rural Africa, life is getting harder. Reliant on erratic rains, working exhausted soil and hobbled by decades of underinvestment and neglect by national governments and international donors, many have sunk deeper into poverty as African agriculture - the mainstay of the region's economy - continues to face neglect. A growing number of African governments and UN and non-governmental agencies argue that unless urgent efforts are made to raise crop yields, build transportation and marketing systems and adopt modern, sustainable farming methods, the continent will fail to reach its development goals and the rural majority will reap only meagre harvests.
Development blueprint
It is difficult to overestimate the importance of agriculture to Africa's economic prospects. More than 65 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's estimated 750 million people are engaged in agriculture, and the sector generates more than a quarter of gross domestic product in most countries. Farm produce accounts for about 20 per cent of Africa's international trade and is a major source of raw materials for industry.
In recognition of its importance, proponents of the continental development plan, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, released NEPAD's Comprehensive Africa Agriculture DevelÂopÂment Programme (CAADP) in 2003 (see Africa Recovery, January 2004). Its goals are ambitious - to reach rural growth rates of 6 per cent annually by 2015, integrate and invigorate regional and national agricultural markets, significantly increase agricultural exports, transform Africa into a "strategic player" in global agricultural science and technology, practice sound environmental and land management techniques, and reduce rural poverty. The plan identifies four key areas, or pillars, of an investment plan for revitalizing the rural economy, including:
expanding the acreage of irrigated African farmland and improving land management and farming techniques to preserve and improve soil quality
investing in rural infrastructure, including roads and railways, storage and processing facilities, markets, communications systems and reliable supply networks for farmers
making food production a high priority, both to combat hunger and for export, and improving emergency responses to natural disasters and conflicts
strengthening African agricultural research and development, including in advanced technologies and farming methods, and disseminating advances quickly and efficiently to farmers, suppliers and buyers.
The CAADP plan emphasizes coordinated regional action in each of the continent's diverse climate zones and relies on existing regional economic organizations and national governments for implementation. The total cost of the programme from 2002 through 2015 is estimated at $251 bn - about $18 bn a year. Although the blueprint envisages donor financing for a portion of the total, analysts note that Africa's agricultural imports currently average about $19 bn annually - suggesting that a significant portion of the costs can eventually be covered by African countries as they cut their spending on imports.
'Mined of life'
However, the challenges to success are as large as the potential consequences of failure. The UN's World Food Programme estimates that more than 30 million Africans are currently in need of international food aid. Researchers for the African Union reported in January that annual population growth has outstripped food production on the continent since 1993, resulting in a 20 per cent rise in the number of hungry people - from 176 million to 210 million. Commercial exports have fared no better, with Africa's share of world trade declining for nine of its 10 largest export crops.
One important obstacle to increased productivity has been the steady deterioration of Africa's soils, noted Mr. Amit Roy, the head of the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC), a US-based institute that promotes agricultural advancement in developing countries. "Today three-quarters of Africa's farmlands - some 170 mn hectares [420 mn acres] is degraded," he told reporters in New York in late March. "As a result, grain yield has stagnated at 1 tonne per hectare, compared to the world average of about 3 tonnes." Crops consume upwards of 45 kilogrammes of nutrients and minerals from each hectare of land every season, he noted, a process known as nutrient mining. "When farmers plant the same fields season after season and cannot afford to replace the soil nutrients taken up by their crops, the soil is literally mined of life."
An estimated 8 mn tonnes of nutrients are depleted annually. Replenishing the nitrogen, potassium, phosphorus and other minerals absorbed by plants is therefore vital to keep crop yields from declining. Part of the answer lies in better farming methods, including expanding the range of crops grown, improving soil conservation practices and utilizing improved seeds and technology. But the key to launching a "revolution" in African agriculture, Mr. Roy told Africa Renewal, is much greater use of fertilizer.
In Asia and Latin America, farmers have dramatically improved harvests by improving the productivity of existing land, whereas in Africa, farmers have sought greater output by cultivating more land. "Traditionally, African farmers use the slash-and-burn method," he said. "They burn off a section of land and farm it for a season or two, then clear another plot and leave the old field fallow." But population increases and growing land shortages have forced farmers to cultivate the same fields repeatedly, stripping the land of nutrients and resulting in smaller harvests and less income. Such pressures have also led farmers to clear land poorly suited for cultivation, which contributes to soil erosion and yields only marginal increases in harvests.
An estimated 50,000 hectares of Africa's forests and 60,000 hectares of savannah are lost to such methods annually - resulting in severe environmental degradation and contributing to a 20-year decline in agricultural production per capita.
According to the CAADP, African farmers currently use far less fertilizer than their counterparts in other regions of the world. "A strong relationship exists between the level of fertilizer use and cereal yield," notes the programme.
In a study prepared for the 9-13 June Africa Fertilizer Summit, called by the African Union to focus attention on the African soils crisis, IFDC researchers Julio Henao and Carlos Baanante noted that fertilizer use in Africa is less than a tenth the world average of 100 kilogrammes. Nearly two-thirds of Africa's fertilizer is consumed in just five countries, Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Nigeria, primarily in the commercial and export sectors. "Negligible fertilizer use by smallholder farmers," they asserted, "is a major factor in the region's declining farm yield per person, which has exacerbated hunger and undernutrition."
High costs, short supply
Heavy reliance on imported fertilizers, combined with high transportation costs and the absence of suppliers in the countryside, has meant that African farmers pay between two and six times the average world price for fertilizer - when they can find it at all. The IFDC study estimated that it costs more to move a kilogramme of fertilizer from an African port to a farm 100 kilometres inland than it costs to move it from a factory in the US to the port. With millions of African family farmers surviving on less than a dollar a day, imported fertilizer is simply unaffordable.
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