|
|
Kenya: Agra Sets Aside Sh12bn to Improve Crop Yields
 |
|
|||||||||
|
||||||||||
Business Daily (Nairobi)
27 January 2008
Posted to the web 28 January 2008
Steve Mbogo
The Kofi Annan-led Green Revolution in Africa has launched a Sh12 billion initiative to revive the fertility of soils on the continent.
The Nairobi-based group that is rolling out programmes for agricultural revolution in the continent said it will spend the money in the next five years. Its promoters said the aim is to prevent soils from losing nutrients and ultimately the ability of farmlands to sustain crops.
Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) hopes that the initiative will improve the sustainability of small-scale farms, raise yields and income of small farmers, and help protect the natural resource base such as soil and water.
Loss of fertility and the resulting low agricultural productivity has been identified as a major cause of poverty and hunger in the continent.
Food and Agriculture Organisation says farm yields in Africa stands at one-quarter the global average, and that one-third of Africans face chronic hunger.
"We know that the use of high quality seeds, combined with the rejuvenation of African soils, can begin to turn around this dismal situation," the president of Agra, Namanga Ngongi, said.
Africa, the world's oldest continent is deemed to be suffering poor productivity because its ancient soils have been weathered for millennia. In recent decades, continuous cultivation of land without replacement of the soil nutrients has left most farms barren or with only limited productivity.
Research indicates that loss of organic matter in most farms has prompted farmers to clear forests and the savannah leading to further destruction of the environment.
Agra plans to work with 4.1 million farmers to regenerate 6.3 million hectares of farmland through improved soil management.
Joe Devries, the programme director at Agra, said a team of experts had been sent to a number of African countries to assess the opportunities for soil improvement. Agra experts will work with resident research bodies to implement the programme.
Known as the Soil Health Programme, it will use Integrated Soil Fertility Management (ISFM) system to reclaim the fertility of soils that have lost it.
The system involves assessing local soil and water resources and considering how organic matter, fertilisers, cropping systems, and local knowledge can be used to create productive and environmentally sustainable soil use.
Methods will vary according to the nutritional needs of crops and deficiencies in the soil. "In some cases, soil health is best improved through increased use of organic matter from crop residues, manure, or crop rotation with legumes that increase the concentration of nitrogen in the soil," Dr Devries said.
"In cases where soil nutrients have been severely depleted farmers will have to apply carefully formulated fertilizers, often in combination with organic matter."
The initiative has a component of helping farmers access subsidized fertilizers because in Africa, it costs more than the global average. In Kenya, fertilizer cost went up by Sh2,900 per tonne last year because of an increase in global oil prices and freight charges.
Because of this high cost, Kenyan farmers use only a tenth as much fertilizer as the global average.
|
"Agra's goal of enabling small-scale farmers to produce more on less land will have multiple social, economic, and environmental benefits. It can reduce the pressure to clear new land for agriculture, which in turn can assist in countering deforestation and conserving biodiversity," said Dr Devries.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Copyright © 2008 Business Daily. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Make allAfrica.com your home page | RSS Feed | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Top | Site Guide | Who We Are | Advertising | Search | Subscribe | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Questions or Comments? Contact us. Read our Privacy Statement. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
