B. Mezgebu
26 March 2008
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Addis Ababa — When presently cereal prices such for wheat are shooting through the roof in Ethiopia and several countries, is the phrase sustainable agriculture even closely relevant? In other words, is not the right thing to do, under the circumstances, exploit the land to the maximum, produce to the maximum, and sustainability and conservation be damned?
That may be what most farmers do. But they would be net losers in the end, unfortunately; because they go against sustainable agriculture which is broadly defined as a kind of farming that is "economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially acceptable". In a nutshell, it provides "a decent economic opportunity for people". Throw that caution to the wind, and you put farming at a great risk.
Farms come in all sizes and flavors worldwide. There is big-agriculture, a veritable industry really, with its monocroping, huge machinery and chemicals. And then you have small-scale farmers' fields, sometimes called, "starvation plots" in this part of the world. The two farming types are as different from each other as could be. But they have one thing in common for sure: soil As someone said, "Soil comes well towards the top" in both instances. You might not buy the theory that governments or indeed dynasties had fallen on account of mismanagement of their soils in the past; and to some standard historians, that proposition sounds too frivolous.
But whether or not governments had indeed gone under because they presided over eroding soils, we could conclude, from what we see and hear everyday in general, the communities that have degraded their farmlands have far emptier grain silos and far more emaciated cattle than those that have conserved theirs.
One farmer who has had enough of exploitative farming said that sustainable agriculture is 90 percent psychological and 10 percent technological. That certainly rings a bell with me. If here in Ethiopia, we have nonchalantly let relentless soil erosion sap the fertility of the land for decades and decades, (if not for centuries), it is not because we don't know what to do about it, but because we refuse to accept how disastrous the impact would be both now and in future.
If we only realize: sustainability essentially is not about doing more. It is about doing less. Burning soil as traditionally done in order to release nutrients. Ploughing the same piece of land, up and down, repeatedly many times in order to have a smooth seedbed. Trampling soil structure with too many hoofs during grazing. These are examples of overdoing things. They eventually impoverish the land. They constitute the onset of a vicious circle.
Conventional farming or farming that is not land friendly, has been likened to treadmill and sustainable farming to a dance. "The dance lies in the rhythm of seasons and crops, in the way the same piece of farmland is made to alternate year to year between cool-season plants, like wheat rye, flax, and oats, and warm-season plants, like buckwheat and millet, between broadleaf and grassy plants, between deep-rooted and shallow-rooted, between cash crops and soil-building legumes like yellow-blossom sweet clover. The dance helps break up disease and pest cycles and restores nutrients to the soil." Fertilizer use has been on the rise in Ethiopia since it began here some 3 decades ago. This indicates that higher cereal production has been the avowed goal of agriculture in the country. This was laudable and in line with agriculture polices anywhere in the world. After all there are 70 million mouths to feed here.
However one crucial component is missing and it is the organic component, the sustainability component, if you like. Here are just a few examples of why we say farming here has not been entirely holistic: few farms in the country now use animal dung. Energy thumps all else.
Well planned and consistent crop rotation, for instance, cereal followed by legumes such as beans, peas is becoming rarer everyday. Planting grasses and legumes on the edge of farm plots is becoming an activity of the past. Every inch of space is now bulldozed in order to convert every space to grow crops. Minimum tillage is either unknown or totally ignored.
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Arrests over Ethiopia's fake gold By Elizabeth Blunt BBC News, Addis Ababa Wednesday, 26 March 2008, 17:40 GMT Twenty-six people are under arrest over the discovery of 90kg (14 stone) of fake gold in the vaults of Ethiopia's central bank, a senior official says.
The fraud was discovered after some of the supposed gold was sent to South Africa, where it was found to be gold-plated steel. Those held are expected to be charged in the next couple of weeks. Rumours have been flying around the capital Addis Ababa about what happened to the real gold and who was to blame. Those being held include officials of the national bank, said Berhanu Assefa, a spokesman for Ethiopia's Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission. The commission has been investigating the case for three months along with Ethiopian police and intelligence officials. "Around 26 are under arrest - seven from the national bank of Ethiopia, four from the Ethiopian Geological Survey and 15 businessmen and their collaborators have been arrested," Mr Assefa said. "No-one has yet been charged - we expect that... our prosecutor will charge them." The value of the missing gold was around 158m Ethiopian birr, or $16m for just one of the missing cases, he said, adding this was a huge amount for a poor country such as Ethiopia. More missing gold Although this is the most dramatic case that the anti-corruption commission has had to deal with, it is not actually the biggest. That was a case involving corrupt tendering and procurement at the State Telecommunications Corporation. The first fake gold to be found was part of a consignment of 90kg bought from a local businessman. As well as this case, at least one other is likely to follow, this time involving a further 38kg of fake gold. This was gold which should have been safely locked in the vaults for the past five years, raising the possibility that it had been tampered with while it was inside the central bank.