Mithre J. Sandrasagra
NEW YORK, Mar 30 2006 (IPS) – Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo called Thursday on African heads of state, ministers, donors, industry leaders, farmers organisations and others to support the transformation of African agriculture.
Speaking after a meeting of world leaders in African development convened at the Rockefeller Foundation, Obasanjo announced plans for an Africa Fertiliser Summit that will address the continent s soil health crisis and adopt strategies to revitalise African agriculture.
Obasanjo s plan will require 64 billion dollars per year to reach its goal of halving food insecurity in Africa by 2015 also a target set by the Millennium Development Goals agreed to by world leaders in 2000. He is confident that the money can be raised through Official Development Assistance (ODA), debt relief, reduction of corruption, enhanced trade, and direct local and foreign investment.
Agriculture must be the engine for growth in Africa, Africa must become self-sufficient in food production, said Obasanjo, who is also chairman of the Implementing Committee of the African Union s New Partnership for Africa s Development (NEPAD).
The very basis of food production in Africa the continent s soil is rapidly being depleted of nutrients essential for growing crops and protecting the environment, according to a new study released Thursday in conjunction with Obasanjo s appeal. The study, conducted by the International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC), a U.S.-based nonprofit active in over 150 countries, tracks the soil health on the continent from 1980 to 2004.
Farmers in sub-Saharan Africa have traditionally cleared land, grown a few crops, and then moved on to clear more land, leaving the land fallow to regain fertility. But population pressures now force farmers to grow crop after crop, mining or depleting the soil of nutrients while giving nothing back, according to Amit Roy, president and CEO of IFDC.
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With little access to fertilisers, the farmers are forced to bring less fertile soils into production.
You can get a Coke, a soda, in any African village, but in some places farmers have to walk up to 30 miles to get fertiliser or seed, Roy told IPS.
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, Roy stressed.
The soil health crisis is a major cause of poverty and hunger in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in three people is undernourished, according to the report, Agricultural Production and Soil Nutrient Mining in Africa: Implications for Resource Conservation and Policy Development .
About 33 percent of the sub-Saharan population is undernourished, compared to about six percent in North Africa and 15 percent in Asia. Most of the undernourished are in East Africa, where nutrient mining rates are high, according to the report.
More than 60 percent of Africa s population is directly engaged in agriculture. But crop productivity in Africa has remained stagnant, while cereal yields in Asia have risen three-fold over the past four decades. Increasing productivity on African farms is viewed as critical to feeding a population that is expected to grow to 1.8 billion people by 2050.
In Asia, agricultural production was increased on given amounts of land through use of fertilisers. In Africa, production has grown by increasing the amount of land under cultivation. Fertiliser use in Africa is less than 10 percent of that in Asia. This explains much of the contrasting trends in these regions, according to the report.
Three-quarters of Africa s farmland is severely degraded to the point that it cannot produce one tonne of cereal per hectare, Roy said. This is just 30 percent of the output in Asia and Latin America.
The little country of Bangladesh uses more fertiliser than all of sub-Saharan Africa, Roy added.
To feed our people we must first feed our soil, Obasanjo said.
Africa imported about 43 million tonnes of cereals at a cost of 7.5 billion dollars in 2003. The sub-Saharan African countries excluding South Africa imported 19 million tonnes at a cost of 3.8 billion dollars.
Meanwhile, more than four billion dollars worth of soil nutrients are depleted from Africa s soils every year.
Assuming that the current situation in agricultural land management will not change, by 2020 Africa is projected to import more than 60 million metric tonnes of cereal yearly to meet demand, according to IFDC.
Africa s share of the total world agricultural trade has also fallen from eight percent in 1965 to three percent in 1999-2000.
Soil mining is at its worst in Guinea, Congo, Angola, Rwanda, Burundi, and Uganda.
Most nations of North Africa and the country of South Africa, although constrained by harsh climates, have lower nutrient depletion rates. Agriculture in the coastal areas of Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Algeria is characterised by high mineral fertiliser use and appropriate crop management.
The experts gathered at the Rockefeller Foundation all stressed that sound policies and investment strategies are key contributors to the joint goals of increased agricultural production, food security, economic development, land conservation, and environmental protection. Agriculture accounts for more than 25 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) of most African countries, and is the main source of income and employment for at least 65 percent of Africa s population of 750 million.
The summit is an opportunity for Africa to change the direction of is agriculture to improve the lives of millions, said Judith Rodin, president of the Rockefeller Foundation
An essential part of NEPAD s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme is to raise farm yields by six percent annually and cut food insecurity by half by 2015.
If we do nothing, the current trend will have us reaching these targets by 2150, said Jacques Diouf, director general of the U.N. s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).
Policies and investment strategies to reverse soil nutrient mining should be designed and implemented nationally, and sometimes locally, but always in context, and as a key part of a comprehensive policy approach to economic development, according to the IFDC report.
Investment in schools, education, and measures to control corruption and promote good governance will increase availability and lower the costs of fertilisers and other agricultural inputs and significantly improve farmers access to information and markets for their products, according to the IFDC.
Information about the extent and intensity of soil nutrient mining, and better understanding of its main causes, are essential to design and implement policy measures and investments to reverse the mining and subsequent decline in soil fertility, Roy said..
Farmers often believe that they are not significantly affected by the declining land productivity associated with nutrient mining.
Measures or legislation to improve farmers long-term rights to own the land they use can significantly affect the value farmers ascribe to that land, according to the report. Farmers will then internalise costs associated with loss of the land s productive capacity. This will affect farmers decision-making in management and use of the land, Roy said.
African farmers and farmers associations have been active in putting together the agenda for the summit, according to Rodin. Farmers will also be able to participate in the summit itself, which is to be held in Abuja, Nigeria in June.