EAST AFRICA - Green Agriculture Growing in Leaps and Bounds

[ConsAreLiars]

A little bit of at least somewhat good news from http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=51138

NAIROBI, Apr 21, 2010 (IPS) - Organic agriculture using natural farming methods rather than fertilisers and pesticides has made significant gains in African countries – not just among farmers but among consumers too.

Africa needs to triple agricultural productivity by 2050 to keep pace with population growth.

It is difficult to say what the correct level for a country’s food security is, stated Hans Herren, a Swiss agronomist, but if a country could ensure at least 50 percent of the calories its people need, it would be doing well.

Herren, former director of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (Icipe), was participating in a round-table discussion organised by the Media 21 Global Journalism Network in Nairobi, which ended on Friday Apr 16. Icipe is a research institute based in Mbita, Kenya, that studies insects as they "often cause the loss of entire crops and destroy about half of all harvested food in storage".

According to Food and Agriculture Organisation research by 400 scientists and co-chaired by Herren, small farmers and organic agriculture are the best way to ensure the continent’s food security.
....
In a country where 99 percent of farmers own between a quarter and two hectares of land and cannot afford to buy pesticides and fertilisers, organic agriculture seems to be the way out.

Prof. Zeyaur Khan, an Indian scientist from Icepe, believes this. To increase agricultural productivity he developed the "push-pull technology", a technique to control pests. A plant called desmodium "pushes" striga and stemborers outside the field where they are "pulled" (neutralised) by napier grass.

Explained Kahn: "The green revolution in Africa will come through the adoption of low-cost technologies like push-pull which exploit basic and applied science. These technologies will address food security and the livelihoods of smallholders without requiring extra resources for hybrid seeds, crop protection and soil improvement".

But others differ. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a nongovernmental organisation funded by the Rockefeller and Bill Gates foundations, promotes fertilisers and seeds to produce more food rapidly.

"But if food production increases too quickly, in two years’ time we will have too much food and prices will go down," argued Herren. "We need the opposite: for farmers to get enough income, the prices of agricultural products must increase."

Kahn believes that farmers must earn at least two dollars a day to stay in agriculture – revenue achievable through the "push-pull" technique.

AGRA’s Joan Kagwanja confirmed that her organisation "wants to increase the use of fertilisers in Africa. On this continent, farmers use eight kilograms of fertilisers per hectare compared to 300 to 500 kg per hectare in Europe and North America. It is still very low".

There's a bit more said in this short article than will ever be told in the corporate media - well nothing at all there. Contrast the Gates/Rockefeller "solution" with this approach, and the motives and class interests behind both alternatives.

Just encountered this source: http://www.ipsnews.net/ and bookmarked it. You might want to check it out for more news they won't carry.

[SoCalDem]

1. Ironic that going back to old ways may "save" agriculture

good for them:)

[tabatha]

2. I just hope Gates and his money do not prevail.