Introduction
The continent of Africa is home to over seven hundred million people. About half of these people do not get enough food to eat, partly due to low productivity on the farms, poor distribution networks and very little money for farmers to invest in improving their situations. This all contributes to the agricultural crisis going on in Africa.
Poverty stricken farmers often cannot produce enough surplus to feed and provide for their families. African farmers have survived for thousands of years, living in harmony with their environment, developing agricultural systems that work for their subsistence economy. With the coming of globalization and greater populations, and the shift to more of a cash-based economy, many farmers have not been able to keep up. They need to increase production in order to feed their families, and then sell some of the surplus to increase their profits.
Agricultural productivity is a major problem in Africa, the issue being whether or not a Green Revolution is the answer to Africa?s crisis. A Green Revolution for Africa, or a ?Gene? Revolution (Wu, Butz), seems like the answer to Africa?s agriculture situation. However, Africa has many factors that mitigate against it?s agricultural success, such as resource, economic and political issues. A Green Revolution could produce great results for Africa and it?s people, but are they doing all that they can to encourage agricultural growth?
Viewpoint #1
A Green Revolution is the answer to Africa?s agricultural crisis. If Africa takes the right steps and optimizes foreign aid, the Green Revolution will produce much success for them. There is no doubt that other developing nations have benefited from a Green Revolution. Many of these countries a...
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Kenya is in a malnourished area, so the farmers should sell their produce more locally for better improvements
Somalia is one of the world’s poorest and least developed countries (Campbell). Because of the Civil War, which broke out in 1991, much of Somalia’s economy has been devastated. The war left many homeless and drove them to raise livestock as a means of survival. The economy used to be based on exports of cattle, goats, and bananas but as of early 1992 much of the economic trade had come to a halt. Now the economy is primarily based on the raising of livestock, which accounts for 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Alhaus). Due to overgrazing, soil erosion, and the clearing away of many trees, Somalia has very few natural resources, which have not been exploited.
...struggling to earn any income at all and sometimes do not even get the opportunity to eat. Another issue that Raj Patel did not touch on is the lack of care consumers have for the farmers. It seems that consumers care about farmers about as much as the corporations do, which, in my opinion, is not a lot. When consumers only care about low prices and large corporations only care about making a profit, the farmers are left out to dry. Many consumers believe “food should be available at a bargain price, a belief that relies on labor exploitation and environmental exhaustion at multiple points along the commodity chain.” (Wright, 95) Corporations as well as consumers generally tend to be selfish and I think Raj Patel is afraid to mention this. If only these people cared a little bit more about each other I believe the hourglass of the food system will begin to even out.
Nierenberg, Danielle. "Factory farming in the developing world: In some critical respects, this is not progress at all." World Watch 1 May 2003: n. pag. eLibrary. Web. 3 Dec. 2013. .
Overall Central Africa’s dependence on agriculture could improve the wellbeing of the people but a long history of corruption, violence, and prevalent transportation issues have hindered an improvement in the economy resulting in poverty among the region. Poverty will not subside unless these issues are dealt with and improved.
There are many problems confronting our global food system. One of them is that the food is not distributed fairly or evenly in the world. According “The Last Bite Is The World’s Food System Collapsing?” by Bee Wilson, “we are producing more food—more grain, more meat, more fruits and vegetables—than ever before, more cheaply than ever before” (Wilson, 2008). Here we are, producing more and more affordable food. However, the World Bank recently announced that thirty-three countries are still famine and hungers as the food price are climbing. Wilson stated, “despite the current food crisis, last year’s worldwide grain harvest was colossal, five per cent above the previous year’s” (Wilson, 2008). This statement support that the food is not distributed evenly. The food production actually increased but people are still in hunger and malnutrition. If the food were evenly distributed, this famine problem would’ve been not a problem. Wilson added, “the food economy has created a system in w...
Farmers are essentially the back-bone of the entire food system. Large-scale family farms account for 10% of all farms, but 75% of overall food production, (CSS statistics). Without farmers, there would be no food for us to consume. Big business picked up on this right away and began to control the farmers profits and products. When farmers buy their land, they take out a loan in order to pay for their land and farm house and for the livestock, crops, and machinery that are involved in the farming process. Today, the loans are paid off through contracts with big business corporations. Since big business has such a hold over the farmers, they take advantage of this and capitalize on their crops, commodities, and profits. Farmers are life-long slaves to these b...
Founou-Tchuigoua, Bernard Food self-sufficiency: Crisis of the collective ideology African agriculture: The critical choices. United Nations University Press (1990) ISBN 0-86232-798-9
Growth in Africa is not enough for its people to grow, which is leading to poverty and hunger in Africa. Today Africa is one of the leading countries having poverty and economic problems. One half of the Africans live below the poverty line which leads to low human development in Africa. The main cause of poverty in Africa is a problem in its economic system and environmental factors. Because of poverty people of Africa remain hungry as they don’t have enough money to buy their food and their basic needs. Some of the African countries have less poverty rate than others due to good government and economic system in those countries. Most of the African is facing challenges to survive and keep their family healthy.
South Africa advocates its support towards the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty across the world as part of target No. 1 of the UN Millennium Task Project. The commitment of the South African government towards food Security is entrenched in section 27 of South Africa’s Constitutional rights. Since 1994, South Africa has made constant efforts to make food security a priority policy, as part of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). This program aimed for the redistribution of public funds in order to improve the living conditions of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged people. In 2000, the South African Government decided to develop a national food security policy that would harmonize and integrate all the existing programs into a single and efficient body known as the Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS). The goal of this program is to guarantee universal physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food by all South Africans at all times. The previous statement is also a definition of food security by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The main objective of the IFSS is to eradicate hunger, malnut...
However, South Africa is not rich in agricultural resources; rather it has low rainfall, impoverishment and greater susceptibility of vegetation to drought, resulting in soil degradation. Soil degradation is also caused by excessive fuel wood collection, inappropriate land use, population density and overgrazing. Rural areas lack good roads and bridges, small-scale irrigation systems, post-harvest storage facilities, processing and market facilities, clinics, electricity and telecommunication facilities, and also have poor financial markets. As a result, the poor find it difficult to cope with risks of various sorts and cannot afford to purchase important inputs such as fertilizer, chemicals and farm machinery. Globalization There is an increased competition for South Africa’s agricultural products both on export markets and locally.
That said, countries that lack access provide food for its population could get help from international efforts. According to the US National Library of Medicine, “ Green Revolution 2.0 that enhance the spread and sustainable adoption of productivity enhancing technologies are specified. The developing world witnessed an extraordinary period of food crop productivity growth over the past 50 y, despite increasing land scarcity and rising land values… populations had more than doubled, the production of cereal crops tripled during this period… 30% increase in land area cultivated.” This backs up our reason on the significant impact the “Green Revolution” provides by showing how the spread and enhancement in agricultural technology allow developing countries to feed its large growing population. The developing country’s improvement in agricultural technology also allows a growing population to increase while providing enough food to feed most of its
Our organization encourages the Nigerian government to reduce its reliance on oil revenue, therefore diversifying the Nigerian economy. Today oil accounts for 80% of government revenue in Nigeria, although oil accounts for only 15% of the GDP. Our organization plans to work with Nigerian authorities to make agriculture their first economic priority. The Nigerian government must understand the importance of agricultural development in sustaining large growing populations. Therefore, in order to facilitate self-sufficiency Akinwumi Adesina, Nigeria’s agriculture minister, said last year, “In Nigeria, we’re making agriculture the new oil.”(Adesina, 2014) by developing agriculture in Nigeria the economy will diversify reducing the impact of oil supply and demand on the economy. Further increasing Nigeria’s ability to develop sustainable agricultural production reducing dependency on imported agricultural
Today agriculture is the livelihood of most poor underdeveloped nations. This communal life blood provides a majority of the population with a source of employment, nourishment and income. It is considered to be an invaluable skill, that is taught down from generation to generation along with a sense of respect for the environment. However as a nation begins to undergo development, so do their food production systems. The country's newfound development causes significant restructuring of their agricultural production practices. This restructuring leads to poor environmental practices, and adverse agriculture methods. Increased economic development/production negatively affects a country's environmental and agricultural health.