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...
... middle of paper ...
...?, Agri-team Canada Consulting ltd. Personal Interview. December 2006.
www.exploringafrica.matrix.msu.edu/images/africavegetation.jpg
Fritschel, Heidi and Pandya-Lorch, Rajul and Rose, Barbara. A Guide to the 2020 Vision Video 2020 Hindsight: Successes, Failures and Lessons Learned in Feeding the World, 1970-1995. www.ifpri.org/2020/synth/trends.htm
?Global Effort to Turn Around Africa?s Failing Agriculture?, Terra Daily Newsletter, New York. March 31 2006.
Quinn, Andrew. ?Annan Calls for Green Revolution to Feed Africa?, Reuter: July 5 2004. www.agbios.com
The Crisis in African Agriculture: A More Effective Role for EC Aid? Practical Action/ Pellum Association. 2005.
Wu, Felicia and Butz, William. What the ?Gene Revolution? Can Learn from the Green Revolution: Lessons From the Green Revolution. New York, New York: RAND corporation, 2004.
“Africa is failing to keep up with population growth not because it has exhausted its potential, but instead because too little has been invested in reaching that potential.” Paarlberg backs this claim with evidence that India’s food issue was solved with foreign assistance in development and offers that the solution to Africa’s food shortage is also development and farm modernization endorsed by foreign aid.
Even though the green revolution has stopped starvation in some parts of the world, it has also caused some. The green revolution was the use of new technology to grow food for the people of the world that started in the 1950’s. These new technologies include such things as Gmo’s, pesticides, fertilizers. The main goal was to stop hunger and make second and third world countries better and not living in poverty. The green revolution raised the amount of food in the world, made the world's population increase at a dangerous rate and harmed and damaged the earth and its people.
Kenya is in a malnourished area, so the farmers should sell their produce more locally for better improvements
...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.
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.
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...
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. .
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...
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
Without food, man can live at most but a few weeks; without it, all other components of social justice are meaningless”(Borlaugh). Food is essential component for human being, but there is limitation of available food. Especially, in 1940s, population of global south increased tremendously. To be able to sustain food supply, the Green Revolution seems right policy to reduce starvation by allowing high yield production of crops. Even though the Green Revolution allows tremendous amount of production through technological and scientific innovation; it increases the inequality problem in rural area as a result of labor migration. In addition, it leads a higher debt rate for small farmers because of imbalance of earning and spending. Furthermore, it causes land degradation and soil nutrients depletion, so does not allow bio diversity. In short, the Modernization theory underestimates that the issue of inequality instead it heavily only focuses on economic growth through the adaptation of technology.
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.
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.
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