The Problem of Food Crisis in Africa

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Based on the study of Paarlberg (2006), the problem of food crisis in Africa is growing worse. Their crop yields tend to be much lower per hectare than in other countries like Asia due to military conflicts which displacing farming populations and interrupt production and health problems affected the reduction of further availability of agricultural labour (Paarlberg, 2006). Besides food crisis, many problems and pollutions are caused by agriculture such as pollute rivers, lakes and water courses with artificial fertilizers and herbicides that easily washed from the soil and prolonged use of these results in soils with a low organic matter content which is easily eroded by wind and rain. Moreover, the greater amounts of fertilizers are needed every year for same production of yield crops. In addition, the usage of artificial pesticides and chemical can cause human having health problem and soil with poor structure and aeration and also the nutrient availability will decreasing. Hence, more and more pests and disease become difficult to control as they become resistant to artificial pesticides (HDRA – the organic organistion, 1998).
Azadi and Ho (2010) highlighted that the productivity in different fields includes agriculture can be improved by developing their technological strategies. Living modified organisms (LMO) or known as genetically modified (GM) is one new technical method that can be used to develop new crop varieties through genetic engineering technique which will provide potential contributions to sustainable agricultural productivity and also new inputs for resource-poor and small scale farmers. According to Kruff (2001), GM seeds defined as seeds that have been modified to contain specific characteristics such as he...

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The Science of Golden Rice. (n.d.). Retrieved March 21, 2014 from http://www.goldenrice.org/Content2-How/how1_sci.php.
United States Department of Agriculture. (1980). Report and recommendations on organic farming. Retrieved from http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/afsic/pubs/USDAOrgFarmRpt.pdf.
University of Colorado. (n.d.). Genetically modified organisms (GMO). Retrieved by March 1, 2014 from http://www.colorado.edu/chemistry/bioinfo/GeneticallyModifiesOrganisms.htm.
Verhoog, H. (2007). Organic agriculture versus genetic engineering. NJAS, 54(4), 387-400.
Viljoen, C. D. (2005). Detection of living modified organisms (LMOs) and the need for capacity building. Asian Biotechnology and Development Review, 7(3), 55-69.

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