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
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Africa can have the chance to do the same if it can successfully implement a Green Revolution of its own.
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If African countries were able to adopt and adapt some of the same practices used in Asia and Latin America, much more food would be available for consumption and sale by African people. ?Africa?s Fertilizer Summit was called to study ways of creating a agricultural breakthrough in Africa - a goal that Annan said was achievable despite environmental degradation, extreme reliance on rainfall rather than irrigation, high transport costs and undercapitalized farmers facing tough global tariff barriers. Participants of the conference said the problems could be overcome, but only if Africa gets help from the developed world.? (Annan p.1). Food aid provides much needed help for Africa?s people, however, it should not be thought of as sustainable way of feeding people in need. A country should use food aid to address emergency situations only and develop it?s own way to sustain food security for everyday feeding, through the country?s own internal resources.
Economic:
A huge proportion of African farmers are only at a subsistence level. If productivity doubled, it would greatly help in developing a marketable surplus, thereby generating more cash flow within the rural economies of Africa. As seen in figure 1, Africa?s productivity has remained stagnant and
In the 1990’s cereals and grain were popular in Africa, with over 60 percent of the land used for these crops (ita 2004). From the 1930’s to the 1990’s Africa saw a reduction of 13 percent in agriculture’s share (ita 2004). During the 1970’s and 1980’s, there was a period of drought that affected both the crops and native plant in the area (Boffa Dixon Garrity 2012), which may have contributed to the decline of agriculture’s share. Also, in 1992 the production of corn fell from 10 million to 3 million tons, due to the drought (ita 2004).
Another factor that causes starvation in Ethiopia is its economy. Ethiopia is in and has always been in a very poor economic state. Crops account for 41% of the country’s GDP however; the
Many support agricultural modernization, as a solution Africa’s, and many other impoverished nations hunger problems. This would include the industrialization of their agricultural industry, using modern, genetically enhanced seeds, and fertilizer. Yet, some of the same groups that are promoting the organic movement in the United States are advocating against the globalization of modern industrial agricultural practices (Paarlberg 179). Those who support modernization of such nations argue that the current process in inefficient, and inadequate. They believe that globalization of the highly capitalized, science-intensive, agricultural system that has been developed in the West, is the answer to the worlds hunger problems. They also warn that if the West abandons its current practices, it may fall victim to famine due to inadequate production (Paarlberg 179). However, supporters of organic production point to the fact that each year, approximately ten million tons of chemical fertilizer are poured onto our corn
Throughout time, humans have pushed forward in every aspect in life in order to improve their living standards, wealth and most importantly the agricultural sector which is the base of every human race. Food is the basic requirement for any individual to stay alive and healthy. In an article by Tamsin McMahon, she states that over the past 60 years, the world population has grown from 2.5 billion to 7 billion while world hunger dropped from 40% down to 15% (McMahon T., July 2012). This shows that our agricultural advances through technology have helped control world hunger and decrease it by more than half, but this is a short-term solution if we want to consider the future generations that depend on our current actions toward the three main pillars of agriculture which are: Health and nutrition, Economy and sustainability all while considering the local small farms and corporate farms.
The issue of hunger in africa has caused major chaos around the world. The fact that families and children are left to die because there is insufficient food; therefore, families are separated and left to suffer. For example, on page 1 of “Why Africa Is Still Starving”, by Alex Perry, it states that, “From January to May, the fields were parched and brown. And one failed harvest is enough to turn Ethiopia, a nation of 66 million farmers, a humanitarian catastrophe”. Alex Perry explains how the soil of Africa is not rich enough to grow any goods or rich crops.
The first article 4 ways to end hunger in Africa from CNN explains almost 800 million do not have enough food to eat daily in Africa. This reason lead Africa to put greater emphasis on agriculture and supporting their farmers. They achieved to a remarkable goal in cutting the malnourish in half since the 1990. The United States has raised it efforts in the commitment to ending global hunger, poverty, and child malnutrition because of all the
Food is a necessary part of ever individual’s daily life. Without food, the body cannot function properly, resulting in poor health, exhaustion, and even death by starvation. Therefore, food insecurity continues to be an international global epidemic. The journal article by Harrigan suggests that the citizens of the Sub-Saharan African country of Malawia are in further poverty due to their lack of food and agricultural resources. The newspaper article from the Guardian tells the real life story of African citizens struggling to farm and find food due to the crop shortages that have spanned Africa for the past two years. This is a current global issue, and the journal and news article prove that there is much to be done in order to help restore
By empowering countries to grow their way out of poverty, we can break the cycle of hunger and build a more stable world for future generations. New tools and technologies brought to struggling agriculturists is key. Trade is key to bringing food security to 800 million people that remain chronically
Farming in Africa is inadequate and inefficient. The fertility of the soil is becoming depleted and severely reducing the amount of crops from each harvest (Ayieko). This problem is due to over farming the land and not allowing for crop rotation to replenish the nutrients in the soil. This is a practice that is used by most farmers around the globe. Continuing on this trend will risk the land becoming barren and unable to support plant life.
Women in Sub-Saharan African should work more in that there is an increase in the number of women participating in agriculture, as most men have resorted to work in non- agricultural activities. This entails that women should venture into men’s cash crop farming too so that they earn more income in order tothat can change their economic situation.
In the United States of America, people take food for granted. Anyone can go to the local grocery store or a farmers market and buy almost every type of food produced in the world. Globalization of food in first world countries has created “food scenes” in large metropolitan areas, and we can agree that this is spreading to smaller towns every day. Anyone can think of their favorite food and everyone would give a different response, whether it would be Mexican, Italian, or a local cuisine. This is possible through technological advances in farming techniques developed to produce food year round, due to strong states of government, with policies that empower this to be true. The lack of government involvement in Malawian farms is the predominant reason for a constant state of poverty.
All around the world, many countries are suffering from poverty and hunger. This problem can be caused by harmful economic systems, environmental factors, and past leadership.
East Africa has many main crops, but for the drier sections of East Africa, the cropping system is bent around millet. In the more humid districts, main crops are maize and cassava. Coffee, tea, tobacco, sugarcane, and cotton are the crops that produce the most money. Because of the lack of irrigation, East Africa’s crops are very vulnerable to unpredictable weather and external shocks. Water availability is one factor that limits as to how many crops it can produce a year. A project is currently going on to accelerate irrigation development in the more humid regions and rain-fed crops, so people who live in those regions can have their water and food.
Today all over the world,there are people who haven’t eaten in days,weeks,and maybe even months.Many food organizations are working to fix it,but the countless number of Africans who live homeless.”In 2012, 501 million people, or 47% of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, lived on $1.90 a day or less, a principal factor in causing widespread hunger.” World hunger has been a problem for a long time now. I feel it can be stopped by donations farming and many more food related things.
At this moment in sub-Saharan Africa, every 3 seconds a child under five dies from AIDS and hunger, and more than 90 percent of the people are suffering long term malnourishment. (World Health Organization) In addition to this, measles are taking the life of a boy almost every minute, when a measles vaccine cost less than $1. (WHO, World Health Organization) "Things are moving in the wrong direction," says Marc Cohen (International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) Washington). "If we look at sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, all the projections are that poverty and hunger are going to get worse." There are 31.1 million food-deprived masses, scattered across the region surrounding Ethiopia, and elsewhere. (The Christian Science Monitor,