[dehai-news] (AP) To end Horn of Africa's cycle of drought and hunger, key is better farms


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From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Wed Jul 16 2008 - 16:28:24 EDT


To end Africa's cycle of drought and hunger, key is better farms
 
By Anita Powell, Associated Press Writer

Wednesday 16 July 2008

AWASH MELKASA, Ethiopia - Hussein Ibrahim walked solemnly past tidy rows
of bright green cabbages, vines bursting with tomatoes and trees weighed
down with plump avocados.

This modern, thriving farm - a rarity in drought-ravaged Ethiopia -
filled Hussein with envy. Like so many other farmers across the Horn of
Africa, he has no hope for his own crops this year.
 
"We are behind all the other people in the world," said Hussein, who
tends his land in southern Ethiopia the way his ancestors did hundreds
of years ago - with rain, if it comes; and oxen, as long as they're
healthy.
 
To break out of endless cycles of drought, poverty and hunger, experts
say, Africa desperately needs to modernize its age-old farming
techniques. But the vast sums in foreign aid to Africa go toward feeding
the hungry, and very little is left for improving farming so that
Africans will cease to depend on handouts.
 
It isn't impossible. A decade ago, a "green revolution" helped millions
of farmers in Asia and Latin America emerge from poverty with basic
innovations such as fertilizer, improved irrigation and hybrid seeds.
 

But Africa's farms, which employ more than half the labor force, remain
one-fourth as productive as their counterparts around the world.
 
Ethiopia drew international attention in 1984 when a famine compounded
by communist policies killed 1 million people. It is now gripped by
drought that has left 4.6 million people in need of emergency food
shipments.
 
Drought is especially bad for Ethiopia because farming employs more than
80% of Ethiopians and accounts for half of all domestic production and
85% of exports.
 
Yet it's not that Ethiopia is incapable of growing food, as this
experimental farm 100 miles southwest of Addis Ababa demonstrates. It
just needs the right tools.
 
The farm, part of a government-run research center, beats the drought
with smart irrigation systems, higher-yielding seeds, and fertilizer and
pesticides correctly applied.
 
Hussein and dozens of other farmers were invited to the farm in late
June to learn about modern agricultural techniques.
 
The 640-acre center employs nearly 350 workers, nearly 60 of whom hold
advanced degrees in agriculture. It was set up in 1969 in the dying days
of Ethiopia's monarchy, survived a decade of Marxist dictatorship,
famine and wars, and continues to point the way to food independence.
 
But all it can do is point. It costs the Ethiopian government about $1.1
million a year to run the farm. The average Ethiopian works two acres,
has little education and earns about $800 a year.
 
Also on the visit to the center was Mitike Abebe, who farms wheat,
barley, lentils and other crops in southern Ethiopia. She depends
entirely on rainfall, sturdy oxen, and her overworked soil.
 
"We don't want food aid," she said. "We need tractors, we need seeds, we
need farm machinery."
 
There's aid aplenty - Ethiopia alone got $1.95 billion in 2006 - but
Africa-wide, less than 5% of it goes toward the sort of things Mitike
needs.
 
The United States, Ethiopia's largest donor, this year gave it more than
$570 million, but just over 1% of that money is going toward developing
agriculture.
 
In 2004, African nations agreed to set aside 10% of their national
budgets for agricultural development. Ethiopia exceeded that promise,
with 16% of its $3.4 billion budget. But experts say it is simply not
enough for a country so dependent on the land.
 
According to the U.N., nearly two-thirds of Africa's agricultural land
has been degraded by erosion and misused pesticides. In Ethiopia, where
bad farming practices have led to massive erosion, 85% of land is
damaged.
 
"We've underinvested, and everybody appreciates this now," said Glenn
Anders, who heads the American aid program in Ethiopia. "Particularly in
Africa, for the last few decades, maybe more."
 
The continent's other needs often offer a quicker fix for donors, he
said.
 
"You give a kid an immunization and that kid's better. Agriculture's
much more indirect than that and also requires a lot more time. It's not
a quick fix at all."
 
 
 

 

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