Some people like talking dirty, fewer admit publically that they do, and a rare few will admit that they’re quite good at it, but rarest are people who just like to talk dirt. That’s a problem when more than 860 million people in the world suffer from chronic hunger – a number that is climbing due to the ongoing food crisis. You don’t have to be internationally defined as poor to conclude that food prices are rising faster than China’s Olympic Gold Medal count.
If you want to know why that’s happening, you’ll have to dig beneath all the noise about climate change, rising corn-based ethanol demand and increasing food consumption from the massive and growing economies in China and India. Such things matter, but agricultural sectors around the world have had ample time to increase production for population growth and even compensate for climate changes, as some places have; but not remotely enough. When you dig down deep enough into the soil and start talking dirt, you find answers like these, from National Geographic Magazine:
Economics as much as ecology is key to Niger’s success, Larwanou says. In the 1990s the Niger government, which distributed land in orthodox totalitarian fashion, began to let villagers have more control over their plots. People came to believe that they could invest in their land with little risk that it would be arbitrarily taken away. Combined with techniques like the zaï and cordons pierreux, land reform has helped villagers become less vulnerable to climate fluctuations. Even if there were a severe drought, Larwanou says, Nigeriens “would not feel the impact the way they did in 1973 or 1984.” Read more >>
Zaï and cordons pierreux are homegrown agricultural techniques that take desert quality soil and in a few years turns it into farmland. Farmers in Niger are beating back the Sahara with these techniques and others, but neighboring countries aren’t having such success, according to the article, because property rights don’t exist for those living on the farm itself. Under constant threat of eviction – by government or by hostile neighbors – there is disincentive to make such meager soil investments as zaï and cordons pierreux.
More than 70 percent of people in Africa live in rural areas. Policymakers have ignored them for too long – not very democratic. Fruitful private sector development in Africa will have to give incentive to invest in the soil. African governments need to get down off their centralized pedestals and start talking dirt with the locals.
Published Date: August 19, 2008