A sustainable future for African farmers
By Helen Margerison
There is an urgent need to develop Africa’s science base, according to a group of UK- based scientists speaking at the BA Festival of Science in Dublin.
The recent G8 summit and the Commission for Africa have both highlighted the importance of developing Africa’s science capability in an effort to sustain the rural economy of Africa.
About 80 per cent of Africans rely on agriculture. The prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty in Africa by 2015 are diminishing, largely due to the weak performance of African agriculture.
‘Realising the importance of agriculture in development of Africa is essential,’ said Dr. Monty Jones, the chief executive of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. ‘We must move away from the mistakes of the past, such as lack of co-ordination leading to isolated, fragmented and poorly disseminated research efforts,’ he added.
The Forum hopes that increasing the science base can reform agricultural practices to eliminate animal disease and crop pests, in addition to assessing and alleviating the impact of AIDS on the agricultural sector.
Professor Brian Kerry from Rothamsted Research, one of the UK’s largest agricultural research institutes, has been developing long-term, sustainable agricultural practices that can be applied to problems in Africa.
Kerry is currently fighting a plant nematode which is currently devastating crops throughout Africa. The microscopic worms, which seem particularly fond of tomatoes, live in the soil and attack the crops from underground, often resulting in total crop loss.
In the past, the symptoms of nematode infestation have been attributed to the wrong cause, with many African farmers mistakenly believing that the soil quality is too poor to farm. Where the worms are recognised, they are treated with some of the most toxic chemical currently used in agriculture.
‘Pesticides of this type are uneconomic and inappropriate for use by small farmers in Africa,’ said Professor Kerry. His work has focussed on using fungi to control and destroy the nematode.
In addition, Kerry has highlighted the effectiveness of a farming practice known as ‘alley planting’, in which plants such as African Marigolds can be planted in alternate rows alongside infected crops. When the marigolds die they break down in the soil and release chemicals that kill the nematodes, leaving the agricultural crops free to thrive.
As the AIDS pandemic which is sweeping through Africa gathers momentum, maintaining the African agricultural sector is becoming both more difficult and even more essential. In sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic has claimed the lives of over 20 million people, and the depleted labour force means that agricultural production is in severe decline.
Without adequate food production, poor nutrition is common and anti-retroviral drugs used to combat HIV are not as effective, leading to an increased prevalence of the disease.
The researchers hope that the scientific initiatives that have begun in Africa will boost the agricultural sector, creating a self-sustaining long-term contribution to the African economy.
There is an urgent need to develop Africa’s science base, according to a group of UK- based scientists speaking at the BA Festival of Science in Dublin.
The recent G8 summit and the Commission for Africa have both highlighted the importance of developing Africa’s science capability in an effort to sustain the rural economy of Africa.
About 80 per cent of Africans rely on agriculture. The prospects of achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty in Africa by 2015 are diminishing, largely due to the weak performance of African agriculture.
‘Realising the importance of agriculture in development of Africa is essential,’ said Dr. Monty Jones, the chief executive of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa. ‘We must move away from the mistakes of the past, such as lack of co-ordination leading to isolated, fragmented and poorly disseminated research efforts,’ he added.
The Forum hopes that increasing the science base can reform agricultural practices to eliminate animal disease and crop pests, in addition to assessing and alleviating the impact of AIDS on the agricultural sector.
Professor Brian Kerry from Rothamsted Research, one of the UK’s largest agricultural research institutes, has been developing long-term, sustainable agricultural practices that can be applied to problems in Africa.
Kerry is currently fighting a plant nematode which is currently devastating crops throughout Africa. The microscopic worms, which seem particularly fond of tomatoes, live in the soil and attack the crops from underground, often resulting in total crop loss.
In the past, the symptoms of nematode infestation have been attributed to the wrong cause, with many African farmers mistakenly believing that the soil quality is too poor to farm. Where the worms are recognised, they are treated with some of the most toxic chemical currently used in agriculture.
‘Pesticides of this type are uneconomic and inappropriate for use by small farmers in Africa,’ said Professor Kerry. His work has focussed on using fungi to control and destroy the nematode.
In addition, Kerry has highlighted the effectiveness of a farming practice known as ‘alley planting’, in which plants such as African Marigolds can be planted in alternate rows alongside infected crops. When the marigolds die they break down in the soil and release chemicals that kill the nematodes, leaving the agricultural crops free to thrive.
As the AIDS pandemic which is sweeping through Africa gathers momentum, maintaining the African agricultural sector is becoming both more difficult and even more essential. In sub-Saharan Africa, the pandemic has claimed the lives of over 20 million people, and the depleted labour force means that agricultural production is in severe decline.
Without adequate food production, poor nutrition is common and anti-retroviral drugs used to combat HIV are not as effective, leading to an increased prevalence of the disease.
The researchers hope that the scientific initiatives that have begun in Africa will boost the agricultural sector, creating a self-sustaining long-term contribution to the African economy.
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