Fishman wrote:Been to Africa, worked there. So, let me get this straight, Malawi is suddenly a food powerhouse simply because of a little fertilizer? I'm glad they are feeding their own folks but I find it hard to believe that this has happened only in the context of fertilizer. All these years of famine in Africa and fertilizer was the only tool needed? I don't think so, that would have been figured out long ago. Perhaps a shift away from tobacco, better roads for transport of the fertilizer, shift in NGO work, better rain, etc., but just fertilizer? Something smells fishy and its not just the stuff they're putting around the plants.
Well, if you have ever worked or lived in rural Africa, you will indeed know that micro-interventions are all you need to bring the first steps of the green revolution to the continent.
I participated in the African Fertilizer Summit last year, and yes, over 80% of Africa's farmers don't use synthetic fertilizer. A whole range of very interesting research results about Malawi-like micro-interventions were presented, all showing the enormous effect of micro-dosing.
Because corrupt governments prefer to import food from a few big players who bribe officials, Africa's agriculture remains miserably primitive. When these governments decide to turn the situation 180° and subsidize their own farmers, food and energy independence can be achieved in a single year's time.
This most basic of recipees can be replicated across SSAfrica.
Agronomists know that we can easily triple current yields with micro-interventions. And then, finally, can we begin to modernize agriculture in earnest (strengthening S&T capacity, creating markets for inputs, strengthening institutional capacity and extension services, investing in logistics and infrastructures, trade reform and strengthening access to markets, etc...).
Once this has been achieved (and much is moving, because the big international development institutions have massively re-focused their attention on African agriculture), you will see Africa become the world's agricultural powerhouse.