African Green Revolution Needn’t Be a Mirage
Gebisa Ejeta:
Africa missed out on the scientific breakthroughs that revolutionized agriculture in Asia. However, with locally developed and locally relevant technologies, a built-up human and institutional capacity, and supportive national policy and leadership, an African Green Revolution can be a reality.
Sub-Saharan Africa remains the only region in the world where hunger and poverty prevail. In the past 20 years, the number of Africans who live below the global poverty line ($1 per day) has increased by more than 50%, and more than one-third of the population of the continent continues to suffer from hunger (1). This is of even more concern to African agricultural development as climate change impacts economies largely based on rain-fed agriculture (2). Crop adaptation to climate change requires rigorous research and a multifaceted technological approach that will be much harder to practice on a continent in which agricultural science is in its infancy and the culture of looking to science for solutions to local problems is not well established. However, I believe that Africa has the capacity to feed itself and become a net exporter of food.
Science 12 February 2010:
Vol. 327. no. 5967, pp. 831 – 832
DOI: 10.1126/science.1187152
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/327/5967/831?ijkey=L5L.BV8drp/wQ&keytype=ref&siteid=sci
Tags: Biodiversity, drinking water, Food, pure water, water scarcity, women and water
