Øst- og Centralafrika inde i ond cirkel, der skaber kronisk mangel på mad

KIGALI, 1 November 2011 (IRIN): High population density, low government support for agriculture, and poor infrastructure and farming methods have resulted in chronic food insecurity in Africa’s Great Lakes region, experts say.

And this tendency comes despite a climate conducive to (egnet til) growing various crops.

– We have a very big challenge within the Central Africa region: can the small land support the population we have? posited Nteranya Sanginga, director-general designate of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA).

At a recent conference organized by the Consortium for Improving Agriculture–based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA) in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, Sanginga said intensive and relevant agricultural research could help to feed the steadily growing population.

– If we do not do that, we could be going into a situation of war – war for food, war for space, he said.

Predominantly small farms, about less than half a hectare, make agricultural intensification – increasing productivity per unit area of land – necessary to help meet increasing food demands.

Two countries in the region, Rwanda and Burundi, have high population densities estimated at about 400 inhabitants per square kilometre.

Outside sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural intensification has largely been driven by combining inorganic fertilizer and agrichemical inputs with intensive tillage (dyrkning) and improved varieties.

But experts are recommending more sustainable intensification, involving food systems in harmony with the environment.

“Given the food demand pressures and the environmental constraints (carbon, water, biodiversity), there seems little alternative to an intensification pathway for agriculture – but it needs to be a sustainable one,” notes a study, “Sustainable intensification and the food security challenge”, presented at the conference.

Cash and will