Essays by Eric Worrall
According to professor William G. MoseleyIf we balance the insects just right, Africans could live in happier climate-friendly small farming villages than in the modern world.
Africa’s climate crisis exposes real cause of hunger – colonial food systems make people more vulnerable
Published: December 10, 2022 4:52 p.m. AEDT
William G. MoseleyDeWitt Wallace Professor of Geography, Food, Agriculture & Society Program Director, Macalester University…
Historically, smallholder farmers and women have produced the majority of food crops on the African continent. Over the past 60 years, global decision-makers, major charities, business interests and much of the scientific community have focused on enhancing food production, trade, and farming methods. energy-intensive effects as the best way to tackle global and African hunger.
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Decolonization of African agriculture
How did we get here?
Some countries and businesses profit from production methods that solve hunger. These include, for example, Monsanto, the company that developed the herbicide Rounding. Or four companies (Archer-Daniels-Midland, Bunge, Cargill and Louis Dreyfus) that control 70%-90% of global grain trade.
The producer’s focus is also inculcated in agricultural science. Tropical agronomy, now known as “developmental agronomy,” was at the heart of colonial business in Africa. The main target for colonial powers is transforming the local food system. This has pushed many African households to leave subsistence farming and produce food for the local market. Instead, they aim to grow the commodity crops needed to fuel European economic expansion, such as cotton in Mali, coffee in Kenya and cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire.
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Agroecology and the way forward
agronomist can provide another way forward. They seek to understand ecological interactions between different crops, plants and soil and the atmosphere, and between plants and insect communities. They seek to maintain soil fertility, reduce pest infestation and grow more crops without the use of chemical inputs.
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The fact that ecological farming is less money has not been lost in the business community. They will suffer significant losses if conventional farming methods are no longer relevant to poverty alleviation.
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In border areas, farmers must keep moving to avoid overgrazing. I very much agree with this.
But what if Africans don’t want to live like medieval farmers, with a little help of science, for the rest of their lives?
All of the African-born people I spoke to passed away because of a lack of opportunity. I know a man who hasn’t come back for many years, because poverty has turned his homeland into a war zone – to visit home, to make people realize that there may be a rich person in the family, which will make him and his family kidnapped. risky or worse. And people will notice. The poor see everything, their survival depends on it.
Why is Africa like this? Look in the mirror. Our ancestors hundreds of years ago lived in violent countries full of deprivation and hunger, dying early and miserable. Kidnapping is so common One of our ancestors wrote a famous story about kidnapping, has existed to this day. If someone living in one of Africa’s trouble spots was dropped in the 16th or 17th century in England, Europe or the Americas, I suspect the insecurity, crime, and violence they experience would seem very familiar.
“Agricultural ecology” will not solve such a terrible shortage. An African industrial revolution is essential. Just as the Western industrial revolution saved Western countries from hunger, misery, and insecurity, modern agriculture, fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, high productivity, and industry are helping Africa follows in our footsteps and will ultimately help Africans achieve Western levels of prosperity and security.
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