Like, I suspect, many agriculturalists\nworking in Africa, when the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic first became\napparent I couldn\u2019t suppress a gut reaction along the lines of: \u201cOh no, people here\nare going to go hungry\u201d. My mind sped\nthrough a series images of knock-on effects of a virus spreading to all corners\nof the continent, concluding that the biggest impact of the disease would probably\nnot be due to the fatality rate, but on millions of people rendered unable to\nfeed themselves because of lost income and multiple, unseen disruptions to Africa\u2019s\nfood systems. Since then, it appears the\nWorld Food Program has come to the same conclusion, projecting \u201cmultiple\nfamines of biblical proportions\u201d as a result of COVID-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Clearly, we all need to be pro-active, from\nmonitoring food price increases, to mobilizing food aid, to ensuring the\ncontinent\u2019s farmers have every possible advantage they can be given to ensure\nthe production of crops and livestock. Initiatives\nby the World Food Program and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa\n(AGRA) in these areas must be given top priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But what if this crisis could propel the\ninternational community to respond in a way that goes beyond dealing with the\nimmediate needs of hungry people, to treat Africa\u2019s lingering food shortages at\ntheir root cause? What if, this time, we\nall really got serious about ending hunger across Africa? It is possible. Recent, sustained turn-arounds in farmer productivity\nin a number of countries have proved it. \nAs always, giving farmers dependable access to improved,\nclimate-resilient seed has been central to the progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Responding to chronic food shortages begins\nwith identifying the most vulnerable people among us, and here the work that the\nsmall team I lead at Seed Systems Group carried out last year may prove\nuseful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
320 million of the continent\u2019s people least\nable to avoid food shortages caused by the pandemic and other crises live in 15\nAfrican countries we surveyed as part of a drive to jump-start agricultural\nproductivity among farmers that have been left behind in Africa\u2019s recent\nadvances in seed systems development. Placing\ncountries like Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Tanzania, which have received ample\nassistance \u2013 and done well – into one column, we purposely set out for the other,\nleast-assisted countries, to see what can be done to extend Africa\u2019s emerging\nSeed Revolution to their farmers, as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During our visits, which took us deep into\nthe agricultural zones of countries like Chad, Madagascar, Benin, DR Congo,\nSierra Leone, and Eritrea, we moved through vast landscapes of farm families\ndoing their best to eke out an existence on small patches of land using\ncenturies-old technologies \u2013 and getting far less from their efforts than they\ncould have if they had access to improved seed. \nToday, as we work from our homes in Nairobi, Kenya, their mental images\nare my constant companion, and I wonder: \nWhat does it feel like to be facing food crisis, and have no practical\nmeans of avoiding it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our tendency to be selective when giving\nassistance for seed systems development in Africa has resulted in an odd\npatchwork of national seed supply scenarios where farmers in one country are\nable to harvest 3 or 4 tons of grain per ha, while those sharing the same\nagro-ecology and cropping systems in a neighboring country are still struggling\nto produce the proverbial 1 ton per ha. Our\ndesire to appear astute in proposing (more) assistance to countries viewed as\n\u201cworthy\u201d of it has created a moral quandary that is unworthy of our original\nintentions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now that improved seed has proven so\neffective at bending the yield curve upward in Africa, can we rationally ignore\nthe needs of the estimated 38 million farmers living in the left-behind\ncountries?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even in normal times, the food situation in\nthe left-behind countries of Africa is precarious. The average rate of child malnutrition is 38%. The percentage of people living in absolute\npoverty is over 50%. Population growth,\nmeanwhile, averages 2.8%, meaning their populations are doubling every 25\nyears. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The low productivity rates of these farmers\nis not due to any inherent inability to produce more, but rather because of a collective\nfailure on our part to give them access to the most basic technologies of a productive\nfood system: higher-yielding seed,\nfertilizers, and a basic knowledge of modern production practices. Without access to improved, climate-resilient\nseed these farmers are locked into subsistence-level farming practices which\nleave them vulnerable to climatic, social, and health shocks and offer no\nsurpluses to feed those who don\u2019t farm. Meanwhile,\nurban consumers in these countries have become more and more dependent on\nimported foods supplied by global food chains whose functioning is likewise\nunder threat by the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is time to end the situation of the haves\nand have-nots when it comes to improved seed in Africa. The government officials we met with on our missions\nhave realized that there is no future for their farmers without high-yielding\nseed and fertilizers, and are eager to get started – not distributing them for\nfree (i.e., not \u201cseed aid\u201d), and not depending on regular disbursements of assistance\nfrom developed countries \u2013 both of which they have tried before, and watched fail\n\u2013 but by tackling the harder job of establishing dependable supply chains for these\ntechnologies managed by local enterprises. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that they now have plans\nfor how to go about it. Working with\nCornell University, Seed Systems Group has created a plan for seed systems\ndevelopment in these countries that can be implemented for approximately $100\nmillion over the coming five years. The\nmore daunting questions are whether now, under the cloud of uncertainty that is\nCOVID-19, they will get the chance to implement these plans, and how to carry\nthem out safely?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It can be done, even under the cloud of\nCOVID-19. The new rules of living under\na pandemic are teaching us new ways of accomplishing tasks \u2013 perhaps not\nperfectly, but certainly good enough in a crisis: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This global disease is illustrating for all\nof us what are the true \u201cessential services\u201d in life, and improved seed is\nclearly one of them. Our hope is that\nperhaps this time around millions of farmers who have never had the chance to\nincrease their harvests through higher-yielding, climate-resilient seed could\nfinally be given that opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Like, I suspect, many agriculturalists working in Africa, when the extent of the COVID-19 pandemic first became apparent I couldn\u2019t suppress a gut reaction along the lines of: \u201cOh no, people here are going to go hungry\u201d. My mind sped through a series images of knock-on effects of a virus spreading to all corners of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2256,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.seedsystemsgroup.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}