Emerging Technologies to Benefit Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (2009) / Chapter Skim
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2 Constraints on Crop and Animal Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
2 Constraints on Crop and Animal Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
Pages 31-70
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From page 31... ...
Overview of Crop Production in sub‑Saharan Africa AND South Asia High-Priority Crops As shown in Figure 2-1, there are substantial differences between the crops of SSA and the crops of SA. The major crops of the Green Revolution -- rice and wheat -- still predominate in Asia.
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. Among cereals, maize continues to emerge as the dominant crop, particularly in eastern and southern Africa, and sorghum and millet are important in drier areas of SSA.
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Because of its ability to yield well despite stress and low inputs (externally supplied nutrients, pesticides, etc.) , cassava is an important crop to millions of poor farmers throughout SSA, and yams also are hugely popular in countries such as Nigeria.
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Approximately 4.5 billion people living in the developing world are chronically exposed to aflatoxin, a fungal toxin that is con sidered an unavoidable contaminant of foods that is a major cause of malnutrition (Williams et al., 2004)
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From page 35... ...
Quality seed, adequate nutrients, and water synergize to enhance yield, and lack of a combination of these three goes a long way toward explaining why yields of all major crops in SSA are among the lowest in the world. General CONSTRAINTS on Crop Production Poor Soil and Poor Soil Fertility Not all soils are the same: soils arise from different geophysical processes that give them different characteristics.
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From page 36... ...
© 2006 by International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development.
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From page 37... ...
In addition, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) -- established by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation -- has launched a new program in soils that aims to increase sustainable use of fertilizers, organic matter, and soil management methods.
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Reprinted with permission. © 2006 by International Center for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development.
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From page 39... ...
In substantial areas of SA -- areas where there is also widespread rural poverty -- agriculture is carried out under rain-fed conditions. As pointed out to the committee by Bharat Sharma, of the International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
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From page 40... ...
indicates that there is also an opportunity to improve current irrigation practices and to increase the amount of land under irrigation, inasmuch as current TABLE 2-3 Regional Potential for Increasing Crop Water Productivity Comprehensive Assessment Scenario Characteristics Scope for Improved Scope for Improved Scope for Productivity in Productivity in Irrigated Area Region Rain-Fed Areas Irrigated Areas Expansion Sub-Saharan Africa High Some High Middle East and North Africa Some Some Very limited Central Asia and Eastern Some Good Some Europe South Asia Good High Some East Asia Good High Some Latin America Good Some Some OECD countries Some Some Some SOURCE: IWMI, 2007. Reprinted with permission.
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From page 41... ...
Thus, where climate change and associated factors pose additional threats to future crop production, more active breeding programs are needed so that crop selections can be responsive to expected environmental change; for example, crops can be selected for tolerance to higher temperatures. National breeding programs in SA have been greatly enhanced since the onset of the Green Revolution, but progress in developing modern varieties of the major crops for SSA has been much slower.
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From page 42... ...
In SA, very poor farmers still rely heavily on openpollinated varieties of these crops that are bred and distributed through public-sector efforts involving universities and national laboratories. In the maize-growing regions of eastern and southern Africa, several large multinational seed companies are active and business is largely driven by the existence of large farms using high inputs, but there is also substantial growth in small and medium-size African-led companies, a few of which have their own maize breeding programs.
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From page 43... ...
of the total land area is used to grow crops, and another 24 percent (720 million hectares) is used for pasture (FAO, 2006b)
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From page 44... ...
Poor farmers are seriously affected by rising prices of oil and gas, especially farmers who depend on diesel-driven pumps in the Indo-Gangetic basin, where 70 percent of irrigation depends on such pumps. As a result of the cost and lack of availability of power sources and equipment, only 1 percent of the land in Africa is cultivated mechanically (IAC, 2004)
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From page 45... ...
Insects and Other Pests There is no centralized source of data on crop losses due exclusively to pests, but all major crops of SSA and SA are attacked by numerous insects, and even birds pose a major problem. The red-billed quelea (Quelea quelea)
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From page 46... ...
Transgenic maize that is resistant to the herbicide glyphosate has been released in South Africa and is increasingly popular among small-scale farmers because it has eliminated drudgery associated with hand weeding, allowed cultivation of larger areas, and substantially increased yields. It is obvious that many of the approaches to crop improvement for the poor discussed in this report could be transgenic approaches.
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From page 47... ...
S gesnerioides attacks grain legumes in western Africa but for unclear reasons has not spread to eastern Africa.
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From page 48... ...
. To make the situation worse, the RNA virus called Cassava brown streak virus, once confined to the coastal areas of Kenya, Mozambique, and Tanzania and now spreading further into eastern Africa, almost certainly synergizes to reduce yields further, to near zero in many areas.
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From page 49... ...
, another geminivirus, is spread by leafhoppers and can cause widespread yield losses in maize; MSV is found only in Africa, so MSV resistance has not been a target for most of the major international seed companies. A few genes that confer some resistance are available and have been used in breeding programs in eastern and southern Africa, and large growers are able to afford insecticides to control the leafhoppers.
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From page 50... ...
Such a network is critical for monitoring viral, fungal, and bacterial diseases and insects that vector disease, and for identifying and monitoring animal diseases. Fungal and Bacterial Pathogens Fungal diseases cause serious yield losses in SSA and SA.
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Overview of Animal Production in Sub‑Saharan Africa and South Asia Livestock Globally, livestock production is in a period of rapid transition. Since 1995, more meat has been produced in developing countries than in developed countries.
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. Poor farmers lack the tools to prevent mycotoxin problems -- clean water; rapid and cheap diagnostic kits; an array of improved postharvest technologies, including local access to cold storage, solar drying, and improved packaging; and rapid and efficient transport systems.
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Reprinted with permission. © 2002 bitmap image by International Livestock Research Institute.
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. Globally, most forecasts are for a decreasing supply from capture fisheries and an increasing proportion from aquaculture, with an annual increase of 8.9 percent making it the fastest-growing food production sector (Hill, 2005)
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General Constraints on Animal Production Poor nutrition, diseases, and poor genetic potential are the three major constraints on animal production in SSA and SA (CAADP, 2003; IAC, 2004) , but there are several ancillary constraints, such as the lack of animal identification and tracking measures for disease status, competition from imports, the need for mobile milking machines and chilling tanks, the need for reliable animal and meat transportation and storage, and alternatives to fish meal for aquaculture.
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From page 56... ...
Animal Diseases Animal diseases have an extraordinary impact on livestock productivity and livestock production, especially in SSA and SA where the control of animal diseases has been more challenging with limited resources. The consequences of animal diseases range from direct economic costs, such as the loss of animal production and products, to indirect costs related to a disease outbreak, such as the loss of trade markets and job losses (OIE, 1999; Le Gall, 2006)
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From page 57... ...
Some major animal diseases in SSA and SA include African swine fever, peste des petits ruminants, sheep and goat pox, hemorrhagic septicemia, foot-and-mouth disease, contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, blue tongue disease, clostridial diseases, and vector-borne diseases, such as heartwater, East Coast fever, Rift Valley fever, trypanosomiasis (animal and human) , parasitic diseases, classical swine fever, highly pathogenic avian influenza, and Newcastle disease.
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From page 58... ...
Some of those issues have long been blamed for holding back social progress and blunting the impact of technical solutions to agricultural problems. It now seems remarkable that few anticipated the "perfect storm" of rising food prices worldwide due to a convergence of events only partly related to agricultural productivity: a rising middle class in the developing world demanding more grain for direct consumption and for feed to satisfy a growing desire for animal products, the high cost of energy for agriculture, diversion of food crops to biofuels, and long-term droughts in major cereal producing regions such as Australia.
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Not all government policies have adverse effects. A recent Malawi government investment in seed and fertilizer for poor farmers (and favorable weather)
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From page 60... ...
Alternatively, with higher productivity, the land devoted to staple crops could be decreased to allow production of higher-value cash crops, such as fruits and vegetables, which contribute to both better nutrition and income. Need for Basic Infrastructure The lack of adequate roads in SSA severely limits the development of strong output markets; even in India, the Finance Minister in 2005
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From page 61... ...
A recent push to promote farmer collectives (www.sacredafrica.org) and to create a much larger number of small local agro-dealers to provide the inputs and services has helped in some small way to mitigate the problem in a few countries in eastern Africa (Eilittä, 2006)
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, and it has often been pointed out that annual variations in weather can be more extreme than the changes predicted for the long term. As noted previously, poor farmers in SSA are conservative when faced with uncertain conditions.
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In the industrialized world, the implementation of a novel technology provides a marginal benefit to the production system, but no coherent production "system" exists in most places in the developing world. A whole suite of approaches, some technological and some not, must come together for farmers to realize the benefit of any innovation.
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2003. Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme prepared by the New Partnerhsip for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
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From page 65... ...
2004. Major heretofore intractable biotic constraints to African food security that may be amenable to novel biotechnological solutions.
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. IWMI (International Water Management Institute)
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2004. Soil carbon sequestration impacts on global climate change and food security.
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From page 68... ...
London: Earthscan, and Colombo: International Water Management Institute.
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1999. Plant virus disease problems in the developing world.
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2005. Fish and food security in Africa.
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