Hi Kabir & Co.,
Thanks for sharing that posting. I have commented on it directly on the NAI Forum website. As lucrative as it looks, not all that glitters is gold, I’m afraid. The seed input is where my fear lies. For quite some time now, Western Multinational companies have been trying to push GMOs in Africa, but due to resistance these have not been readily accepted, generally, in Africa. So now they go in for hybrid maize seeds in Malawi, and elsewhere. Last August, I visited the University of Zambia (UNZA) and the issue of the attempt to spread hybrid seed in the continent, by multinational seed companies, supported by the USA, was discussed at one of our meetings. It was generally agreed that improved Open Pollinated Maize Varieties (so-called OPVs), are much better than the hybrid varieties, since these do not have their genetic vitality eroded after two or three harvests. The hybrids do, resulting in the farmers frequently needing to renew their seed stock to maintain yields. Now the seeds the farmers in the film received may have been given free of charge, or subsidized. But if the farmers have to purchase these in the future, it may not be sustainable. And worst would be that, they’d have lost their local, resilient (albeit low-yielding) varieties.
The way I see it, Jeffrey Sachs and the Millennium Development Project and the USA are all in this together, creating a dependence on foreign seed for the African Farmer. The Malawian government has since 2005/2006 embarked on an input subsidy program, which the entire donor community, incl. USA and Scandinavia, vehemently opposed at the beginning. The first two years of the program resulted in maize production much larger than the national food requirement. Malawi, in the span of 2 or 3 years, was transformed from a food donor recipient to a food exporting country! The donor community, seeing this, started commending Malawi for the effort, and recommended other African countries to emulate Malawi. Unfortunately, bad governance is hampering progress of this program. BUT Africa can feed itself, without the dependence of foreign technologies. We just need to be organized!!!
Best regards
Dr. Alhaji S. Jeng
Norway
Fra: The Gambia and Related Issues Mailing List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] På vegne av Demba Baldeh
Sendt: 24. februar 2012 20:29
Til: [log in to unmask]
Emne: Re: [G_L] Fwd: Africa’s Potential to Feed Itself
Kabir,
I have been following your recent postings, and just want to say thank you for sharing great reads with the community.
This is an excellent read and case study that underscores what exactly we need in the new frontier (Africa) to uplift our people. Sufficient food production is the backbone of any society... What we take for granted here in US or UK that people are willing to pay anything for, should be plenty in Africa...
I only wish and hope that other governments will emulate this food production and encourage the millions of unemployed to finally get back on the farm and become employers through the power of their own production... Certainly our middle school graduates who can barely do any office job can absolutely benefit from this...
Our hard working men and women toiling from dawn to dust needs something that will produce more food for them...
Thank you for sharing and we shall help spread the word...
Keep them coming..
Have a great friday and weekend...
Demba
On Fri, Feb 24, 2012 at 10:46 AM, Kabir Njie <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
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