By Nana Rosine Ngangoue
COTONOU, Oct 16 (IPS)- Even with the poor climatic conditions and ineffective agricultural policies that have prevailed in Africa over the past few years, the development and introduction of new, disease-resistant crop varieties have meant larger yields and less famine.
Groups of research professionals such as those at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) have developed new and better strains of corn and cassava, the dietary staples of sub-Saharan Africa.
In the past few years, these new, improved varieties have been distributed in countries in the Sahel and Gulf of Guinea regions, and in east Africa and rainforest areas. Their abundant yields have significantly improved nutrition for many Africans.
"If it were not for these new corn and manioc varieties, which are now mostly all that's grown, there would be almost 100 million people in Africa who would have go hungry or for whom basic dietary staples would have to be imported," stated Lukas Brader, general director of the IITA.
"Often we hear that Africa is not progressing, and that new crop strains are not being disseminated. But I know that there has been a lot of progress in Africa in improving the yields of basic dietary staples," Brader added.
Researchers for the IITA, which is based in Ibadan, Nigeria, have developed biological pest control techniques to eliminate the insects and parasites which attack cassava and corn, along with as other important comestibles such as bananas, soybeans, and yams.
The alternative techniques consist of using predators or natural products which are harmless to the crops but destroy harmful parasites and insects. This technique allows small farmers to avoid the use of insecticides, which do not increase production and present dangers to both the environment and to human health.
Biological control methods have been successful in Africa in the war against the extremely destructive cassava green mite. It was wiped out through introduction of powerful predators insects known by the scientific name of Typhlodromalus aripo.
These insect predators now are at work in 17 African countries. They have established colonies the arid savannahs of west, central, and east Africa, as well as certain southern African countries like Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia.
The IITA reports that in areas where the predator insects were introduced at least three years ago, cassava yields have increased anywhere from 15 to 43 percent, and that quality has improved.
The researchers have also developed disease-resistant strains of corn. Total production went up by 4 million tons on average after the new varieties were introduced. Yam and soybean yields have also greatly improved, as they have for other local cereal crops, says the IITA.
The IITA noted that the introduction of new varieties of dietary staples and biological control methods combined have helped improve the yields of these crops by 30 to 50 percent, and that has meant the difference been starvation and survival for 50 million Africans.
Still, in spite of the encouraging news, food shortages persist and more and more Africans still go hungry. Dedicated food relief projects, such as the World Food Programme (WFP), actively seek the funds to feed the millions of people on the continent who still go hungry.
Peter Neuenschwander, the director of the IITA branch located Cotonou, Benin, acknowledges that a steady and reliable food supply in Africa is not yet a reality, in spite of the progress made.
"Most of the African countries are not self-sufficient, even in their own basic food needs. In order to become independent, they must improve production rates, and the crops themselves need to be improved so they provide more nutrition. Production has to increase, but it has to be sustainable and environmentally sound," Neuenschwander explained.
The IITA expert emphasised that food production in Africa has not kept step with the exponential explosion in population growth.
"Cassava, corn, banana and soybean yields are indeed greater now than ever before. It has not yet reached world levels, but it has gone up a lot. But unfortunately, many countries have experienced bigger increases in population than they have in food production. The gap has to be closed by improving production," he said.
The IITA specialist noted that governments need to do more rural development. "It's not enough to just talk about it, there has to be some action," he said.
Observers fault weak African agricultural policies, which do not do much to promote intensive agricultural practices and fertiliser use. Indeed, the governments do not seem to give high enough priority to the issue of agricultural research at all.
"We've shown that research is very important to improve agricultural practices. But I have to also say that in the past 20 years, the governments of Africa have not provided support for such research. In their domestic budgets, only 0.5 percent of gross agricultural profits on average is devoted to agriculture. Developed countries spend more than two percent of gross agricultural profits on research," said Brader.
Brader also believes that if information on modernised agricultural practices resulting from research never reaches the small farmer, the goal of food self-sufficiency in Africa will be nothing more than a pipe-dream.
"Organisations like ours more and more are trying team up with non-governmental organisations (NGOs), because if left to the government, the results never seems to get out to the field. We have to make sure that the results of our research end up in the proper hands, that is, those of the small farmer," he said.
Another problem is the lack of a distribution network for agricultural products. The sorry state of agricultural roads and paths in many African countries means that products cannot be widely distributed. This situation often forces peasants to limit production to just what their own family can consume, since any excess just cannot get to market.
Furthermore, information regarding food surpluses or deficits for each country is not readily available. Better information of this sort would allow countries with similar dietary customs to trade.
Brader believes that it is necessary to deal with the problem of food self-sufficiency at the regional level.
"You have to work with all of a region's institutions. If we want to take advantage of our advances in knowledge and make sure that these advances reach the small farmer, we need a regional approach," insists Brader.:
