Afrikassa on runsaasti viljelyskelpoista maata käyttämättä - enemmän kuin koko USA:n nykyinen viljelyala. Tilanne on tämä vaikka Afrikan väestö kasvaa hallitsemattomasti ja Afrikasta odotetaan Eurooppaan laajaa maahanmuuttoa.
Maatalous on kuitenkin usein tehotonta. Maatalousmaa on usein korruptoituneen eliitin käsissä, joka pitää maita usein viljelemättä. Ko. maat ovat usein samoja, jotka on "palautettu" valkoisilta maanviljelijöiltä afrikkalaiseen omistukseen. Etelä-Afrikan tasavalta suunittelee juuri samanlaista "palautusta", mikä tehtiin Zimbabwessakin ja joka johti maataloustuotannon romahtamiseen. Maita ei jaettu Zimbabwessa suinkaan afrikkalaisille maatyöläisille maareformina, vaan useinkin vallassaolevan puolueen aktiiveille ja apartheidin vastaisen taistelun veteraaneille. Ihmisille, joilla ei ole useinkaan kiinnostusta tai taitoa harjoittaa maanviljelyä.
SURROUNDED by tangled shrubland, Wisdom Mababe’s farm in central Zambia seems incongruously neat. “In 2002, when I started, it was bare bush,” he says. Each year since, he has bulldozed an area the size of 40 football pitches. Maize grows in ordered rows; cattle graze behind a fence. “The land, the water, it’s in abundance,” ...
For most of its history, sub-Saharan Africa has been short of people, not land. In 2011 the World Bank estimated that the region had 200m hectares of suitable land that was not being used for crops—almost half of the world’s total, and more than the cultivated area of America. That potential excites many. “Africa is the future breadbasket of the world,” says Ephraim Nkonya of the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC.
Yet such aggregate figures may deceive. Most of Africa’s spare land lies in just a few big countries, such as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In densely populated places (with more than 100 people per square kilometre of farmland), average farm sizes have shrunk by a third since the 1970s. The continent is already a net importer of food; by 2050 it may have twice as many bellies to fill. In hotspots like central Nigeria, clashes between crop-growing farmers and herders have killed thousands. Doom-mongers see a larger crisis brewing.
From Mr Mababe’s tranquil farm, such fears seem distant. Only a fifth of land in his district is being used, reckons the council chairman. A German company has bought 40,000 hectares of private land to grow maize and soya beans. The government is trying to lure other commercial outfits to designated “farm blocks” ...
...
Perhaps a tenth of Africa’s cultivated land is now in the hands of big business, which uses most of it for biofuels, timber and other non-food crops. As significant is the rise of mid-size farms (those between five and 100 hectares), often owned by civil servants in the cities. “They have the political connections,” says Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University. Many are not serious farmers. Those who own more than 20 hectares often leave most of it idle.
...
Middling farms now cover more of Zambia than small ones. Meanwhile squeezed smallholders farm their shrinking plots too intensively, degrading already poor soils. This happens even in spacious countries because people are concentrated along roads and in towns.
This presents a conundrum. Better seeds and fertiliser, as well as niftier techniques, could send Africa’s farm yields soaring. But mechanised commercial farms do not provide as many jobs as subsistence agriculture. Most Africans still live in the countryside. That life there is so tough is why they are abandoning it faster than people on any other continent.
Muuten Economist-lehteä voi lukea ilmaiseksi ainakin pääkaupungin kirjastokortilla rbdigital-sovelluksella. Katso ohje.
Maatalous on kuitenkin usein tehotonta. Maatalousmaa on usein korruptoituneen eliitin käsissä, joka pitää maita usein viljelemättä. Ko. maat ovat usein samoja, jotka on "palautettu" valkoisilta maanviljelijöiltä afrikkalaiseen omistukseen. Etelä-Afrikan tasavalta suunittelee juuri samanlaista "palautusta", mikä tehtiin Zimbabwessakin ja joka johti maataloustuotannon romahtamiseen. Maita ei jaettu Zimbabwessa suinkaan afrikkalaisille maatyöläisille maareformina, vaan useinkin vallassaolevan puolueen aktiiveille ja apartheidin vastaisen taistelun veteraaneille. Ihmisille, joilla ei ole useinkaan kiinnostusta tai taitoa harjoittaa maanviljelyä.
Uusin Economist kertoi artikkelissaan Farming in Africa:
SURROUNDED by tangled shrubland, Wisdom Mababe’s farm in central Zambia seems incongruously neat. “In 2002, when I started, it was bare bush,” he says. Each year since, he has bulldozed an area the size of 40 football pitches. Maize grows in ordered rows; cattle graze behind a fence. “The land, the water, it’s in abundance,” ...
For most of its history, sub-Saharan Africa has been short of people, not land. In 2011 the World Bank estimated that the region had 200m hectares of suitable land that was not being used for crops—almost half of the world’s total, and more than the cultivated area of America. That potential excites many. “Africa is the future breadbasket of the world,” says Ephraim Nkonya of the International Food Policy Research Institute, a think-tank in Washington, DC.
Yet such aggregate figures may deceive. Most of Africa’s spare land lies in just a few big countries, such as Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In densely populated places (with more than 100 people per square kilometre of farmland), average farm sizes have shrunk by a third since the 1970s. The continent is already a net importer of food; by 2050 it may have twice as many bellies to fill. In hotspots like central Nigeria, clashes between crop-growing farmers and herders have killed thousands. Doom-mongers see a larger crisis brewing.
From Mr Mababe’s tranquil farm, such fears seem distant. Only a fifth of land in his district is being used, reckons the council chairman. A German company has bought 40,000 hectares of private land to grow maize and soya beans. The government is trying to lure other commercial outfits to designated “farm blocks” ...
...
Perhaps a tenth of Africa’s cultivated land is now in the hands of big business, which uses most of it for biofuels, timber and other non-food crops. As significant is the rise of mid-size farms (those between five and 100 hectares), often owned by civil servants in the cities. “They have the political connections,” says Thomas Jayne of Michigan State University. Many are not serious farmers. Those who own more than 20 hectares often leave most of it idle.
...
Middling farms now cover more of Zambia than small ones. Meanwhile squeezed smallholders farm their shrinking plots too intensively, degrading already poor soils. This happens even in spacious countries because people are concentrated along roads and in towns.
This presents a conundrum. Better seeds and fertiliser, as well as niftier techniques, could send Africa’s farm yields soaring. But mechanised commercial farms do not provide as many jobs as subsistence agriculture. Most Africans still live in the countryside. That life there is so tough is why they are abandoning it faster than people on any other continent.
Muuten Economist-lehteä voi lukea ilmaiseksi ainakin pääkaupungin kirjastokortilla rbdigital-sovelluksella. Katso ohje.
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