As part of its global initiative, the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is working with many global institutions to bring about a green revolution in the drylands of sub-Saharan Africa.
Speaking at an international conference `Israel and the Green Revolution in Africa? held in Jerusalem, William D Dar, director general, said: ?African governments need to be more supportive of their rural poor.? They need to adopt policies that encourage, rather than penalise agriculture. Developed countries need to break with their past habits of huge subsidies to domestic farmers that create unfair competition with the poor in the developing world.?
The drylands cover about 40% of Africa?s arable landmass and about 25% of Africa?s populations live and work in these areas. According to the United Nations Human Development Index, these areas cover most of the poorest nations on earth and the farmers here earn less than $1 a day.
Rising food prices hurt the rural poor, and the rising cost of fertilizer, essential for increasing food production, is a double blow. In this context, Dar cited the scientific innovations that ICRISAT and partners are mobilizing to help bring about Africa?s Green Revolution. Methods such as microdosing and planting-basin cultivation can deliver three dollars worth of extra gain for each dollar?s worth of extra fertilizer when combined with the use of improved crop cultivars.
?We need the support of donors and the leadership of the countries themselves to roll this out on a large scale,? he said. ICRISAT is also screening over a hundred tree and vegetable crop varieties to help African farmers identify horticultural crops that can diversify the production system and increase incomes.
Drought and heat waves will increase with climate change in the coming years, and farmers need to prepare now by saving water to be used sparingly to overcome these situations. Drip irrigation greatly increases the efficiency of water use. ICRISAT and partners have promoted more than 2,500 small-scale drip irrigation market gardens in four countries of Africa, which raised incomes five to seven times. Immediate funding to gear up ongoing seed multiplication and the expansion of tree nurseries is also required.
For farmers with no irrigation potential and limited market access, ICRISAT has been developing dryland ecofarm systems that are crop-tree-vegetable-livestock systems that focus on rainwater harvesting. Besides reducing climatic and market risks by half, these systems can be used to bio-reclaim degraded lands.
For every $1 invested in international agricultural research, $9 worth of additional food is produced in developing countries where it is needed most, concluded Dar.