African food famines have become more frequent, widespread, and severe. Numerous factors have caused a region wide food shortage including political instability, technology gaps, and numerous agricultural issues. In Africa, despite the great strides of development programs, countries still experience famine because of government/civil war confliction describing the need for more secure forms of agriculture. The technology gaps between farmers in developed countries and those in developing countries gives the means for more efficient farming solutions. Agricultural problems can include soil infertility, drought, and land degradation which could be combated by more resilient forms of agriculture. Increasing production in Africa will not solve
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Violence and political instability have made it difficult for aid agencies to distribute sufficient amounts of food to suffering areas. An article in 2011 from motherjones.com showed that clashes between the Somalian government and Al-Shabaab militants prevented any organizations to influence the 2011 famine. Al-Shabaab expelled any outside contact which resulted in an estimated 250,000 deaths. Increasing the amount of food production will only result in steps backwards because the surplus of food will be wasted if political conflict still exists which prevents any food to be distributed. People are also disrupted from their normal ways of obtaining food from normal agriculture to looking for employment elsewhere. Another governmental/political factors that contributes to famine issues is government production policies largely influence what farmers will grow. For example, Kenyan and Tanzanian research, extension and marketing strategies successfully encouraged the production of the less drought resilient crop maze rather than sorghum. Maize is considered more profitable to sell and while it may benefit the country economically, it does not help the issue of crop wilting, arable land, and the efficiency of agriculture in a country as a …show more content…
The most serious conflicts have been guided by agricultural issues, misguided environmental policies and conflict. An example of this is the 2011-2012 East African drought. This was a severe drought that affected the entire region of East Africa. This drought caused a severe food crisis in Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia. According to the Food and Agriculture Association-Somalia, the food crisis is Somalia primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists. Drought has led to unsustainable farming practices which has depleted much of the soil nutrients called soil infertility. Due to soil infertility many regions of Africa are not able to successfully farm the land to produce crops and thus instigating further shortages of food. Organizations should focus their attention to make agriculture more efficient by means of organic and inorganic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers can be animal and green manures and recycling crop residue while inorganic fertilizers are minerals used to enrich soil. Once Africa’s soil productivity is sustainable enough for their rapidly growing population, organic and inorganic material funding will eventually
Violence and political instability have made it difficult for aid agencies to distribute sufficient amounts of food to suffering areas. An article in 2011 from motherjones.com showed that clashes between the Somalian government and Al-Shabaab militants prevented any organizations to influence the 2011 famine. Al-Shabaab expelled any outside contact which resulted in an estimated 250,000 deaths. Increasing the amount of food production will only result in steps backwards because the surplus of food will be wasted if political conflict still exists which prevents any food to be distributed. People are also disrupted from their normal ways of obtaining food from normal agriculture to looking for employment elsewhere. Another governmental/political factors that contributes to famine issues is government production policies largely influence what farmers will grow. For example, Kenyan and Tanzanian research, extension and marketing strategies successfully encouraged the production of the less drought resilient crop maze rather than sorghum. Maize is considered more profitable to sell and while it may benefit the country economically, it does not help the issue of crop wilting, arable land, and the efficiency of agriculture in a country as a …show more content…
The most serious conflicts have been guided by agricultural issues, misguided environmental policies and conflict. An example of this is the 2011-2012 East African drought. This was a severe drought that affected the entire region of East Africa. This drought caused a severe food crisis in Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, and Ethiopia. According to the Food and Agriculture Association-Somalia, the food crisis is Somalia primarily affected farmers in the south rather than the northern pastoralists. Drought has led to unsustainable farming practices which has depleted much of the soil nutrients called soil infertility. Due to soil infertility many regions of Africa are not able to successfully farm the land to produce crops and thus instigating further shortages of food. Organizations should focus their attention to make agriculture more efficient by means of organic and inorganic fertilizers. Organic fertilizers can be animal and green manures and recycling crop residue while inorganic fertilizers are minerals used to enrich soil. Once Africa’s soil productivity is sustainable enough for their rapidly growing population, organic and inorganic material funding will eventually