An Overview of African Farming: Farmers are the Experts

          

                                 "Even the best cooking pot will not produce food" - African Proverb



              Welcome to this blog that will focus on issues of water revolving around agriculture in Africa. As I was pondering over where to start in this vast subject, I recalled a statement that our professor said in class; something along the lines of, “if you were to put a farmer from another country in an African farm, they would fail”. In other words, if one was to ask a farmer, let’s say from the Netherlands, to farm a certain region in Africa with the techniques they know, they would struggle immensely. This postulation that African farmers are experts to their region has resonated with me and urges me to explore the techniques that farmers use, specifically addressing water scarcity. Therefore, as I start this blog with the broad basis of African farmer’s expertise in farming their land, over these next weeks I will delve into the relationship of water while specifically looking at the contrasting ways of small-scale agriculture versus large scale agriculture, concerning these specialized farming techniques used. In this beginning post I will address the overall context of agriculture in Africa and then continue with confronting agricultural techniques specific to small scale farming in Africa. 


            In Africa 65% of people are employed in the agriculture sector. Yet 1 in 3 people in Sub-Saharan Africa are undernourished (Fundira, 2017). To add to this layer of contradictory statistics, the UN reports that Africa, “has enormous potential to, not only feed itself and eliminate hunger and food insecurity, but also to be a major player in global food markets” (NEPAD, 2013). From 2013, when this report was written, to 2017 in a follow up report, there still was no large economic change within the agriculture sector. Even more concerning, food imports have risen in Africa, with no increase in economic gains from agriculture. Regarding exports, in 1970 Africa produced 8% of the world’s total agricultural export, whereas in 2017 they dropped down to a low 2%  (Fundira, 2017). 

Statistics of African Agriculture (Source)

These reports confirm a reality of certain lines not being connected in Africa, discouraging the potential for agriculture to help the country. Even more seriously, food security is still a profound issue. This inability of growth in the agriculture sector are due to reasons of political conflict, distribution problems, availability of resources, government funding and problems concerning water. Although all these subjects are extremely important in solving the problem of food security and agriculture, this blog will focus on the final conflict of water.

            With the significance that agriculture plays on employing almost two-thirds of its population, it is important to note the type of farming that is mostly being done is small-scale based, otherwise known as “family farming”. The UN states that, “Africa has 33 million farms of less than 2 hectares, accounting for 80% of all farms” (NEPAD, 2013). This staggering number of small-scale family farms puts the entirety of Africa in a fascinating position where most of the farming landscape is still more or less in the hands of local people. Currently these family farms mostly rely on their own resources, with no funding from the government, aggravating the problem of growing enough food for their nation. The 20% of farming that is not family farming, is large-scale investment farming, that is increasingly changing the African agriculture landscape (NEPAD, 2013). What this means for the future of small-scale farming in Africa will have to be discussed in a further blog.  

A typical African family farm (Source) 

            The point of African farmers as experts of their land is deeply rooted in history. Widely accepted is the belief that the African continent is the birthplace of agriculture and domestication of animals. These farming techniques that I will address are all centuries-old methods that have been engrained in the history of the continent. More pressing to this blog, is the relationship and awareness that these methods have of the water systems in their specific region. In West Africa a farming technique known as biochar is used to produce nutrients in soil and combat erosion. Char consists of ash, bones, and organic waste that can be collected daily (Andrei, 2016).  Unlike compost, biochar will not decompose fully and will rather keep the carbon dioxide and methane in the soil underground for a longer time, providing lasting nutrients in the dry seasons. In the Lake Chad region, the Shuwa and Kanun communities engineer their crops with the knowledge of the wet and dry seasons that affect the flooding of Lake Chad. Therefore, in early October the sorghum crop is planted on flat edges of the field where the land is kept moist from the early fall flooding (Hopkins, 2001). This is known as the Firki or flood retreat system.

Flood Retreat System near Lake Chad (Source)

 Similarly, in the region of the Niger River Bend near Timbuktu, the Decrue irrigation method has been a constant procedure in the farming of the region. When the annual dry season begins, planting occurs as the river water is receding so that throughout the dry season the soil will contain moisture that is trapped from the wet season (Hopkins , 2001). These three methods are just a small number that encompass the multitude of other techniques that I have found in my research thus far. 


            In this first blog I hope to have convinced you that African farmers have been developing crops on their more strenuous land for centuries now, perfecting methods that relate to the seasonality and scarcity of water. In addition, there is a significant number of family farms versus large scale farms, that will possibly connect to the theme of African people as vital farming experts and how it can help African agriculture. On a wider scale, in Africa the connection to food security, agriculture, and water are not occurring.