Hopes Brighten a Bit for Poor African Areas

The vastness of Africa south of the Sahara is matched by the awesome poverty and food shortages in some of the 38 countries that make up the region.

Yet, some of those nations have had glimmers of success in boosting food production, and an Agriculture Department review suggests others could follow if reforms are carried out effectively.

The report by Shahla Shapouri and Stacy Rosen of the department’s Economic Research Service said market-oriented reforms, better weather and more aid from the world community have helped brighten the outlook for some of the sub-Saharan countries.

Poverty is rampant. The region’s 38 countries have a combined gross national product--the sum value of all goods and services in a year--of about $150 billion, about the same as Belgium’s.

But the region’s population is 500 million, about 50 times that of Belgium. Since 1965, population has grown at the rate of 3% a year, doubling since then.

Arable farmland, taken for granted in the United States and many other countries, is at a premium in sub-Saharan Africa.

Of the 38 countries, 13 do not have enough arable land to meet the needs of growing populations under subsistence farming practices. One of the major problems of agriculture in the developing world is the availability and proper use of materials that can boost production. But throughout sub-Saharan Africa, “capital inputs are seldom applied to food production,” the report said.

“Fertilizer and tractor use is the lowest in the world and, for the most part, uneconomical,” it added. “Crop varieties are mostly traditional and, although adapted to the harsh climate, yields are low even under favorable growing conditions,” the report said.

Thus, it would follow that “any improvement in technology should substantially affect productivity” in the region’s agriculture.

“For example, in some areas of Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya, use of hybrid corn has increased yields to 5 to 7 tons per hectare, more than four times the region’s average,” the report said.

A metric ton of 2,205 pounds is equal to about 39.4 bushels. Five to seven tons per hectare--2.47 acres--would be in the range of 197 of about 80 to 97 bushels per acre.

By comparison, the average U.S. corn yield this fall was estimated in August at 7.39 tons per hectare, or 117.7 bushels per acre.

The report noted, however, that the Foreign Agricultural Organization of the United Nations has said that improved methods and greater investment in inputs might not be enough in all countries in the region.

“Arable land is in such short supply in several sub-Saharan countries--including Burundi, Lesotho, Mauritania, Rawanda and Somalia--that they could not achieve self-sufficiency by the turn of the century even if their technologies were to match those now used in Asia and Latin America,” the report said.