Farmers in Africa say their soil is dying and chemical fertilizers are in part to blame
Farmers in Africa say their soil is dying and chemical fertilizers are in part to blame
Farmers in Africa are blaming chemical fertilizers for increasingly acidic soils that have led to production decline.
When Benson Wanjala started farming in his western Kenya village two and a half decades ago, his 10-acre farm could produce a bountiful harvest of 200 bags of maize. That has dwindled to 30. He says his once fertile soil has become a nearly lifeless field that no longer earns him a living.
Like many other farmers, he blames acidifying fertilizers pushed in Kenya and other African countries in recent years. He said he started using the fertilizers to boost his yield and it worked — until it didn’t. Kenya’s government first introduced a fertilizer subsidy in 2008, making chemical fertilizers more accessible for smaller-scale farmers.
Problems with soil health are growing as the African continent struggles to feed itself. Africa has 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land but has spent about $60 billion annually to import food, according to the African Development Bank. The spending is estimated to jump to $110 billion by 2025 due to increased demand and changing consumption habits.
“Inorganic fertilizers were never meant to be the foundation of crop production,” he said, later adding that because of “commercially inclined farming, our soils are now poor, acidic, and low in biomass resources, and without life!”
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I think they meant like around population centers to supplant regular food. But I don't know where that would actually be...
My crazy idea is Suburbia has a lot of lawn, and my dad showed me a garden can feed a family more than I would have thought. But who has time to do that? So you nake a law that you forfeit sections of your land, not x feet near your house if they have no existing agricultural or industrial activity for open planting, until at least the next season. Maintained lawns wouldn't exist unless you were somewhere sufficiently rural.
Hopefully, otherwise they're telling the starving African kids to go back to the stone age to save the environment, while they presumably stay somewhere air conditioned. The sad thing is that they probably don't even realise how insulting that is.
Densifying suburbs is a huge thing that needs to happen. It won't change the world, because as big as suburbia is rural areas are bigger, but it will help. It also would do a lot to keep transport emissions down.
This is what I am talking about. You can restore desolate land and make it produce food for humans:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vKAPL_WfBA&t=47s&pp=ygUPYW5kcmV3IG1pbGxpc29u
It's unclear why you are projecting some nonsense about me wanting to keep Africans in the stone age. Maybe try to be a bit more charitable.
You said
we shouldmuch poorer people than you should go back to the way things were thousands of years ago, including living in the boonies handweeding mixed-use gardens in order to not starve. Maybe you're still letting them use metal tools, but that's kind of a weak improvement. They could do agriculture the same way the people who feed your white-collar ass do, with a bit of education and a leg up, but that's not good enough apparently for your highness. Look, I'm trying to be charitable, but this is so outrageous it's hard.A quick look through your profile suggests you were recently a banker in California. You should basically shut up about how much baking in the sun people you have nothing to do with need to endure. Until you goddamn try it, at least.
They didn’t say that, you inferred it. Also your take on them not going to school? The fuck? They can definitely do both
I really feel that there must be a streak of racism among the people who responded to this thread. It was weird how people took exception to the idea of food being made in a community.
I think there's a streak of racism among Westerners who think they know better than the people on the ground, if we're going there.
In fact, the people who actually show up to help have a nickname for your lot: "Great White Savior"
I don't think you're a bad person. Or a racist. I do think you stepped in shit and are digging yourself deeper out of, like, pride.
Nah, man, this is all on you. Talking about what people in Africa, India, and Pakistan are experimenting with in their own country does not make anyone outside of there a white savior. This is really all on you.
You didn't just talk about it. You said they should all do it, and specifically shouldn't do standard agriculture, like what you depend on. If they find a use for mixed planting, great, and obviously they do sometimes.
We're done. You're toxic, have a block.
No, mate. I'm close with actual relief workers IRL. Albeit one less as of a couple weeks ago :(
Keeping the kids out of school so they can work the land so you don't starve is common as dirt. It's as simple as a certain number of hours in a day, and school taking a good half of them. Shit, even farming folk here in the West did similar things a century ago.