by Daniel Ooko
NAIROBI, June 16 (Xinhua) -- "My land has become barren. May be this is so because it is growing old given that we have used it non stop since our forefathers settled here in the early part of the 18th Century," says Michael Mwangi, a farmer from Kiambu district in central Kenya.
Mwangi, a retired civil servant and now a small scale farmer told Xinhua that he has for the past 10 years seen his harvest shrink and at times forced to buy food to feed his family of eight as the crops harvested lasts less than one year.
But the 79 years old Mwangi is not the only farmer complaining about the poor performance of his exhausted farm. Many farmers tooare worried.
"Affording a kilogram of meat nowadays is a pipe dream for people like us. Meat used to make a daily meal in the past but now only God can predict where the world is moving," Mwangi tell Xinhua as he attended to his farm in Kiambu, about 20 kilometres west of Nairobi.
Given the farmers predicament that has become synonymous with the sub Saharan Africa, studies now reveal that the current farm yield in Africa is one-quarter the global average, and one-third of Africans face chronic hunger.
This is due to the fact that more than three quarters of the farmland in sub Saharan Africa has been sapped of the basic nutrients crops need to survive in addition to the farmer's low usage of organic.
Soil fertility degradation is perhaps the single most important constraint to food security in sub-Saharan Africa.
However, soil fertility decline is not just a problem of nutrient deficiency but also of inappropriate germplasm and cropping system, pests and diseases, the linkage between poverty and land degradation, the often contradictory national and global policies with respect to incentives and institutional failures.
Scientists believe that the use of high quality seeds, combined with the rejuvenation of African soils, can begin to turn around this dismal situation that has merely occurred due to the fact that African farmers have abandoned traditional practices that restore soil nutrients, such as leaving farms fallow for several years between plantings.
The UN World Food Program (WFP) says a 50 percent rise in food prices in Kenya since the start of 2008 has led many people to drastically reduce their daily diets.
Rebecca Anyango, 38, a mother of six, who lives in Nairobi's Korogocho slums, said: "I cannot even afford the packed maize meal. I now buy maize and take it to a trader who can mill it for me."
"Meat is a luxury I cannot afford; I would rather buy vegetables with the little money that I get as a house-help," she added.
"Even eggs are too costly. I don't know where I will get the extra cash to ensure my children have a balanced diet. Right now it is only ugali (maize meal) or githeri (a mixture of maize and beans) --they are the only meals I can afford."
In an effort to help boost the grossly depleted soils in sub Saharan Africa, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation have donated 180 million U.S. dollars for a five year program.
The program that is to benefit Kenyan farmers amongst other countries in the region is to help assess local soil and water resources. It will also consider how organic matter, fertilizers, farmer cropping systems, and farmer knowledge can work in creating highly productive and environmentally sustainable approaches to soil revitalization.
The donation that has been channeled through the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a soil health program, is expected to help improve the sustainability of small-scale farms, raise the yield and income of poor farmers, most of who are women, and help protect the natural resource base of soil and water.
AGRA plans to work directly with women farmers who form the vast majority of small- scale farmers in Africa and who, as a result, have considerable knowledge of how various crops are faring in local soils.
Today, fertilizers in Africa are far more expensive than the global average, and rarely available to farmers in remote areas. As a result, African farmers use only a tenth as much fertilizer as the global average.
Being the oldest continent and with weathered ancient soils for millennia, maintaining soil health has become a constant challenge. In recent decades, unsustainable land practices have accelerated the depletion of this vital natural resource.
Continuous cultivation of land, without replacing the soil nutrients taken up by crops, has sapped the soil of nutrients. Moreover, degraded soils are prone to erosion and unable to retain precious water.
In addition to working directly to restore soil fertility, AGRA's soil health program will encourage the development of policies that support soil health and protect Africa's endowment of natural resources.
The program will work to strengthen the capacity of African institutions to improve the information, education and training offered to farmers, extension workers, students and scientists on a range of issues related to soil health.
To ensure that the program is working as effectively as possible, AGRA will monitor its impacts, including its economic and environmental impacts, and regularly consult with its partners in governments, regional organizations (like the New Partnership for Africa's Development - NEPAD), environmental agencies, civil society organizations, farmers and farmer organizations.
To farmers, the program gives a renewed hope because with improved soils and seeds, they will boost their yields and therefore feed themselves and use the surplus to improve their living conditions.
