4.1 Issues Associated with Agricultural
Development in Sub-Sahara Africa Potentials in sustainable agricultural development
centering on paddy field agriculture at small
inland valley bottoms in Sub-Sahara Africa
have been elucidated through a series of
studies in the four countries as presented
thus far. Several problems identified through the studies
are presented below. (1) Low soil fertility As presented in the previous sections, soils
in the Sub-Sahara African region are generally
poor and fertilizer application is necessary
for yield increase. Since small inland valley bottoms are prone
to have soil nutrients accumulated from upstream
areas, their nutritional environment is better
than the surrounding areas and crop productivity
higher even without fertilizer compared to
upland fields. Notwithstanding, as seen in the case of Zambia,
there exist soils of low fertility, in which
yield is unattainable without fertilizer. Further, deficient elements are not confined
to a single kind. Since soil fertility is a determinant of
crop yields, closely associated with the
outcome of projects, it must be accurately
evaluated. (2) Priority of rice and productivity improvement For the local farmers who have little cash
income and difficulty securing food, it is
important to obtain a self-sustainable crop,
i.e., cultivate a staple food crop. In many Sub-Sahara African countries, rice
is not a staple food. Likewise, in the study areas of the four
countries examined by the present study,
staple foods are yam and cassava in Cote
d'Ivoire, maize and banana in Tanzania,
and maize and cassava in Zambia and Malawi. In all the study areas, rice farmers grow
rice in paddy fields, cultivating staple
crops in non-paddy fields. Rice is one of food crops for them but regarded
as a cash crop rather than a self-sustainable
crop. As for the rainy season planting of paddy
rice, it often overlaps the planting seasons
of other food crops. In such cases, priority in management tends
to be given to those other crops over paddy
rice, rendering its yields likely to be low.[4]
To increase paddy rice yields, it is important
that sufficient labor force be secured. On the other hand, it is necessary to enhance
work efficiencies through improving and introducing
new farm equipment, simplifying weeding operation
by line planting, etc. Moreover, there are conditions for paddy
rice as a cash crop to be more actively cultivated,
such as high profitability, presence of stable
market [5], and permeation of monetary economy. These conditions would be met through securing
access to the market, along with improvement
of cultivation technologies for higher yields,
development of roads, and establishment of
marketing facilities. As presented above, it should be kept in
mind at project planning that the priority
of rice to farmers would depend on the external
environment and paddy rice productivity would
be influenced by it. (3) Importance of paddy field development At small inland valley bottoms in Africa,
the sectioning of paddy fields by ridging
is incomplete and the area of each section
is often small and not uniform. This may be one of the reasons for the low
yields of paddy rice. Small-section paddy fields were observed
in all of the countries studied. Though the data are not presented here, in
Nigeria rice was grown under a standard fertilization
condition using a conventional paddy field
of which ridging was incomplete and the area
of each section was small and an improved
paddy field with both ridges and the area
of each section enlarged. Yields from the improved paddy field greatly
increased. Though the yield increase cannot be clearly
accounted for, the following has been identified:
At the improved paddy field, the capacity
to hold nutrients tends to increase because
clay that pours into the paddy with irrigation
water accumulates at the soil surface as
the water remains there longer, while at
the conventional small-section paddy field,
clay elements tend to decrease despite water
management practiced. This suggests that the effects of soil conservation
and increased fertility led to the yield
increase at the improved paddy field.[6] (4) Poor farming technology Farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa are still inexperienced
in rice farming skills in many ways including
paddy field development mentioned above and
water management, and there is much to be
improved. Associated with this are problems including
1) low level of farmers' education, 2) types
of farm equipment very limited and all the
work done by a hoe only, and 3) underdeveloped
system for agricultural extension as presented
elsewhere. For example, as seen in Tanzania, the Japanese-style
rice farming technology successful at the
areas under the Kilimanjaro Agricultural
Development Project (KADP) is yet to be adequately
disseminated to the neighboring rice-producing
areas.[7]
As a result, despite the fact that high-yield
varieties have already been introduced, productivity
still remains low. Moreover, improvement technologies exit but
do not spread often because their application
is too costly and the cost is out of farmers'
reach. The underutilization of chemical fertilizers
to increase yields is often due to the prices
of fertilizers that are too high (in proportion
to the sales prices of harvested crops) along
with their distribution problems. (5) Inexperience in cooperative water management For irrigated paddy fields, appropriate water
management is essential to utilize water
resources efficiently and maintain productivity. This would necessitate rice farmers to cooperatively
maintain water channels and distribute water
according to their cropping schedule. However, in the Sub-Sahara African region,
history of such water-mediated organized
activities, which are common in Southeast
Asia, is rarely found. At the study area in Tanzania, regularly
scheduled, cooperative cleaning of water
channels was observed. However, as for water distribution, there
was a plan but it completely lacked rationality
as it merely set regular watering hours mechanically
and did not take into consideration the area
of paddy field per water channel, for instance. (6) Farmers' potential capacities Despite various handicaps including the low
level of education, underdeveloped infrastructure
and immature farming technologies, the farmers
of the study areas are making every effort
to improve their livelihoods. Yet, because of the lack of information and
incentives, they have not reached the point
of overcoming the problems in their present
situation. It became clear from the studies in Tanzania
and Malawi that if given appropriate support
from outside, the farmers would autonomously
organize themselves and perform more efficient
agricultural production through cooperative
operations. If the farmers are to realize that they are
the ones to assume the leading role in development,
it is important not to give them everything
through external assistance but to provide
them with more opportunities to actively
participate in the decision making process
while heightening their motivation with little
investment. (7) Inappropriate agricultural support systems A considerable portion of small-scale agricultural
development can be accomplished by farmers'
own self-help efforts. To maintain its sustainability, however,
external support systems need to be established,
including initial investments on research,
agricultural extension and project formulation
for the stabilization and improvement of
production, financing for input purchase,
and establishment of marketing network for
harvested crops. Every one of these support systems is hardly
sufficient in the Sub-Sahara African countries. Every country studied has a department for
agricultural extension but has no means of
transportation for extension workers to visit
farmers due to financial difficulties of
the government. Further, to obtain loans from public financial
institutions, interest rates are high, collateral
is required, and a lot of documents must
be prepared. For that, access to finance is difficult
for many farmers with low income and low
educational level. In the case of Zambia, the widespread distribution
of sulfur-deficient soils was revealed by
studies in the early 1980's, but fertilizers
containing sulfur were not distributed domestically
for several years, as mentioned in Chapter
4. This resulted in the problem that the study
findings were not reflected in national policies. 4.2 Suggestions for the Pursuit of
Sustainable Agricultural Development in the
Future Taking the aforementioned issues into consideration,
suggestions as to how to proceed with sustainable
agricultural development, including paddy
fields at the inland valley bottoms in the
Sub-Sahara African region in the future are
presented below. (1) From agricultural development to participatory
rural development Agriculture is part of farmers' lives and
closely related to other activities. The roots of agricultural problems often
originate in problems in other fields. For this, it is necessary to conduct a comprehensive
study on not only agriculture but also general
living conditions including economy, society
and environment by the participation of local
people, and at the same time to sort out
issues and problems broadly.[8] Also, it is important that the project plan
based on the study be decided together with
the local people and its contents not be
limited to those related to agriculture but
also social and institutional measures be
included. In other words, it is important to have the
perspective of rural development rather than
agricultural development. (2) Understanding soil fertility and suggesting
fertility improvement measures As has already been mentioned from time to
time, it must be recognized that the fertility
of African soils, which is generally very
low, greatly limits food production in Africa. However, soil fertility can be improved by
fertilizer application and soil improvement. It is necessary to elucidate deficient elements
in soil that limit productivity as well as
suggest measures on soil fertility improvement
including development of appropriate fertilizers
and fertilization technologies, selection
of appropriate crops, and vegetation measures. These measures must be extended down to the
level of farmers.[9] Priorities in development should naturally
be given to areas of high soil fertility
(i.e., areas of high developmental potentials)
from the investment efficiency perspective.[10]
However, it may not be necessarily so if
greater emphasis is given to poverty reduction,
a developmental issue advocated by many aid
organizations and countries in the recent
years with the World Bank playing the central
role. In areas of low soil fertility, generally
population density is low and social infrastructure
is underdeveloped because their carrying
capacities are limited.[11]
It should be realized beforehand that to
pursue poverty reduction through agricultural
development in such areas, a large amount
of expenses and a long time of intervention
would be required.[12]
Furthermore, stepwise development from a
long-term perspective should also be considered.[13] (3) Promotion of small-scale water resources
irrigation A stable cultivation environment is necessary
to enhance paddy rice yields by fertilizer
application. In the Sub-Sahara African region where the
timing and the amount of rainfall fluctuate
considerably, it is necessary to develop
water sources that are either untapped or
underutilized and build irrigation facilities
that would guarantee stable water supply. The irrigation facilities should be constructed
without excessive investment taking into
account the government's financial conditions
and the levels of farmers' skills, of a
standard that would allow the beneficiaries
to handle maintenance management as much
by themselves as possible, and free of mechanism
that would require complex water management. Their scale, though dependent on the size
of water resources that can be developed,
should as a rule not exceed 100ha for a unit. (4) Improvement on farming In Africa where experience with paddy field
farming is limited or paddy rice cultivation
is not considered to be important, the potential
yield of rice is often not attained. This is caused by low soil fertility and
water shortage but there are also many technical
problems in water management, seedling nursery,
fertilizer application, planting density,
and others. It is vital, from the perspective of gaining
as much benefit from the same investment
as possible, to clarity these problems and
pursue yield increase by improving farming
practices. Further, it is also important to pursue farming
methods that will suppress production cost and disperse peak seasons
of labor by introducing appropriate varieties
and coordinating cropping schedules. In this respect, it is likewise important
that farm equipment be developed according
to the types of work. The inefficiency of using only a hoe to do
almost all the farmwork must be amended. By actualizing the high, stable productivity
potential that the paddy field has, the farmers'
motivation to produce would also be renewed. In upland field farming, efforts should be
made to limit the amount of fertilizer to
be applied by striving to maintain or improve
soil fertility through cultivation of green
manure crops during fallow periods or intercropping
with leguminous crops that have high nitrogen
fixation capacity. It is also important to grow plants
[14] for hedges, which have insecticidal or repellant
effects on pest insects. As for farming technologies to be disseminated,
care should be taken to select those that
are least expensive should there be no financial
assistance to be provided, considering that
most farmers are poor. (5) Promotion of farmers' organizing To extend and establish highly productive
agriculture including paddy rice farming
and to contribute to improving the living
standards, it would be better for a farmers'
organization to take charge cooperatively
than for farmers to act individually on water
management, farmwork, purchase of inputs,
sales of products, application for loans,
etc. Heavy workloads to be shared by farmers would
also be reduced by group activities.[15]
Moreover, farmers' organizations, serving
as bodies in charge of agricultural extension,
would provide farmers with opportunities
to contact extension workers. (6) Establishment of agricultural support
systems Farmers' eagerness for development and their
potential capacities that would make it possible
are generally high. Thus, it is expected that much of agricultural
development including small-scale paddy field
development will be accomplished by farmers'
own self-help efforts. All that is necessary is to heighten their
motivation toward development by providing
them with incentives and draw out their latent
abilities. To achieve that, outside support systems
need to be established, including research
and agricultural extension for the stabilization
and improvement of production, education
and training, initial investments for project
formulation, and financing for the purchase
of input. However, in light of the existing conditions of African countries, it would be very difficult to secure finance for the establishment of these support systems, most of which are dependent on outside assistance. Realistically, improvement measures feasible within the existing support systems may be implemented in some limited scope or cooperating with aid activities of other donors and international organizations may be viable. |