To Boost Organic Farming

The world is finally going crazy about ORGANIC FOODS. I applaud. Of all the regions of our planet where help can come from in this enterprise, AFRICA certainly stands high. It is the real place to produce ORGANIC FERTILIZERS from. And this is her time. So, where is the deal?

We must call on the governments, leaders, and peoples of the ancient continent to rise and arise for the task TODAY. Africa must lead the way to better farming...thus, better feeding....and better living, through organic agriculture. Over the next few months, we will be looking at lots of creative possibilities that one can conjure for this project. Will they be exhaustive? Absolutely not. Will they be challenging? Sure. Will we see enough temptings to grow and glow? You bet.

Let's start with BUSH BURNING: The menace, the pace of damage and the place of change.

Over the years, natives have used fires to clear the land, hunt for wildlife and games, herald a season, or just plain fun. Some have set accidental fires, while bush fires have been used in some conflicts and boundary disputes as well. Nature's abundance, in lustre and greenery, is so much that no one seems compelled to worry: After all, it will all grow back next year! After all, no one lives there! Sheer abuse. Sheer waste. And cumulative serial, if ritual, damage.

The fires in wooded lands are creating new grasslands, even as poverty is pushing rural souls to fell more trees for both fuel and food money. The costs to our combined ecosystem are simply rising by the day. Yet, it need not be so. From now, it must not be so....again.

To combat Bush Burning successfully is to borrow from the ploughshares concept: "Give a little something in exchange". In this case, substitute burning with composting of cropped vegetation. Meaning, harvest the greens - be it grass or shrubs, etc. - and turn them into a rich, natural manure, in an organized and orchestrated programme.

How to proceed? Easy:

1) Leave it to local governments and local communities
2) Build capacity and capability
3) Introduce appropriate incentives and create market windows
4) Empower civil society organisations as catalysts and monitors
5) Introduce composite national legislation
6) Work with rural women
7) Partner with faith organisations
8) Challenge and incentivize the media
9) Improve schools curricula

There is a role for the donor community and international development agencies to join this crusade immediately. One crucial input from them will be funding solar cooking stoves and dissemination of liquefied gas, briquettes, slow-burning fuels, etc. To make it work, please do not create centralized and national bureaucracies! Go to the PEOPLE.

Some pilots may be necessary, but not a long one. One year work, one year result. Use these in demonstration farms and pace-setters communities. Do so in several countries and regions of the continent. You are on your way!

With regard to the media, we need to draw up a special scheme that fully incorporates both the local and national press. There is something about us in Africa: We love competition and thrive on community spirit. Never mind the show of shame that our governments display all over the place. Most of those guys do not truly represent the real culture of hard work and tradition of honour that are the bedrock and essence of our African Humanity.

The true Africa is the Cradle of Humankind, and is the one that must, and I believe will, rise to the millennial challenge of Organic Agriculture.

Arise, O' Continent! The sun is up!!