Africa // Current TV

Africa's Great Green Wall Of Trees

Africa is turning to desert. Studies show that as much as two thirds of the... more

JanforGore
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Annual symposium on global agriculture and food security a front for Monsanto-biotech/pesticide industry

Well well, President Obama is rubbing elbows with Hugh Grant CEO of Monsanto today at... more

JanforGore
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The Antiwar Comic: Not That Kind of Three-Way

Libya is a much more complicated country that people realize.

TonyDiGerolamo
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23 days ago
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Fareed Zakaria GPS - Jeffrey Gettleman on dirty wars, Kony

Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times talks about dirty wars in Africa.

Vierotchka
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‘Huge’ water resource exists under Africa

A breaktrough that africa needed

armtrack
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Is sustainable agriculture possible in the Sahel?

With drought conditions chronic in the Sahel, many farmers give up trying to grow crops and head to towns and cities to find work. In Chad many go to the south or to Lake Chad where irrigation from the fast-shrinking lake is used to farm. But some agro-ecologists say governments, donors and farmers should not abandon agriculture in the Sahel, and despite being “very difficult”, with the right approaches, there is “huge potential” in natural regeneration, traditional irrigation methods, and simple alternatives such as crop diversification.

“The Sahel has enormous potential – this is a very marginal food-growing environment, so we are forced to learn how this natural system works. All we’re doing is looking for the clues in nature,” said Tony Rinauld, a research and development adviser on natural resources to World Vision Australia who worked in the Sahel for’ years, practicing agro-forestry, a traditional land-use system that combines trees or other woody perennials with crop and animal production.

The Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal regions in western Chad are chronically food insecure, and periodically experience acute malnutrition rates above the emergency threshold. According to NGOs, rates reached’ percent in Kanem earlier in 2012 and many families have already run out of food and are down to one or two goats.

Both regions are dotted with fertile oases, known as ‘wadis’, that have for years been left by their traditional ‘owners’ – the aristocrats, or ‘Sultanate’, and village chiefs – to grow little more than date palms, lemon and mango trees. Vegetables are systematically grown in just 100 of Kanem’s 500 wadis, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), which runs a project with the European Union (EU) humanitarian funder, ECHO, to help the poorest families grow vegetables in 120 oases across Kanem and Bahr el Ghazal.

“Here [in Kanem] one crisis just flows into the next one… but we are trying to keep people here and to see how we can enlarge the wadis further,” said Abdul Karim, FAO’s food security head in Mao, the capital of Kanem.

Sultanates and village chiefs lend the oases to separate producer committees of men and women for 5 to 10 years, while FAO helps build a water point and provides the pump, gives farmers seeds and tools and trains them in market gardening.

Minder Mohamed Ali was guarding fields of lettuces, carrots, aubergines and onions in Aloum 2 wadi, 8 kilometers from Mao. “We eat some, we sell some of the vegetables – many farmers weren’t able to do much before this, as they have had no production this year,” he told IRIN.

“Now we see vegetables in the market every day,” the representative of the Sultanate in Mao, ni Alifeh Mahadi Alifey Mahlabtra, told IRIN. “It is also a motivation for people to do something… we will [probably] renew the contract in five years – we want people to get enough food,” he said. “Before, people here grew rice, now we are completely dependent on our wadis.”

With the right level of investment and the right approach, anything is possible, said Augustin Ilunga, head of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Mao, which has for decades been helping to keep severely malnourished children alive. “In a desert landscape like this, with climate change, it will take a lot of work to change… but with the right attitude it’s possible. Otherwise we’ll be here giving Plumpy’Nut [a highly nutritious foodstuff given to malnourished people] forever,” he told IRIN.

Ultimately, this project has worked only because land was made available to the very poorest groups, who ordinarily would not have had access to it, said Remy Courcier, Emergency coordinator at the FAO in the capital, N’djamena. “Land ownership and land rights are central to improving prospects in the Sahel.”

Courcier told IRIN that investors in Chad should follow other Sahelian examples. “Here in Chad not much has been done over the past 30 years, but in Niger there is lots of research into improved seed varieties, traditional irrigation, environmental protection such as controlling sandy dunes – we could use more of this.”

more at the linkWith drought conditions chronic in the Sahel, many farmers give up trying to grow... more

JanforGore
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Africa's Wars Move from Liberation to Banditry

"There is a very simple reason why some of Africa's bloodiest, most brutal... more

Truthitswhatsfordinner
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1 month ago
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"The most brilliant exhibit on slavery I've ever seen"

"The Field's exhibit shows the tragedy of slavery in very real terms because... more

Cabal
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Tuaregs had completed a military push aimed at creating the state of Azawad and declared victory

BAMAKO – DESERT rebels have launched a revolutionary war in the Sahara. The... more

worrg
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Kony 2012 Activists Preparing Follow-Up Viral Marketing Video Campaign

Invisible Children activists are planning another viral marketing campaign aimed at... more

maasanova
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Equality Comes Through the Arts For Women in Uganda

When the Bayimba Cultural Foundation in Uganda sent out calls for a street theater... more

Womens_eNews
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1 month ago
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Tunisian 'Pirate Party' gets legal approval

Tunisian bloggers succeeded in getting permission to form the first anti-censorship... more

worrg
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2 months ago
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Video: Shut down Monsanto protest at the Gates Foundation

Positive action for positive change... As part of the Global Day of Action to Shut... more

JanforGore
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2 months ago
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23 comments

Tony Blair sits quietly as Liberian president defends law criminalizing homosexuality | Scholars and Rogues

::With Sirleaf sitting to his left, Blair refused to give any advice on gay rights... more

hoosierdaddy
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2 months ago
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The Antiwar Comic: In Response to Kony 2012

Tony D responds to the Kony 2012 video.

TonyDiGerolamo
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2 months ago
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4 comments

Globalists Pull Plug on Kony 2012 with Spectacular Crash & Burn

Image: (via Infowars) A visual representation of Invisible Children’s true... more

maasanova
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2 months ago
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KONY 2012's Jason Russell THE NAKED MELTDOWN Caught On Tape (VIDEO)

I'm 99% sure someone hating on him spiked his drink or something crazy. Call... more

dryeraser
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2 months ago
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Donald Trump's Sons Ignite War Over Animal Butchery

Donald Trump's two sons went on a big game hunt in Africa, and the carnage they... more

im1mjrpain
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2 months ago
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KONY 2012: State Propaganda for a New Generation

When I first seen this video, I knew it has to be something more to this. When I seen... more

Peacey
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3 months ago
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Kony 2012 Debunking Shows How Far Alternative Media Has Come

Great analysis on the Kony 2012 propaganda video. I didn't even need to watch it... more

maasanova
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3 months ago
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