Surge in Hunger May Be
Avoided through Smart Green Technology,
Rainwater Harvesting and Micro-Finance,
But Situation is Urgent, Warns UNEP
New York/Nairobi, 14
May 2009 - Delivering food security to an
additional 1 billion people in Africa will
become ever more challenging over the next
four decades unless more intelligent management
of natural resources and emerging opportunities
are brought to bear.
Invasive pests, land
degradation, erosion, drought and climate
change have already caused agricultural
yields to fall in some cases by up to 50
per cent, according to a new report by the
UN Environment Programme (UNEP).
Business as usual, with
Africa's population set to rise from 770
million to 1.75 billion by 2050, is likely
to dwarf the recent food crisis which plunged
over 100 million into poverty and hunger
in just two years.
The report, "The
Environmental Food Crisis", was launched
at the 17th session of the UN Commission
on Sustainable Development in New York today.
It provides some new and sobering costs
on how environmental degradation might impact
food production, while highlighting new
and promising paths.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General
and UNEP Executive Director, said: "The
economic models and management regimes of
the 20th century are unlikely to serve humanity
well on a planet of 6 billion, rising to
over 9 billion by 2050. This is particularly
true with respect to agriculture and especially
valid in Africa."
"Reversing environmental
degradation and investing in our ecological
infrastructure such as forests, soils and
water bodies is one part of the Green Economy
solution - these are the nature-based inputs
and infrastructure for agriculture in the
first place. The other key is managing them
and the food chain in far more efficient
ways", he said.
"A third element,
not touched on in this report but also relevant,
is the enormous opportunity to diversify
livelihoods and incomes via the emerging
carbon markets - this includes sectors such
as renewable energy, but also the growing
prospect of farmers earning an income by
conserving forests, soil and vegetation
cover to sequester carbon", said Mr.
Steiner.
Under-Exploited Management
Options
Water scarcity is an
increasing risk in Africa. But studies by
UNEP and the World Agroforestry Centre estimated
that there was enough rain falling on Africa
to supply the water needs for 13 billion
people - twice the current world population.
However, little is collected
or stored sustainably via methods such as
small- and large-scale rainwater harvesting.
Similarly, much of overseas
development aid continues to promote the
tools, fertilizers and seeds approach.
A recent report by UNEP
and the UN Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) surveyed 114 small-scale farms
in 24 African countries who had switched
to organic or near organic production.
- Yields had more than doubled where organic,
or near-organic practices had been used,
with the yield jumping 128 per cent in east
Africa.
- The study found that
organic practices outperformed traditional
methods and chemical-intensive conventional
farming and also found strong environmental
benefits such as improved soil fertility,
better retention of water and resistance
to drought.
Mr. Steiner also emphasized
the importance of micro-credit and micro-insurance
schemes, such as ones that have been piloted
by the World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia
in collaboration with donor countries and
the insurance industry.
Here farmers have been
paid when weather forecasts indicate that
drought is looming, and well before a family
is down to its last livestock and facing
hunger and starvation.
Meanwhile, the UNEP
Executive Director also underlined not only
the threat, but also the opportunity to
diversify economies as a result of climate
change and via the emerging carbon markets
and carbon funds.
Clean energy projects,
such as wind, off-river hydro and solar
power are beginning to take off in Africa
from an albeit low base. There are now an
estimated 100 projects in over 20 countries
up and running or in the pipeline.
Mr. Steiner pointed
to Kenya, where several hundred megawatts
of geothermal electricity are now being
installed in the Rift Valley as representing
development, poverty-reduction and alternative
employment prospects for people.
"Kenya has plans
to generate 1,300MW of geothermal electricity
by around 2020. But this is only scratching
the surface. Kenya is also a windy country
- in Turkana, in the north of the country,
a private consortium is developing an initial
300MW of wind energy, following the Government's
introduction of new legislation - equal
to around 25 per cent Kenya's current installed
energy capacity", he said.
"By some rough
estimates, the country might have enough
windy sites to produce over 30 Gigawatts
of wind energy for domestic consumption
and export - again alternative livelihoods,
new and innovative sectors and employment
prospects", said Mr. Steiner.
On 11 May, UNEP and
the Global Environment Facility (GEF) announced
they were now working with farmers around
Lake Victoria to begin assessing the precise
amounts of carbon stored by various climate-friendly
land management systems.
This may open up the
prospect for farmers and agro-foresters
to be paid for not only producing crops,
but "farming" carbon back into
vegetation and soils.
Some Facts from "The
Environment Food Crisis Report" - Africa
The urgent need to evolve
Africa's agriculture and economy onto a
more sustainable, diversified footing is
underlined in the report presented in New
York for the first time.
- Invasive pests, weeds,
diseases and erosion are cutting yields
by up to 50 per cent, leaving only a small
fraction of the potential to be harvested.
- Africa will need an
economic and agricultural revolution greater
than the one observed in Asia within decades
- but without the irrigation water easily
accessible in Asia, with lack of infrastructure,
and in the face of greater impacts of climate
change and land degradation already happening.
- The former Green Revolution
in Asia was heavily based upon fertilizer
and water from the mighty Himalayas glaciers.
The Himalayas glaciers may disappear with
climate change, but support over half of
Asia's cereal production - water not available
in Africa.
- An urgent revolution
is needed in green technology to harvest
rainwater and in implementing much more
widespread intercropping systems that can
sustain soils, nutrients, reduce pests and
retain water.
The report also shines
a light on perhaps one of the least discussed
areas - food waste, from the farm and the
seas to the urban market and the kitchen.
Over half of the global
food produced today is either lost, wasted
or discarded as a result of inefficiency
in the human-managed food chain.
- Post-harvest losses
of Africa's coastal fisheries and crops
range from 25 per cent to as much as 50
per cent for some crops, leaving only a
fraction of this available for human consumption
and marketing.
- Environmental degradation
is jeopardizing the entire platform of food
production. Soil erosion alone, accounting
for some 1-8 per cent of yield losses globally,
range from 2-40 per cent (mean >8 per
cent) in Africa.
- By 2050, climate change
and water scarcity are likely to cause wide
droughts and unpredictable rainfall, accelerate
invasive pests like weeds, diseases and
locusts, and depress yields even further.
- Droughts have already
cost 22-90 per cent loss (average 40 per
cent) of livestock losses in the past two
decades across African countries, especially
on the Horn of Africa, but also in Botswana,
Namibia and Niger. Livestock is very important
to rural food security in many African countries.
Weed infestations and
diseases are also cutting yields in some
of Africa's poorest and most food insecure
regions of sub-Saharan Africa.
- They have been estimated
to cause an annual loss of $12.8 billion
in yield of eight of Africa's principal
crops by cutting already low yields by up
to 50 per cent.
Worldwide 67,000 pest
species attack crops: 9,000 insects and
mites, 50,000 pathogens and 8,000 weeds.
Up to 70 per cent of them are introduced,
with major impacts on global food production.
- Across Africa, the Asiatic witchweed is
a serious agricultural pest in corn, rice,
sorghum and sugar cane, affecting over and
as much as 40 per cent of arable land in
the savannahs. These invasive species stunt
maize plant growth by attacking the roots
and sucking nutrients and water.
- In West Africa the
larger grain borer (Prostephanus truncates)
is responsible for cassava losses of approximately
$800 million per year thereby jeopardizing
food security. In Tanzania the larger grain
borer (Prostephanus truncates) causes some
$91 million in maize losses per year and
crop losses due to introduced insects in
South Africa amount to $ 1.25 billion per
year.
In many parts of Africa
fertilizer use is only 1-2 kg/ha compared
to up to100 kg/ha in other parts of the
world, but due to lack of infrastructure
and long land transport, fertilizer cost
up to seven times more in Africa.
- A metric tonne of
urea costs around $90 in Europe, $120 in
the harbour of Mombasa, Kenya, $400 in western
Kenya, and over $770 in Malawi.
In addition the use
of fertilizer can make the farmers extremely
vulnerable to volatile oil prices and increase
their vulnerability to drought and insect
plagues.
The projections of continuing
declining yields if no action is taken will
not only depress productivity - it will
also affect the urban populations, as food
prices will increase by at least 30-50 per
cent, perhaps much more in addition to much
greater volatility, warns the report.
Lack of investments
in Africa's agriculture has resulted in
a steady setback. In 1992 land productivity
in sub-Saharan Africa was 79 per cent of
that in Asia; by 2006 it had dropped to
only 59 per cent.
Africa's share of the
global exports also remained less than 3
per cent in the last decade. For every $100
of agricultural output produced in the developed
countries, the public spends over $2, compared
to only around 50 cents in developing countries,
mainly in Asia, while it is actually even
less and declining for Africa.
The only increase in
investments in the agricultural sector in
Africa is the leasing of land by countries
like China, the Republic of Korea, the United
Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Malaysia
and India, including in biofuels to support
domestic markets in the home countries outside
the African continent.
But the reports points
to options in addition to the ones mentioned
previously.
Intercropping has the
potential to build resilience against climate
change, pests and diseases - intercropping
is a cultivation method where many different
plants and even trees are grown inside the
crops allowing farmers to access ground
water, reduce evaporation losses and erosion
and improve soils.
This may indeed not
only help to halt land degradation and help
restore degraded lands; it can also provide
a "smart" way of increasing food
security and generate business opportunities,
while reducing vulnerability to farmers
to expensive input factors and international
oil prices.
The report emphasizes
that not only are these more environmentally
sustainable production methods essential
for maintaining land productivity and food
security, they also provide a smart opportunity
for generating small business development,
jobs and increase predictability in supply.
This is essential for
generating the incentives for small-scale
investments and supplying urban markets.
But it will require targeted systems for
micro-finance.
Notes to Editors
The report "The
Environmental Food Crisis: The environment's
role in averting future food crises"
can be accessed at www.unep.org or at www.grida.no
including high and low resolution graphics
for free use in publications.
The report is released
during the 17th session of the UN Commission
for Sustainable Development taking place
in New York from 4 to 15 of May. The meeting's
main focus is on finding solutions to the
current environmental, financial and food
crisis in Africa.
Jim Sniffen, UNEP Information Officer, New
York
Nick Nuttall, UNEP Spokesperson
