Africa is a continent where, at least outwardly, we
like to celebrate our diversity—the rich variety that can be found in our many
cultures, languages, fashions, flora and fauna. That’s why it’s perplexing to
see such a large segment of the African population depending on a very small
number of food crops, like maize, rice and wheat. And it’s more than just
boring to the palate. It’s severely diminishing the quality of our diets and
making our farming systems more vulnerable, especially during severe droughts
like the one that hit Southern Africa this year.
Meanwhile, there has been a lot of talk lately about
how Africa’s agriculture sector is primed to become a new economic engine for a
continent that has become too dependent on commodities like oil. Next week,
Heads of State and top officials from across Africa and around the world are
coming to Nairobi for the African Green Revolution Forum 2016, where there
could be millions of dollars in new commitments for Africa’s smallholder
farmers.
But Africa is unlikely to achieve its agriculture
potential, or be prepared to deal with challenges like drought that climate
change will make more frequent, unless we change our thinking about crop
diversity.
For the last two decades, my work has revolved around
developing and promoting nutritionally enhanced sweet-potato. It has convinced
me that, with the right approach, farmers will cultivate a wider variety of
crops and consumers will embrace the new additions to their dinner table.
Africa is actually blessed with a wealth of crop
diversity. Much of these include sorghum, yam and cowpea, which are native to
the continent. But many other crop types have arrived via trade, like banana,
pigeon pea and wheat from Asia, and beans, cassava and maize from the Americas.
But rather than capitalize on this full basket of food options, we have bet too
heavily on just a few crops.
Take the case of maize in Eastern and Southern
Africa for instance. Yes, it can grow in different farming environments and
supply large amounts of calories. But the crop has weaknesses. It’s susceptible
to drought and pests and its nutritional quality is mediocre.
And while recent research has delivered more
resilient and nutritious maize varieties, these are not sufficient. The fact
remains that in many regions, rising temperatures and increasingly erratic
rainfall will cause maize yields to fall by up to 22 per cent in many areas and
up to 60 per cent in South Africa and Zimbabwe, according to a 2015 report from
the Montpellier Panel.
There is a strong body of research showing that
farmers are much less likely to suffer catastrophic losses from pests, disease
or drought if they plant a broader array of crops. Today, the devastation
caused by outbreaks of lethal necrosis in maize and stem rust in wheat is greatly
intensified by the lack of alternative crops. In Malawi, while drought ruined
maize and bean crops this year, farmers growing naturally hardy, nutritional
crops like chickpea and sweet-potato fared much better.
If the benefits are so clear, then why don´t farmers
just spontaneously diversify? The answer is that they may want to diversify,
but often don’t due to policy and institutional barriers. When crops like maize
started to dominate, governments and the private sector accelerated their
take-over by providing subsidies, research and other support. Meanwhile, other
potentially useful crops like cassava and sorghum were neglected, sometimes
acquiring derogatory labels like the “poor man´s crop” or “crop for marginal
lands.”
It doesn’t have to be this way. I’ve learned from my
work with sweet-potatoes that we can turn Africa´s “Cinderella crops” into the
belle of the ball.
First, we need research that is focused on adding
value to these crops and further enhancing their already natural resilience. In
the case of sweet-potato, we bred for higher levels of beta-carotene (the
chemical precursor of vitamin A), better drought tolerance and virus
resistance.
A second critical task: farmers need a reliable
source of healthy seed. This is not easy for crops typically ignored by local
and multinational seed companies, especially if they are propagated with bulky
and perishable plant parts like sweet-potatoes. For sweet-potato, we worked
through local farmer networks and international non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) to achieve large-scale multiplication and dissemination of improved
planting material.
Finally, marketing and branding, not something that
comes naturally to researchers like myself, have to be part of the picture. We
employed a variety of marketing and communications tools to make consumers
aware of the many benefits of the sweet-potato – as a staple food, animal
fodder, snack and ingredient in processed foods.
The theme for the upcoming African Green Revolution
Forum is “Seize the Moment” and I can’t think of a better time for influential
leaders attending this meeting to make crop diversity a central part of their
plans for African agriculture. Just as many will admire the colorful dress of
West African attendees, they should also be embracing a larger mosaic of food
crops for our farmers. I’ve already seen the good things that happen when a big
colorful splash of orange-fleshed sweet-potato is added to African farms and
African diets.
*Contributed by Dr. Maria Andrade, an award-winning plant breeder at the
International Potato Centre. She is also among the four winners of the 2016
World Food Prize and currently serving board member of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
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