Opinion: To Solve Hunger, Start with Soil

Experts give advice on potato-planting for greater yields in an episode of Shamba Shape Up.By Anne-Marie SteynNAIROBI, Apr 24 2015 (IPS)Peter looked confused as he recounted how he’d painstakingly planted potatoes to sell and to feed his family of eight, only to find that when harvest time rolled around he had been greeted with tiny tubers not much bigger than golf balls.A young farmer living in Bomet County in Kenya, Peter had recently been ‘shaped up’ on film, as part of our farming reality TV show Shamba Shape Up. The show is aired as a six-month-long (one growing season) series of 30-minute television programmes on leading channels in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda 2012 to audiences across Kenya.Without farmers understanding the importance of soil and having easy access to soil improvement methods, they cannot win the battle against declining soil fertility. And without soil fertility, they will lose the battle against hunger or poverty.It is Africa’s first makeover reality television programme using real experts to show small-scale farmers how to improve pest management, irrigation, cattle rearing, poultry keeping, financial education and crop management techniques, in an engaging yet informative way.Peter’s story is discouraging, yet it’s happening to farmers all over Africa, not just with potatoes but all manner of crops that just don’t grow like they should.One reason for this is that the very soil in sub-Saharan Africa that should be a fertile home for help...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: Active Citizens Africa Aid Civil Society Climate Change Development & Aid Economy & Trade Environment Food & Agriculture Gender Headlines Health Poverty & MDGs Water & Sanitation Women & Economy Farming First fertilisers Source Type: news