Gardens NOT Gift

Food aid not a long term solution.

Rural farmers in sub-Saharan Africa live under risky conditions. Many grow low-value cereal crops that depend on a short rainy season, a practice that traps them in poverty and hunger.

The Kenyan government declared a national disaster in January following the failure of the short rains in south-eastern and coastal areas.

In response, the WFP will increase the numbers of people in Kenya receiving general food distributions from 1.2 million people to 2.5 million in the period until February 2010.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7951332.stm

Despite so much efforts by international organizations in combating hunger crises around the world, one question remains an answered; What is the long term sustainable solution to the chronic crises of hunger in Sub-Saharan Africa?

As the famous saying goes “Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day. Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime”, we should not ignore the long term effects of hand outs.

While majority of academics and donor nations seems to understand

the crippling effects of food aid, many underscore the importance of small start up projects like solar panel powered drip irrigation system that produces immediate results in terms of hunger alleviation.

Drip-irrigation not only provides food security to the most needy, but does so in a dramatically cost-efficient way. While food imported and distributed by donors can cost well over $500 per ton, food produced by a farmer can cost as little as $78 per ton, with the added value of avoiding dependency and creating self-sufficiency.

Source :http://www.bigpictureagriculture.com/2011/06/guest-post-a-plan-for-food-security-in-a-climate-with-weather-volatility.html

Drip Irrigation Turns Gravel into GreenThanks to USAID's LEAD Program (Linkages for the Economic Advancement of the Disadvantaged), Mr. and Mrs. Makombe installed their drip kit with the help of a field officer from the Rural Unity Development Organization (RUDO).

What used to be a patch of gravel behind the Makombe's homestead in Musipami Village, Zvishavane, is now a thriving 100 square meter garden of green and leafy vegetables—a small miracle in a country which is suffering from a complex economic, political, and agricultural decline

Source: africastories.usaid.gov/search_details.cfm

Solar panels power a solar drip irrigation system for a collective women's garden in Kalale, Benin. The system provides a cost-effective, clean way to irrigate crops, especially in the long, dry season.

Source: http://news.stanford.edu/news/2011/december/solar-drip-irrigation-120511.html

Drought does not need to mean hunger and destitution. Constantly shipping food to address such problems is costly, uneconomic, and can encourage dependency. Instead, donors should support programs such as the one I mentioned above.

If communities have irrigation for crops, grain stores, and ways to harvest rain water, then their chance of survival increases with increase in local food production.