SUCCESS THROUGH AGRICULTURE; Resilience Or Brilliance

By Fatima Alimohamed

Agriculture is the backbone of many African economies, providing employment for a significantpercentageofthepopulaonand contribung significantly to the Gross Domesc Product (GDP) of many countries. Agriculture in Africa is characterized by smallholder farming, which is the predominant form of agriculture across the connent. Despite the challenges associated with smallholder farming, such as low producvity and limited access to markets and financing, it remains a crical source of food and income for millions of African households. As we say in Africa, a farm is a grand teacher It teaches paence and careful watchfulness; it teaches industry and thri; aboveallitteachesenretrust.

In recent years, there has been a growing recognion of the potenal of Africa's agricultural sector Many African governments, as well as internaonal development partners, are invesng heavily in agriculture to support smallholder farmers and promote sustainable agriculture pracces. There are also increasing efforts to leverage new technologies, such as mobile applicaons and precision agriculture, to improve producvity,increaseaccesstomarkets,andreduce foodwaste.

As Vandana Shiva says ' the earth is dying and with her, we humans too are a species in crisis. As we live and breathe, we face mulple crises, the health pandemic, poverty, hunger, climate change and biodiversity loss. Over and above that there is an emergence of injusces, exclusions, inequality and dispossession. All are rooted in the illusions of superiority over a person or nature'. As a Country and as a Connent, we need to go back to collaboraon over compeon and connecon over separaon. Capitalism has made us forget the art of sharing, especially food. It is becoming a sad reality in the world today that it is illegal in some places to save or even share seeds with your friends for planng Thanks to the heavily commercial industrial agriculture, companies can patent their seeds and dictate how you use them on your farm. Luckily,wehavean opon,and thatisto learnabout the art of saving seeds from your harvest, so that you will not have to rely on expensive, patented seeds that could put you at loggerheads with the law.Weneedto teach our farmers how to improve access to seeds byconservinglocallyadaptedvariees.

Unfortunately the goal of the neocolonialist is to keep Africa as impoverished as is, however what is sadder is that we choose to have a subtle colonialist mindset with the fear that we are not capable to achieve greatness on our own. The division of the African Connent into 54 countries is a subtle way to keep us divided and that is the only reason neocolonialism is possible. We can only eradicate this through toiling our own land and soil and feeding each other first and this is where agriculture and agribusiness is at the root of any economic growth.

Our vision as Africa, must be forward looking. Look at the Arab emirates, they took their oil and played such economic polics with it and turned their desserts into financial nerve centers. Germany lost two world wars and were split right in half during the cold war, but see the economy of Germany today, who can remember this even happened. Japan, a Country that was nuked twice rose by focusing on building an impacul agric sector and defeated the west to become the top 3 economies of the world. How did they do it? We need to learn from them, we need to figure it out and replicate. We need to stop selling our land and our water rights, we need to ensure food security for all. Depending only on cocoa is short sighted. I said this over 6 years ago and today the reality is facing us with China and New Zealand producing Cocoa! Research and development added with technology that enables them deploy lower producon costs has been the forte of the Asian Naon and it won't come in as a surprise if one fine sunny day, they capture a sizeable market and we are le behind wonderingwhenandwhathappened.

We have more resilience as a people than the two examples I have shared above, but more than resiliencewealsohavethebrillianceandareagied Connent. We have nave wisdom, aer all we are the cradle of mankind and civilizaon meaning we have nave wisdom when it comes to farming and feeding ourselves. we have good lands, good consistent weather, water bodies, labour force and a rich earth full of minerals; something that Japan and Germany or the Arab emirates did not have clearing showing that development can even happen in the absence of resources, yet we have all the resources sing here on the Connent that is used for medicinal purposes, for technology and to keep the world alive. We have a truly global market that we serve. We are the cradle of the food value chain.

AliMazruimadeaverypowerfulstatementwhenhe said “ Africa produces what it doesn't consume and consumes what it doesn't produce” Kwame

Nkurumah on the other hand from 1957 right through the 1970 pushed the idea that true liberaon would only be realized if Africa could feed itself.Hisearlyobsessionwasofgreeningthesahara dessert and the iniaves of his imaginaon to create a university that focused on Agriculture and technology. To date we connue to see polical leaders always put agriculture/ farming/ agribusiness as pride of place in their manifestos but connue to lack self-sufficiency in producon of foodespeciallygrain.

Why can Africa not feed itself? Our level of nutrion was much higher back then than it is now where we arefocusedonimportedprocessedfoodsleadingus to have what was once known as the rich man's disease; cancer. We must uphold the principle of producvity exploit our agriculture sector to the benefit of the cizens and maximize the value on the connent. Exporng finished goods is the key to sustainable economic growth and creang jobs for the Connent that has the youngest populaon globally

We are seeing farmers and the youth especially moving from lands and farming that has offered them food sovereignty and independence to work in factories in what is referred to as the monetary economy due to the harsh cost of living. We need to go back to basics and teach children from kindergarten all the way to high school how to grow our own food. We have the land to grow, but people don't know or don't have the tools to grow! Hunger games (if you know, you know) is geng a lile too close for comfort. The young ones are the next generaon are the ones to fix the mess we have created. Convincing young people to farm isn't the hardest part, the hardest part is telling them that they'll get money out of farming Current corporaons and Governments outside and within the Connent are all fixated and invested on profits and tax. We need to start as many local small scale growing spaces within communies as change can only begin at community levels This actually reminds me of the Gandhi tradion set of people, place and praccality. We need more naked feet, morehandsinthedirtandmorerealfood!

We need to do away with the mindset that many have that playing in mud or farming is for the poor Soil, dirt, mud or earth, whatever you call it, it is rapidly disappearing and that could have a huge knock-on effects for farming and the food that we eat. Look below your feet. Chances are you are standing on flooring built on concrete. And what is under the concrete? Ghana is slowly turning into a concrete jungle and the more shi we see of people totheurbanareasthemoreconcretewillrise.

Urban regenerave farming is another area of opportunity. It is all about going to basics; how to source manure, compost and seedlings - without money? A learning we can take from Grassroots Economics in Kenya who are showingpeople howto use a community currency to access resources, training and create exchanges of services amongst urban farming passionate. An excellent example of regenerave economic. We need to bring together those passionate about agribusiness to find soluons to food security where ideas and iniaves that present urban residences as part of the soluon to fight hunger and malnutrion in an aesthec ways. Kenya has been able to showcase this is an iniave called 'beauty with food' using vercal gardening that can be placed anywhere from balconies to roof tops Regenerave agriculture is an emerging and excing area within the agricultural industry With an ever-growing populaon, providing food while maintaining sustainable agriculture producon is a difficult probleminneedofaresoluon

Climate change is another area we are not paying aenon to on the Connent even more so in Ghana with the whole galamsey business. A Naon that destroys its soils destroys itself Our land is not merely soil but a fountain of energy flowing through a circuit of soils, plants and animals. We somehow live in a bubble thinking that what happens in the first world doesn't affect us, forgeng that we all live under the same atmosphere. Healthy soils host more living organisms making the earth more resilient to climate disasters such as flooding and drought. We need to priorize pracces such as galamsey mining versus farming, agroforestry that combines trees and other companion plants on along side food crops. Good news is; we can reverse theeffects

withregeneraveagriculturalpracces!

The rich rule the poor and the borrower is a slave to the lender Earth has enough for humans needs but not for humans greed. All beings need their share of ecological space and the right to parcipate in the livingprocesseswhichensurefood and waterforall. Sustainability and jusce are interconnected and robbing others of their righul share deprives them oftheirbasicneedswhichonlydeepensthecrisesof food, water, poverty, hunger and starvaon. We mustlearntogrowmorelocal,livelocalandtakethe windoutoftheglobalimportsails.Weneedtowake up and see the world of tomorrow with the next generaonseyes.

Look at what India and China have accomplishes in the last twenty years. Rwanda has shown that it is possible to do things in Africa. We just need to create ethical governance structures to ensure policies do what they ae supposed to do. Growing food is an act of survival whilst corporate capture is an act of corrupon. Food freedom comes from growing local, natural and self-regulated. African farmers have been trapped in a cycle of debt in a system that actually harms them and their livelihoods. It is a negave economy that also contributes significantly to chemically polluted soil and water ways, biodiversity loss and climate change.Thecostofthesystemoutweighsthereturn for farmers. That is why food producon is kept arficially afloat by Government subsidies. The benefits go to agro chemical organizaons and ultra-processed food processors than t farmers of theconsumers.

Around the world colonizers imposed their food preferences on the lands they invaded, eradicang local crop diversity, Indigenous food culture, and food wisdom. Bio-imperialism effecvely eroded ecologically appropriate, climate-resilient, waterprudent, and nutrion-rich millets. We need to look at farming sustainably and the impact of nutrion; millet is a good alternave to maize that consumes ten mes less water than wheat, twenty mes less water than paddy and is highly nutrious than corn. Yet in Ghana we do not consume it as much. Millet is a supper food that provides soluons to our failing guthealth,climatecrisisanddeserficaon.

What covid and the Russian/Ukraine war has taught us is that localizaon is key The ongoing war has once again laid bare just how fragile globalized food systems are The current globalized, industrial agrifoodsystemisafoodsystemthatcreateshunger by design rooted in greed. The food crisis should be a wake up call to building resilience in food systems and local food value chains. We need to address the elephantintheroom.

GMO is another topic that we need to really discuss asthereseemstobeasubtlemovetoallowingGMO seeds into the connent which is actually being driven by greed and aempts at control by biotech companies. Locally adapted seeds are much more resilient to climate change and sustainable than lab created soluons. Food is from nature not from a lab, nothing good comes out of science playing God and going against nature. GMO crops such as corn, soy, coon and alfalfa tend to be planted as “monocrops” — acres upon acres of a single plant species. Monocrops are the opposite of diversity, and planng them makes the ecosystem very fragile. Growing more diverse plants, as well as integrang the different plant species as much as possible, makes farmland naturally more resilient to weatherextremes,droughtandpests

One of the other challenges that connue to face us isthathistoricallyfarmlandsconnuetoberuledby patriarchy. Women in Africa sll suffer from land ownership. The oppression of women is deeply intertwined with the exploitaon of the planet. We need to as a Connent create a sustainable future for all and this can only happen through empowering women and challenging the system of oppression to create an equitable world and sustainable future for everyone regardless of gender, race or socio economic status. Women and those with marginalized idenes have shown me and again how resourceful and resilient they can be, even in the face of massive injusce and obstacles. Women farmers toil and moil; they plant, weed, harvest and sell produce to feed the community. Womenalsoacvelyplayaroleinreinvenngbeer ways of doing agriculture, and also put to pracce useful technologies. They go to great lengths to keepthewheelsofourfoodsystemsrolling.

The supposed first world are doing everything possible to ensure they not only have healthy organic food but are food secure. In Switzerland for example, they grow their food, make cheese, bake bread in almost every home. Mushrooms are available in cellars to grow, while underground gardens are a thing and sun lamps are used in absence of sunlight during winter We need to drive educaonal iniaves to help our people get more local food grown, produced and harvested. We need to get back to a partnership society and away from the dominator one that we have found ourselves in as a Connent. We must reconnect agriculture with culture, showing that our most basic means of nourishing ourselves must be valued as a holisc part of our lives - speaking to issues of land access, economic, social jusce, and sovereignty - highlighng that the soluon we need is a revoluon. We really do have so much to learn from our communies, indigenous communies who have been growing their own food for ages in the different regions in Ghana and across the Connent.

In summary, Africa and Ghana in parcular has a strong agricultural sector, infinite opportunies with significant potenal for growth and development. However, there are sll many challenges that need to be addressed to fully realize the potenal of African agriculture, including improving access to financing and markets, promong sustainable agriculture pracces, and addressing climate change impacts. Food is living currency,essenaltoalllife!Insoilwetrust!