Can Organic Agriculture save?

Africa’s food sufficiency can only be achieved if stakeholder cooperates to come up with strong policies that focus on population growths, available resources, and workforce. If agricultural systems are small in natural, social and human assets,  then a  sudden switch to organic practices that rely on these assets will not be immediately successful and may take the time to reach its full potential. In developing nations, evidence from research shows that agricultural produce in organic systems remains stable when converting from systems that use relatively small amounts of synthetic inputs such as those frequently found in Africa. In the long run, yields increase as assets in systems improve, hence outperforming those in traditional systems and matching those in more conventional, input-intensive systems.

Organic farming can lead to increased food production – in many cases, a doubling of yields has been seen – which makes a significant contribution to improving the food security in a region.  Organic farming techniques are therefore widely recognized as increasing food security in this context, particularly in the rain-fed agricultural systems.

 Families have adequate nutrition leading to household food security for more months of the year. Moreover, surplus produce can be sold to create additional income for families. Maintaining a diversified crops and livestock production not only provides food security throughout the year but also leads to increased nutritional security for farmer households. Poverty is a major contributory factor to food insecurity, and farming has a positive impact on poverty in a variety of ways. Farmers benefit from:  cash savings, as organic farming, precludes the need to purchase synthetic pesticides  and  fertilizers and extra  incomes from produce sales

In conclusion, just as food security is important, special consideration should be given to nutritional sufficiency this will provide for the sustainability of health for future generations. Population, just like a time bomb, is ticking- if Africa fails to concentrate on the urgency of providing food for it will explode. We are fifty years young than the other continents regarding development, a green revolution kind of project need to pop up to counter attack the growing population. The 2015 Millennium developed goals are far from being achieved, to say the least however it could have been at least prudent to manifest our efforts. Africa has the capability and resource all we need is redefining our priorities.