Embracing technology can make a difference but.....

As listened to this presidential aspirant and marvel at his mastery of the languages and all the things he's going to do for the Kenyan youth (Who he said the old forks have conspired to lock out of the job market) and the ailing agricultural economy if elected, one thing got my attention.

He categorically reiterated that we are not going to rejuvenate the agricultural economy by clinging onto the traditional farming methods and equipments. We need to embrace the use of technology and mechanization of the same in order move ahead. As a sign of walking the talk, this particular aspirant has a mobile phone as his party's symbol and goes ahead to argue that is by embracing such technologies that we are going to develop our country. 

Drawing the Contrast

I think this one has my vote, kindly let me know what you think by leaving a comment on this post.. 

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Promoting Local Innovations - Key to success

 
PROLINNOVA South Africa: Sparks on the Rainbow from CTA on Vimeo.

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Huge potential in agricultural productivity but ...........

Post-harvest management and food processing key to food security and have in the recent past increasingly gained prominence in the wake of food insecurity prevalent which is largely attributed to their absence. In agriculture, postharvest handling is the stage of crop production immediately following harvest, including cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing. The instant a crop is removed from the ground, or separated from its parent plant, it begins to deteriorate. Post-harvest treatment largely determines final quality, whether a crop is sold for fresh consumption, or used as an ingredient in a processed food product. Effective handling decreases postharvest losses and thus enhancing food security. This link will lead you to a whole lot of opportunities / publications in this regard .

The CTA Catalogue

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Embracing irrigation for enhanced food security in Turkana

An irrigation system for food production

Irrigation is the application of water to farmland by means other than rainfall. It is usually required for growing crops in regions that receive less than 10 inches of precipitation per year and highly advisable in regions that receive only slightly more precipitation or have long dry seasons or droughts during the growing season. More than half of all the farmers in the world practice some form of irrigation.
Through this technology, it is possible for the people of Turkana to be self-reliant by producing their own food if the state as well as non-state actors changed tact and embraced it.
 The food situation in Turkana is ‘grave’ - people are dying of hunger and as much as humanitarian aid is important in saving them, let us think of allocating a portion of the millions we perennially sink into emergency relief to irrigate Turkana for enhanced food security. This could be advanced through the young people who have energy for cattle rustling. The youth can be engaged in meaningful agricultural projects to feed their communities as well as the country.
 The Turkana have been dependent on relief food for the last five decades and “nothing seems to change”. The situation even seems to be worsening every year as the drought cycles become more recurrent and severe owing to climate change.
It is regrettable that irrigation has not been fully exploited and that some schemes that started were allowed to collapse. It is also unfortunate that during the rainy season, volumes of surface water are not harvested for irrigation but left to flow to waste. Israel, which is drier than Turkana, is food sufficient and feeds the world because food security is central to its development agenda. We can do better given our natural resource base endowment.

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