KEUR YABA DIOP, Senegal As the world's aid agencies scramble, yet again, to feed millions of hungry in Africa's Sahel, some smallholders in the semi-arid region are reporting bumper harvests of onions, potatoes and tomatoes.
The reason? Drip irrigation systems made up of water tanks and rows of black pipes, http://landscapingdiscussion.blogspot.com/ the Sahel who, over the last few years, have taken part in the African Market Garden, an Israeli initiative to use low pressure drip irrigation to break dependence on rain and boost crops, nutrition and incomes.
Diop's harvests will earn him 800,000 CFA francs ($1,624) over the year, while the U.N. will spend $190 million over the same period to get through the food crisis, prompting calls for the donors to invest more on long term projects.
"Niger is going to have a big problem this year," said Dov Pasternak, the head of the Sahel programme at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), referring to the rush to bring aid into the land-locked nation.
"This will cost millions but how much is being spent on agriculture? I have a gut feeling the ratio is huge in favor of food relief," he said. "It is the poverty that we have to deal with, rather than providing food security."
CAN'T RELY ON RAINS
ICRISAT says the African Market Garden irrigation system means returns on land, water and labor are multiplied by two, four and six, respectively, when compared with traditional vegetable production systems on the continent.
That could allow places like Niger to shift from perennial sites of hunger into producers of food for the regional market of around 250 million people, Pasternak said.
Contrary to the area's drought-ridden image, Pasternak says water is available. Most obvious are the billions of liters that flow down Niger's eponymous river. Looking for lawn care, lawn maintenance, lawn fertilizer, lawn irrigation, weed control, lawn aeration, landscaping, flowers, landscape lighting, holiday decorations and snow removal in Des Moines, Iowa? http://uscity.net/listing/all_american_turf_beauty_inc-888889008764 >
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