Notice Board

FOOD SECURITY:

IS IT POSSIBLE THAT SOME DAY AFRICA WILL BE ABLE TO FEED OTHERS?

SPECIAL ISSUE

The Greater Horns of Africa countries are facing another food emergency, hardly three months after the end of the “last” one. The main food aid donors are: America ( USA and Canada ), European Union , China with about 1.2 billion is now the third, and then we have Australia , and New Zealand . We have no idea for how long a huge country such as China will sustain its food aid. Further, it is not only Africa which requires food aid; as more and more countries get into conflict, they too require support.

Recent conferences, specifically the Abuja Fertilizer Summit of June 9 to 13, 2006 which was attended by 40 African heads of state, and the First African Rice Congress organized by WARDA (the African Rice Center) and others have called for an African Green Revolution; Africa is ready, African scientists are ready, other development partners and foreign scientists are ready and what is needed now is good will on the part of our governments and development partners, the World Bank, to commit major resources, and policy reforms to get the ball rolling.

We want to call on our governments to put resources where their statements are. Africa cannot continue to suffer, always, the indignity of having to beg for food, when we know that in the seventies, Africa was a net exporter of food. Observers tell us that Africa will continue to get poorer, to produce less food, to be hungrier, and to depend more on food aid, which itself will become more scarce.

Answers to our predicament are there. I would like to co-ordinate us to put these down, starting with a special issue of the journal AJFAND and most likely thereafter as a book. I need volunteers to send in papers according to the guidelines of the journal. Please visit the website www.ajfand.net and write to me after examining the format, studying the instructions to the authors and reviewers - and let me know whether you would like to participate in this project. Indicate the thrust of your presentation; breeding (conventional or modern or both), the crops, topology, geographical area, economics, technology transfer, capacity building, application, marketing, governance/legal issues, commercialization of agriculture, empowering the farmer etc.

As you can see, the scope is wide to give as many professionals as possible an opportunity. In the end, the Editorial part will select the best manuscripts. If you have been left out, please let me know. Otherwise, let us get on with the job.

Get back to us when you are ready.

Good Luck.

Ruth K. Oniang'o, PhD,
Professor of Food Science and Nutrition and Kenyan Parliamentarian
Founder Editor-in-Chief, AJFAND