Recently, I got a very annoying e-mail titled “Please Don’t Waste Food” from a friend who is a top and intelligent civil servant in Abuja. The e-mail with some sorry images (about 5 photos) of badly undernourished kids of African origin had the following comments:

“Don't keep this email to your self, forward it to your friends, so our friends and all people will thank God for food and water that they already have.”

“This is one more reason why we have to thank God for the food that we can have easily.
But in the other hand....ironically, we still waste the food that we buy.

I feel very GRATEFUL for what I have today.......
We are so Blessed for the wonderful works of God's hand in our life today, just think of this ..............” (sic)

"I felt very fortunate to live in this part of the world. I promise I will never waste my food no matter how bad it can taste and how full I may be. I promise not to waste water. I pray that this little boy be alleviated from his suffering.” (sic)

“Think & look at this...when you complain about your food and the food we waste daily..." MAY ALL HUMAN BEINGS BE FREE FROM SUFFERING!!!!

Please don't break this, keep on forwarding it to all our friends. On this good day, let's make a prayer for the suffering in any place around the globe and send this friendly reminder to others.” (sic)

“PLEASE, 
MY GREAT FRIENDS, DON'T BREAK THIS CHAIN, KINDLY SEND IT TO SOMEONE YOU LOVE, TO ENABLE HIM OR HER SEE WHAT GOD HAS DONE IN HIS/HER LIFE COMPARED WITH THESE KIDS' DEPLORABLE CONDITIONS.”

Oh! “Thank God, because I am not starving like the people on these photographs”

This is a shallow and absolute misrepresentation of hunger vis-à-vis the concept of “thanking or giving glory to God”! These kinds of photographs are just sent with short captions, without telling us where and when the photos were captured. The photographs, loud as they are, must be understood within context.

Questions need to be asked…why do other societies, some groups, other classes, and other countries enjoy abundant food and even waste it, while others lack food, and starve?

Just when did this “hunger” begin? When did pictures of hunger and pictures of starving, malnourished kids start to become symbols for “award winning photo-journalists” (like Kevin Kostner, “Pulitzer prize winner”) and other such concerned photographers?

I know no such photos of hunger existed in the Nigeria of my grand parents and the 1960s! Yes, our great grand parents would not contemplate these disturbing images. So, what went wrong?

So, one should “thank God” for what? Is it for not looking like these people in the photos, or not having kids or relations that look like the images? What then should the folks in the images, and other starving people say to God?

We should be asking questions, why are some of our people dying of hunger while others are lavishing in waste? Why is our previous society, well fed than our current society, in spite of the abundance of oil in Nigeria? Should the concern be “let’s thank God”? If so, what should be the concern of the starving people who don’t know where to get the next meal? Oh, they should also “thank God”, no?

No, I think this is an abuse of God’s name! God has provided us with everything. Some greedy people have created systems that have distorted the human ecology, thereby throwing up poverty, and our concern, to me, should be asking why? Why is hunger increasing in Nigeria, in Africa and other such parts of the world? What went wrong? Why are Nigerians short of food and hungry in the midst of vast arable land?

Food is something that societies, governments all over the world handle as a number one first priority. “Freedom from want” is one of the four basic freedoms the government of America strives to achieve for its citizens: this freedom from want is centered on “want of food”. The goal is that no single American should be in “want” of basic food to eat. The U.S. government has ensured this to very high degrees by doggedly pursuing policies that sustain the farmer. I was privileged to make a visit to the Indian Springs Agricultural Cooperative Society in the state of Mississippi, an affiliate of the Mississippi Association of Cooperatives. I was amazed at the benefits and support (subsidy) that farmers enjoy from government. In Asia, the Indians are pursuing this earnestly, through smart agricultural policy. The Chinese, Thai and Indonesian rice we so love to eat in Nigeria is cultivated by small rural farmers (NOT LARGE SCALE FARMERS) who are supported by government through deliberate policy that reduces risks and keeps them on the farm.

Why is the yearly food harvest per capita very low in Nigeria? Why is the farming population decreasing in Nigeria? Why do our subsistent farmers witness a growing decrease in their harvests? When I was a kid in my village, in the 1970s, village farmers were buying Lorries and buses from proceeds of their crop harvests, out of manual labor, not mechanized farming. Two of my uncles were proud farmers who had lorries… today, not that my two uncles are too old to do farm work, they still work hard on the farm, but believe me, the go hungry and starve, really starve (I’m not joking!) before the next farming season. The legendary huge pounded yam in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart

is no more. Farmers in the villages, everywhere in Nigeria, are starving! The rural sociology of starving farmers in today’s Nigeria is a post-oil boom phenomenon.

When agriculture was the biggest foreign exchange earner for Nigeria, when Nigeria was the biggest cocoa producer, biggest rubber producer, biggest oil palm producer in the world; when we had the legendary groundnut pyramids in Kano, it was not by magic. There was sound agricultural policy that made the farmer happy to be on the farm. Agricultural commodity boards bought over all the harvest at a good minimum price that will never make the farmer regret.  Agricultural research and extension was booming, today, 774 local governments have Agricultural Departments that do not carry out a single extension visit to any farm, and they don’t know anything that is happening in the frontiers of crop production.

In a rapid rural appraisal (RRA) in Zaria and Sanga Local governments, both in Kaduna State, farmers blamed their increasingly low grain (particularly maize) output over the years on lack of fertilizers. Look at the headline I saw on Thisday of Friday, March 21, 2008: “FERTILIZER PRICES TO GO UP”. Do we have any excuse to raise the price of fertilizers? In Lere Government of the same Kaduna State from the early 1990s, farmers in the area enjoyed bountiful maize harvests (anyone who traveled the Kaduna-Jos road around October/November of each year would see the hundreds of sacks of maize outside almost every house in the villages along the road). It was due to an agricultural extension initiative of the Sasakawa Foundation, in partnership with the Kaduna State Government, which introduced new maize farming technology to the people of Lere. Since the pilot project ended, the state government has not been able to replicate the initiative beyond Lere local government. Now, the harvest in Lere is dwindling because the technology is already becoming outdated. It is not as if there is no technology at all, the agricultural research institutes and agricultural faculties in our universities are doing quite well in developing new technology, but it ends there. It is not the responsibility of the researcher to take it to the farming public.

Less young people are inheriting their family occupation of farming (in other climes, farming is now a “profession”) in the villages, the population of Nigeria is witnessing high rates of rural urban migration and demographers predict that the population may soon become heavy in favor of the urban areas. I was shocked the other day when one Abuja mother “warned” her son, “if you don’t do well in school, you will be sent to become a farmer in the village”, and the boy cried bitterly…so becoming a farmer is such a painful issue in Nigeria. What a pity.

Now, our city folks, our elite who should know better, are circulating e-mails asking people to “thank God” because they have food while others lack food to eat? What crab! I was not at all surprised at the level to which fellow Nigerians can invoke God’s name over issues of a basic right such as food, for God never meant food to be the special privilege of a few. They business of God and how fellow Nigerians invoke the name of God over everything, whether good or evil, never ceases to amaze and amuse me.

Robot  Villager

# 1 Recently, I got a very annoying e-mail titled “Please Don’t Waste Food” from a fr...Read the full article. Posted by Robot| 21.03.2008 18:44

emj  Villager

# 2 When agriculture was the biggest foreign exchange earner for Nigeria, when Nigeria was the biggest cocoa producer, biggest rubber producer, biggest oil palm producer in the world; when we had the legendary groundnut pyramids in Kano, it was not by magic. There was sound agricultural policy that made the farmer happy to be on the farm. Agricultural commodity boards bought over all the harvest at a good minimum price that will never make the farmer regret. Agricultural research and extension was booming, today, 774 local governments have Agricultural Departments that do not carry out a single extension visit to any farm, and they don’t know anything that is happening in the frontiers of crop production. Ehermm........Philip...those wia d days b4 oil boom...when farmers wia da richest people in da country.......do not forget to remember Coal mining in Enugu....All da Rubber and Plam-oil Plantations in the Middle-West and other south south areas. In a rapid rural appraisal (RRA) in Zaria and Sanga Local governments, both in Kaduna State, farmers blamed their increasingly low grain (particularly maize) output over the years on lack of fertilizers. Look at the headline I saw on Thisday of Friday, March 21, 2008: “FERTILIZER PRICES TO GO UP”. Do we have any excuse to raise the price of fertilizers? In Lere Government of the same Kaduna State from the early 1990s, farmers in the area enjoyed bountiful maize harvests (anyone who traveled the Kaduna-Jos road around October/November of each year would see the hundreds of sacks of maize outside almost every house in the villages along the road). It was due to an agricultural extension initiative of the Sasakawa Foundation, in partnership with the Kaduna State Government, which introduced new maize farming technology to the people of Lere. Since the pilot project ended, the state government has not been able to replicate the initiative beyond Lere local government. Now, the harvest in Lere is dwindling because the technology is already becoming outdated. It is not as if there is no technology at all, the agricultural research institutes and agricultural faculties in our universities are doing quite well in developing new technology, but it ends there. It is not the responsibility of the researcher to take it to the farming public. Fertilizers...hmmmm, dats another story...and all da Research Institutes now carry out their research for certain purposes only...just keeping up to get grants from da designated quarters...not much of Field work...and those Farmers who are smart enough gets help from them. Less young people are inheriting their family occupation of farming (in other climes, farming is now a “profession”) in the villages, the population of Nigeria is witnessing high rates of rural urban migration and demographers predict that the population may soon become heavy in favor of the urban areas. I was shocked the other day when one Abuja mother “warned” her son, “if you don’t do well in school, you will be sent to become a farmer in the village”, and the boy cried bitterly…so becoming a farmer is such a painful issue in Nigeria. What a pity. What is there to inherit...it's only if your father is well placed and just retired with millions...then you might decide to go into Mechanized farming...and of course u shld know those who have cornered that area. Anywaz, Philip, there are still some young enterprising graduates who have gone into other areas like Fish Farming , and some Breed Snails in large Scale. And don't be surprised to read of some new developments in the Agric sector.....i know of some people who are into the exportation of Cashews and some other products, some pay upfront to get the farmers to plant what they are interested in. Over 800 million people world-wide depend on cassava as a regular source of energy. Per capital consumption in West Africa is more than 120kg per annum while that of Central Africa Republic is more than 300kg per annum. Nigeria alone produces over 10 million metric tones of cassava per annum. Unfortunately, most of our farmers, businessmen, investors and industrialists are unaware of the investment opportunities which the cassava industry offers. Cassava tuber may be processed into a variety of products which are hot cakes in the export market. These include chips, flakes, cubes, peeler, starch and flour, pellets, etc. Many European and American countries, including: Germany, UK, France, the Nertherlands among others demand huge quantities of processed cassava products annually. In fact, the use of cassava for compounding livestock feeds has gained wide acceptance in Latin America and Asia. There is booming export market and the European Economic Community (EEC Countries) import over 10 million metric tones per annum Apart from livestock feeds, processed cassava serves as industrial raw material for the production of adhesives bakery products, dextrin, dextrose glucose, lactose and sucrose. Dextrin is used as a binding agent in the paper and packing industry and adhesive in cardboard, plywood and veneer binding. Food and beverage industries use cassava products derivatives in the production of jelly caramel and chewing gum, pharmaceutical and chemical industries also use cassava alcohol (ethanol) in the production of cosmetics and drugs. The products also find ready use in the manufacture of dry cell, textiles and school chalk etc. Cassava cubes are used mainly in the compounding of livestock feeds. Thus there is a very high demand for cassava products in both the local and export markets. Da above quote i got from da archives somewhere..lol BTW, i wonder what happened to the Gari Project...Nigeria got a very lucrative deal to export it to certain countries for...can't remember da full gist anymore...drat:cool: PS>>>>found this article written by Bimbo some yrs ago http://peopleandplanet.net/doc.php?id=2400 Posted by emj| 21.03.2008 20:47

Sapele Man  Villager

# 3 =emj;4294998232> BTW, i wonder what happened to the Gari Project...Nigeria got a very lucrative deal to export it to certain countries for...can't remember da full gist anymore...drat:cool: emj, You don chop all the gari finish you dey ask wetin happen to the gari project. Gari dey now buku. China dey buy plenty cassava from Nigeria. Yes, we dey export the one wen e remain but it not plenty reach the figure we dey talk about before. Posted by Sapele Man| 22.03.2008 04:07

aguabata  Villager

# 4 the point you didnt expand on is the aspect of subsidy. Globally commercial farming is not a very profitable venture, it depends on government aid to survive, I believe government could find a balance on the amount of resources to spend on agricultural aid to ensure we dont have to import staple food. We are 140million people, and that is a sizeable market to experiment with. Posted by aguabata| 22.03.2008 06:13

cdimkpa  Villager

# 5 Two strategies can be adopted to increase food production in Nigeria: 1. Application of modern biotechnology, including the genetic engineering of useful genes into staple crops. 2. Increasing the land available for farming by means of environmentally-friendly and sustainable methods such as you will find in the paper below, and others to be published soon. Dimkpa et al. (2008; Canadian Journal of Microbiology). As you will find in this paper, a strategy to reduce the requirement for chemical fertilisers using beneficial microbial products is budding. In addition, the strategy will be useful in increasing the land area for agriculture, especially reclaiming metal-polluted soils such as those found in mining area around Jos, Ibadan, etc. Posted by cdimkpa| 22.03.2008 15:45

cdimkpa  Villager

# 6 Canadian access to full text made available through the Depository Services Program Can. J. Microbiol. 54(3): 163–172 (2008) | doi:10.1139/W07-130 | © 2008 NRC Canada Hydroxamate siderophores produced by Streptomyces acidiscabies E13 bind nickel and promote growth in cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L.) under nickel stress Christian Dimkpa, Aleš Svatoš, Dirk Merten, Georg Büchel, and Erika Kothe Abstract: The siderophore-producing ability of nickel-resistant Streptomyces acidiscabies E13 and the role of the elicited siderophores in promoting plant growth under iron and nickel stress are described. Siderophore assays indicated that S. acidiscabies E13 can produce siderophores. Electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (ESI-MS) revealed that the bacterium simultaneously produces 3 different hydroxamate siderophores. ESI-MS showed that in addition to iron, all 3 siderophores can bind nickel. In vitro plant growth tests were conducted with cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) in the presence and absence of the elicited siderophores. Culture filtrates containing hydroxamate siderophores significantly increased cowpea height and biomass, irrespective of the iron status of the plants, under nickel stress. The presence of reduced iron was found to be high in siderophore-containing treatments in the presence of nickel. Measurements of iron and nickel contents of cowpea roots and shoots indicated that the siderophore-mediated plant growth promotion reported here involves the simultaneous inhibition of nickel uptake and solubilization and supply of iron to plants. We conclude that hydroxamate siderophores contained in culture filtrates of S. acidiscabies E13 promoted cowpea growth under nickel contamination by binding iron and nickel, thus playing a dual role of sourcing iron for plant use and protecting against nickel toxicity. Key words: Streptomyces acidiscabies E13, siderophores, cowpea, iron, nickel. http://rparticle.web-p.cisti.nrc.ca/rparticle/AbstractTemplateServlet?calyLang=eng&journal=cjm&volume=54&year=0&issue=3&msno=w07-130 Posted by cdimkpa| 22.03.2008 15:52

emj  Villager

# 7 =Sapele Man;4294998260>emj, You don chop all the gari finish you dey ask wetin happen to the gari project. Gari dey now buku. China dey buy plenty cassava from Nigeria. Yes, we dey export the one wen e remain but it not plenty reach the figure we dey talk about before. Hmmm....SM, so wats being done to help improve the way cassava is grown and harvested by the farmers? And are those farmers benefitting from the grants that was meant to help improve/encourage them to produce more? Or it's just those old Generals and their Machines (mechanized farming) in action? Anywaz, SM.....e don reach laik iwk since i last ate Gari...my Oyinbo friend bin soak da last cup wey remain......she don turn to African Oyinbo:eek::p Happy Easter Sir, Prof, Field Marshall,Chief Ologbenla SM...fRCD, MMSD,WART Cantab:cool: Posted by emj| 22.03.2008 15:53