can industrialised farming make Africa feed the world?

British-owned Chayton Atlas manages a 25,000 acre farm in Mkushi

The vision unfolding across the Mkushi plain in Zambia is at odds with the doleful imagery of modern Africa to which we have become accustomed.
Three hours from the capital Lusaka the wheat crop glows under the tropical sun. A combine harvester moves methodically across one portion of a vast field. Nearby a giant sprinkler irrigates the soya bean crop.
One might as easily be standing on the plains of the American Mid-West or among the grain fields of the Ukraine.
These are fields of plenty, a productive Africa that challenges the narrative of conflict and hunger that so dominates our idea of the continent.
"If we just increased the yields to 80% of world averages, Africa would become a net exporter of food. We believe that Africa can feed itself and the rest of the world too," Dabney Tonelli of Chayton Atlas, the British-owned company that manages the 25,000 acre farm at Mkushi, says.

Dabney Tonelli says Africa can become a net exporter of food

Chayton acquired a 14-year lease on the land from the Zambian government with the promise of hugely increasing yields, providing jobs for locals and passing on skills to the small farmers who live on subsistence plots nearby.
After years of misrule and corruption Zambia, which recently elected a new government, is seen as a beacon of stability on the continent.
"The political environment is stable, excellent conditions for agriculture in terms of climate and the quality of soil. For the agricultural investor Zambia is where you want to be," says Ms Tonelli.
Zimbabwean expertise
White farmers who were driven off their land in Zimbabwe have been hired to run the Chayton operation, bringing with them the intensive farming skills they have honed over decades.
The farm manager at Mkushi, Stuart Kearns, became a full-time farmer as a teenager after his father was killed in the Bush War in what was then Rhodesia. Despite his experiences in Zimbabwe he is optimistic about the future of farming in Zambia:
"There is huge potential here and I think the thing with Africa is that you have to keep trying again and again. That is something you learn when you grow up here."
Chayton promises to "create jobs, introduce sustainable farming methods… provide support and training to small-scale farmers".

Zambia's vice-president Dr Guy Scott voiced concern about job losses

But there are considerable obstacles - poor infrastructure and bureaucracy stand in the way of Zambia becoming a major exporter of food to the continent. At the moment Chayton is only producing for the local market.
And in an interview with Newsnight, the country's new vice-president, Dr Guy Scott, a farmer himself, was sceptical of some of the claims made by the company:
"I am very sceptical because I've been around a lot and I know what proposals look like and what justifications look like in the investment game and I would say that 90% of what is promised turns out not to be true… not necessarily because of any venality or any deliberate fraud.
"I mean people hope for the best. They hope it is going to work. And the government hopes it is going to work. And we all get each others hopes up. And then you find 'oh dear we didn't actually succeed in having the social impact or economic impact we'd hoped for'."
Displacement fears
Dr Scott worries about the social impact of job losses due to more intensive farming where machines take the place of people:

Local small-scale farmers complain about problems securing capital

"I think the main problem is that the population for Zambia is that the population is about four times too big for the economy. And I think that is the danger with large scale intensive farming; it tends to be capital intensive, it tends not to create jobs and at the same time tends to displace people who are unemployed from their fallback position which is to be subsistence farmers."
Chayton acknowledge that their modernised farming methods have already led to job losses, but insist that as the business grows it will create employment in spin-off businesses:
"Yes, over time some of the less skilled work goes as a result of mechanisation, but we are building a large scale business so over time we are creating other jobs," Ms Tonelli says.
"What we are able to do is train people to do highly skilled jobs which they can continue to use in a career in agriculture of transfer to other sectors as well."
Local feeling
The local subsistence farmers I meet say they welcome the principle of commercial farming, but have yet to see it bring any benefit to them.
Chayton has only been operating in the area for a year but Brighton Marcokatebe, a farmer in the nearby village of Asa, says other commercial farmers have failed to help their smaller neighbours.

Most of Zambia's farmers are small-scale subsistence farmers

"If they come with help then I will accept it, but so far they don't help," he says.
The villagers also complain that they cannot access capital. Most land in Zambia is owned by the state and administered by village chiefs. Without any legal title to the land small farmers cannot get bank loans to buy machinery and expand their production.
But according to Dr Guy Scott, Zambia's small farmers can look forward to a better deal:
"We're elected by Zambians and their interests have to come first. If their interests can be made to coincide with those of the international markets or whatever then great, but at the end of the day we are responsible for their protection, their social protection."
Matching that commitment with the agreements already made with foreign investors will require considerable political skill.

Trees 'boost African crop yields and food security'

Trees 'boost African crop yields and food security'

The nitrogen-fixing roots of certain trees provide valuable nutrients to resource-poor arable land

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• How Africa 'can feed itself'
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Planting trees that improve soil quality can help boost crop yields for African farmers, an assessment shows.

Fertiliser tree systems (FTS) also help boost food security and play a role in "climate proofing" the region's arable land, the paper adds.

Researchers from the World Agroforestry Centre say poor soil fertility is one of the main obstacles to improving food production in Africa.

The results appear in the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

"In Africa, it is generally agreed that poor soil management - along with poor water management - is most greatly affecting yields," explained co-author Frank Place, head of the centre's Impact Assessment team.

He said that despite chemical fertilisers having been on the market for more than half a century, farmers appeared reluctant or unable to buy them.

"Therefore, there have been a lot of attempts to bring in other types of nutrients from other systems - such as livestock and plants" he told BBC News.

"We have been working quite a lot on what is broadly referred to as 'fertiliser tree systems'."

Although it has been known for centuries that certain plants, such as legumes, "fix" nitrogen in the soil and boost food crop yields, Dr Place said that the centre's researchers had been looking to develop a more active management approach such as FTS.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

In TFS across Africa as a whole, yields are doubling or more in two-thirds of cases”

End Quote Frank Place WAC

"Some farms, for example in Zambia, where the farms are larger, it is possible to rest arable land and allow it to lie fallow," he observed.

"But in place such as much of Malawi, where population densities are higher, they cannot afford to fallow their land; so we came up with alternative management systems where they could intercrop the trees with the (maize)."

While the technique is not new, Dr Place said that some of the nitrogen-fixing species used by farmers were probably not the most effective.

For example, farmers in East Africa had been using Cajanus cajan (also known as pigeon pea).

"A lot of the nitrogen was being stored in the trees' seeds; so there was an effort to use other trees that put a greater volume in the soil, such as Gliricidia sepium (one of its common name is mother of cocoa)," he said.

"A really nice thing about G. sepium is that we have been coppicing some of those trees for 20 years and they still continue to grow back vigorously."

Continue reading the main story

What is 'nitrogen-fixing'?

• The atmosphere consists of about 80% nitrogen, but plants cannot use it in this form
• Certain plants, such as legumes, have bacteria growing in their root hairs that convert it into a form that plants can use
• This form of nitrogen is know as "green manure" and is a nutrient that helps plants, such as food crops, to grow

(Source: World Agroforestry Centre)

However, he acknowledged that there were a number of challenges that had to be addressed in order to maximise yields.

For example, some systems suggested planting rows of trees between rows of crops with mixed results.

"We realised that there were a few management problems with that sort of system - what tended to happen was that there was too much competition between the crops and the trees," Dr Place explained.

"We developed a new management system where the trees were cut very low to the ground at the time you are planting the crop so then there was no light competition.

"The trees go into a dormant state when you cut them like this, so the root system is not competing straight away for the nutrients, so the maize is free to become established.

"The trees only really start to come out out of the dormant phase when the maize is already tall."

Another challenge was to provide enough seeds in order to have mass-scale planting. He said that balancing the provision of high-quality seeds with large local engagement was another hurdle that had to be overcome.

But the rewards in improved yields were noticeable, he added.

"Some of the studies have shown that in TFS across Africa as a whole, yields are doubling or more in two-thirds of cases."

Where the systems were not delivering such good results, Dr Place said that scientists were looking to refine current practices and modify them to suit the local conditions.

'Climate proofing'

As well as helping to boost yields, the use of trees in agriculture has other benefits - such as helping to "climate proof" agriculture land.

One example, Dr Place said, was the use of Faidherbia albida (common names include winter thorn and apple-ring acacia) in West African arable landscapes.

"It has a deep penetrating tap root, and it can secure a good water supply even in dry years," he explained.

"Generally speaking, tree roots do go much deeper than crop roots, so it is recycling nutrients and water from deeper reaches.

"There are also studies showing that these roots act as conduits and bring up water to surface root systems (such as those belonging to crops)."

The editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, Professor Jules Pretty from Essex University in , said the study illustrated that there was a growing movement of agricultural innovations across Africa that were increasing yields and at the same time improving the environment.

"Trees and shrubs in agricultural systems seem to break some of the rules of agriculture - in this case, farmers are using shrubs to create a diverse rotation pattern rather than year-on-year maize," he told BBC News.

"The trees fix nitrogen and improve the soil; the leaves can be fed to livestock; the crops then benefit greatly in subsequent years."

The African Union has condemned a coup in Niger

Col Goukoye Abdul Karimou read a statement signed by Col Salou Djibo

The African Union has condemned a coup in Niger, where soldiers have detained President Mamadou Tandja.

AU chief Jean Ping said he was watching developments "with concern" after a day of gun battles culminated in a takeover led by Colonel Salou Djibo.

West African bloc Ecowas "roundly condemned" the coup and dispatched a mission to talk to the plotters.

But one opposition activist told the BBC the soldiers were "honest patriots" who were fighting tyranny.

Heavy artillery

Mr Tandja provoked a political crisis last August when he changed the constitution of the uranium-rich country to allow him to remain in power indefinitely.

NIGER Chronic poverty Population 14 million, 61% live on less than $1 a day Resource rich Huge reserves of uranium, Chinese firms digging for oil Politcally unstable History of coups, assassinations and on-off rebellion by nomadic Tuareg people in the north Source: World Bank Country profile: Niger

The Economic Community Of West African States (Ecowas), which suspended Niger after Mr Tandja's actions, said it had "zero tolerance" for any unconstitutional changes of government.

"We condemn the coup d'etat just as we condemn the constitutional coup d'etat by Tandja," Ecowas official Abdel Fatau Musa told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

He said the group had already sent a team to Niger and would maintain sanctions "until constitutional order is restored".

The BBC's Idy Baraou in the capital, Niamey, said on the morning after the coup, people in the city were going to mosques and shops as normal.

He said there was not an obvious military presence on the streets, but heavy artillery had been deployed around the presidential palace.

While state radio has been broadcasting military music overnight, state TV station Tele Sahel is continuing with live programming from a traditional wrestling championship.

Freedom fighters?

In a televised address on Thursday evening, a spokesman for the plotters announced that the constitution had been suspended and all state institutions dissolved.

The junta, which has called itself the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy, imposed a curfew and closed the country's borders.

NIGER JUNTA Col Salou Djibo Coup leader Col Djibrilla Hima Hamidou Involved in 1999 coup Col Goukoye Abdul Karimou Junta spokesman Col Amadou Harouna

The plotters said their aim was to restore democracy and save the population from "poverty, deception and corruption".

The move came after gunfights around the presidential palace reportedly resulted in several fatalities.

Soldiers captured Mr Tandja while he was chairing his weekly cabinet meeting, a government source told the BBC.

Little is known about coup leader Col Djibo, but another of the plotters, Col Djibrilla Hima Hamidou, was junta spokesman during the last military takeover in 1999.

The president was assassinated during that coup, but civilian rule was restored within a year.

One opposition activist, Mahamadou Karijo, whose Party for Democracy and Socialism has been bitterly opposed to Mr Tandja's rule, praised the soldiers for fighting tyranny.

"They behave like they say - they are not interested in political leadership, they will fight to save the Nigerien people from any kind of tyranny," he told Network Africa.

History of instability

The government and opposition had been holding on-off talks since December to try to resolve the country's political crisis.

Profile: Mamadou Tandja

Mr Tandja, a former army officer, was first voted into office in 1999 and was returned to power in an election in 2004.

His current whereabouts are unknown, but soldiers are thought to be holding him at a military base on the outskirts of Niamey.

Niger has experienced long periods of military rule since independence from France in 1960.

It is one of the world's poorest countries, but Mr Tandja's supporters argue that his decade in power has brought a measure of economic stability.

Under his tenure, the French energy firm Areva has begun work on the world's second-biggest uranium mine - ploughing an estimated $1.5bn into the project.

China National Petroleum Corporation signed a $5bn deal in 2008 to pump oil within three years.