Of all the challenges facing African communities as we enter the 21st century, few will dispute that the need to bring an end to generations of endemic hunger is the most pressing.
Yet the roles which soil degradation and desertification have played and continue to play in the cycle of hunger is often little understood, and few international organisations and agencies have been prepared to focus their efforts and resources on tackling an unfolding environmental, and ultimately humanitarian crisis, of a massive scale.
Put simply, the steady decline in the quality and quantity of farm land in parts of Africa is leading to diminishing crop yields and a decline in grazing pasture at a time when increasing numbers of people and animals are needing it for their survival.
There are several simple reasons why the issue of soil degradation and desertification is not being adequately addressed, and perhaps the simplest of these is that it is the rural poor, many of whom live in environmentally fragile areas, who are often both the main victims and the unwilling architects of soil degradation and the spread of desertification.
Nomadic herders, increasingly impoverished as a result of drought and the expansion of arable agriculture, have been forced to graze their herds on fragile grasslands. Similarly, staple-food producers and subsistence farmers working on marginal soils have little choice but to sacrifice the future for the present, clearing trees, farming lands and grazing animals in an unsustainable manner to provide a livelihood.
They are often unable to invest in soil and water conservation, and while they might acknowledged that continuous tree felling and over-grazing contributes to erosion by exposing soils to wind and rain, there is little alternative when, at the very simplest, they require wood to provide their only source of energy for cooking. Equally, if their animals need feeding they will turn out their herds on whatever available pasture exists, regardless of the longer term consequences.
Because of the rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa over recent decades, the pressure on existing natural resources has increased immeasurably. In many cases man's demand for food, grazing, fibre and fuel has increased well beyond the limits that nature can provide. Worryingly, future demands on the resource base for these products will be even greater.
It should be pointed out that rural farmers are not the only ones contributing to the problem of soil degradation and desertification, as government approved rural resettlements, commercial logging, the establishment of commercial coffee and tea plantations as well as the expansion of crop fields have all had their part to play.
The potential of much of the land to produce is set by soil and climatic conditions and by the level of inputs and management applied to the land. Any over exploitation of land beyond these limits results in degradation and declining yields as has been witnessed across great swathes of Africa, including wide areas of the Great Rift Valley – where Self Help Africa have a series of project areas.
Nature can be very forgiving however - and we in Self Help have been pro-active in efforts to restore and regenerate areas which had suffered desertification as a result of a combination of factors – including over population, over grading, deforestation, and poor natural resource management.
It is our belief that real and lasting food security in Africa depends in large part on having a sustainable and productive agricultural resource base. Gulley regeneration projects, area enclosures, extensive programmes of replanting, and training and education programmes are just some of the measures that we currently employ in our efforts to reverse the spread of desertification.
It should be noted however that Self Help’s environmental and conservation measures are only undertaken as part of a wider integrated approach to the problems being faced by rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. We are dealing with complex problems which require complex solutions – and a range of other initiatives, including the promotion of better farming practices, promoting the growth of alternative crops, irrigation and water schemes, the introduction of fuel efficient cooking stoves, various capacity building and income generating projects, and the planting of homestead wood allotments all have a part to play in combating not just poverty, but also the environmental degradation which has resulted from it.
In the area of tree planting alone we have planted in excess of 20 million tree seedlings in our project areas in East Africa over the past decade or so.
While environmental problems abound, a considerable agricultural potential exists over large areas of the continent. When land resources are used in accordance with their suitability, and are appropriately managed, land degradation can be prevented and increases in productivity and production can, and have, been obtained.
Unfortunately the challenges which we face are great. As the Brundtland Commission observed in 1987, poverty is both a cause and effect of this loss of environmental resources.
'No other region', it wrote, 'more tragically suffers the vicious cycle of poverty leading to environmental degradation, which leads in turn to even greater poverty.'
Unless that cycle is reversed, the number of people suffering from poverty, hunger, and malnutrition will grow, and the deteriorating effects of natural resources and environmental degradation will continue.
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