The Environmental Food Crisis

Asia. Nowadays, Africa is especially dependent on food imports. Food production in this region is lagging behind due to limited research investments and the problems for farmers to use the appropriate inputs in their production process.

rica is geographically large, its share in R&D spending is only 13%. Latin America accounts for 33% (with Brazil being respon- sible for 48% of the region’s spending). Productivity has risen in many developing countries, mainly as a result of investment in agricultural R&D combined with im- proved human capital and rural infrastructure. In East Asia, land productivity increased from US$1,485/ha in 1992 to US$2,129/ ha in 2006, while labour productivity rose from US$510 to US$822/worker. In Africa, the levels of productivity are much lower and their growth has also been slower. In 1992, land pro- ductivity in Sub-Saharan Africa was only 79% of that in East Asia; by 2006 this gap of 21% had increased to 59% (IFPRI, 2008).

RESEARCH INVESTMENTS

The world regions are sharply divided in terms of their capacity to use science in promoting agricultural productivity in order to achieve food security and reduce poverty and hunger. For ev- ery US$100 of agricultural output, developed countries spend US$2.16 on public agricultural research and development (R&D), whereas developing countries spend only US$0.55 (IF- PRI, 2008). Total agricultural R&D spending in developing countries increased from US$3.7 billion (1991) to US$4.4 bil- lion (2000), or by 1.6% annually (IFPRI, 2008). This spending was largely driven by Asia, where annual spending increased by 3.3 percent. Today, Asia accounts for 42% of total agricultural R&D spending in developing countries (with China and India accounting for 18 and 10%, respectively). In Africa, agricultural R&D expenditure declined slightly, by 0.4%/year. Although Af-

RESOURCES FOR FERTILIZER USE

One of the major options for significantly raising crop pro- duction is increasing the use of mineral fertilizers. The Africa Fertilizer Summit 2006 concluded that the use of fertilizers should be increased to a level of at least 50 kg/ha by 2015. The present use of fertilizers in Sub-Saharan Africa is only

Figure 30: An increasing number of countries are leasing land abroad to sustain and secure their food production. Data are preliminary only. (Source: GRAIN, 2008; Mongabay 2008).

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