Introduction to Subsistence Farmers and to Africa

LECTURE 1

What is subsistence agriculture?

  • growing only enough food to feed themselves and their family

  • Farm less than 2 hectare in size is a small farm

    • Can’t generate much tax revenue bc of small land size 

  • All income to pay for everything in life in addition to food has to be propagated in these subsistence agricultural farms

  • 2 billion people and 83% of all farms are small scale

  • Hunger location

    • ⅓ are in urban areas ⅔

  • Can’t address global hunger without addressing 2 billion small subsistence farmers

  • little margin for crop losses before/after harvest or land/food for other needs

  • If a small scale farmer’s family has cattle, then they would have to give away 10% of their corn to feed it

  • Whereas only 1-2% of the population in wealthy nations are farmers, the majority of the populations (50-90%) of many nations in Sub-Saharan Africa (south of the Sahara Desert), Asia and the Caribbean are smallholder farmers; this contributes to those nations relying on foreign aid to build schools, hospitals and essential infrastructure.

  • No money to make money bc selling corn to others is hard bc the roads are terrible. 


Lesson 1: Humans evolved in Africa

  • Anatomically modern humans evolved in east africa

  • Africans gave rise to the diversity of human features

  • African genes have had a lot of time to diversify 

    • “the nucleotide (genetic) diversity found within a single African village is similar to the global value for human autosomal genes sampled across different continents”

      • More genetic diversity in a village in africa compared to entire continents 

  • 2k languages in africa

    • Lots of consequences w diff languages (communication, social and economic)

  • Origin of HIV came from africa bc it came from primate relative 

  • Consequences 

    • No healthcare to treat HIV cases

    • Genetic, so vulnerability can be passed to children

    • How did HIV transfer to humans from primates? 


Lesson 2: Africa and African nations are geographically HUGE!

  • Can fit multiple major countries inside area

  • Most african nations are the size of ontario (1 mil square km)

  • Bias prevents people from acknowledging that europe is also crowded

  • Congo is an exception bc its the size of ON and QC combined

  • Richer countries have similar populations to african countries 

  • Resource use per capita is very high in rich countries 

  • Africa has 733 million hectares of arable land (27.4 per cent of world total) with only ~17% of the world’s population.

  • Center of africa is closest to the sun

    • As the earth spins, air currents go from north and south to equator, which the wind carries the moisture. 

    • Hot air rises and as it rises it carries moisture, condense and falls down as rain. 

    • Equator is the wettest place on earth, but just north and south of that is the driest place on earth. 

Lesson 3: Africa is the only continent to be located dead-center with respect to the Equator

  • Africa’s agricultural curse is that it either has too much or too little rainfall

    • Too much in center

    • Too little in other parts

  • Region north and south of the equator is called the subtropics. They are dry because of the earth spin wind effect. 

  • Moisture in air 

  • Central africa has too much rainfall

    • Erosion

    • Nutrient loss

    • Insect pressure for crops and livestock 

    • Fungus 

    • Impact fertilizer use 

    • Prevents grain from drying properly

    • Causes human pathogens

  • North and south africa are too dry because nothing grows

  • Africa is the only continent to be located 

  • If humid all year, Insects rely on humidity to breath because they don’t have true lungs

  • Consequences of too much rain: insects can reproduce and spread disease

  • 75% of all malnutrition is located in the subtropics 


Lesson 4: Many people (and farms) are located where there is a good year-round temperature and water supply (but not too much water), especially in West Africa

  • Farms are located around good year round temperature and good water supply

  • Nigeria is the most populated country in africa

  • Rainfall and temp determine where farmers live 

  • Temperate areas in europe have good farm productivity because there’s a break in the diseasea and insect cycle. You can dry grain down properly without humid. 


Lesson 5: Africa has mountains, especially in the East and Northwest. Many people live and farm here.

  • African highlands are highly populated 

  • At a higher elevation there is more rainfall and cooler temperatures 

  • East africa is cooler than neighbouring countries (ethiopia is cooler) 

  • High elevation attracts people and farms that can supply and process food close to populations live in mountains

  • Disadvantages of mountainous environments:

    • Transportation to sell or buy inputs 

    • Livestock

    • Machinery 

      • Ploughing on hilly land with a slope is hard

    • Erosion or leeching 

    • Walking up and down to farm all the time because machinization is too inconvenient 


Lesson 6: The location of mountains dictates where Africans live in the dry subtropics due to the presence of rivers

  • De nile originates around lake victoria 

    • Egypt and sudan are extremely dry, but mountains in africa originated sediment and nutrient rich river water

  • Niger river can provide farmland around the banks 

  • Hot and dry with a source of water. Hot and dry prevents insects and blight, and a good source of water can nourish plants. 

  • Population density correlates with river banks 

  • Farmers use rivers as a source of irrigation 

  • Over time, river highlands nourish nearby soil 


Lesson 7: As a consequence of Africa’s equatorial location (too much/too little rain) and its population living/farming on hillsides, Africa’s soils are degrading and nutrient poor

  • Rain on sloping land erodes soil

  • Farmers cant grow much and cant afford inputs 

  • If the soil isn’t good, there’s no good crops and then you can’t raise livestock

  • Soil nutrients are not being replenished because fertilizer 


Lesson 8: There was mass slavery and colonization in Africa

  • Africans were exported bc Free labour for agriculture 

  • Sugarcane and cotton were the major new world crops 

  • People took over because of trade routes, land and natural resources. Royalty and wealth benefits from slavery. 

  • In 1820, there was 3 times more ppl in europe compared to africa at the same time. 74 mil compared to 224 mil. 

  • In the year 2000, africa’s population is the same as europe but that’s only a very recent phenomenon. 


Why was there slavery in africa

  • Africa is located geographically next to europe 

  • Europe had high power weapons and ships in the 1600s and 1800s

  • Racism

  • Africa has a warm climate for agriculture and a rich/large area. In the dark ages, agriculture was collapsing in parts of europe bc of climate change. 

  • Psychological inferiority complex 

    • Devaluing food, culture and religion 

    • Psychologically enforcing them to grow resources beneficial to colonizers in europe 

  • Belgium controlled congo. The king owned the country. Enslavers were poor as well and didn’t have many other employment options. 

  • 12 million people were exported into the new world 

  • What is the legacy of slavery? 

    • Internalized inferiority. 

      • “I’m not good enough” 

    • Not growing indigenous food anymore 

    • Local foods and indigenous farming practices have been devalued for 300 years.

    • No investment in local crop production. Only a few cash crops like rubber and coco beans. Not high productivity or yield.


In africa, the dominant languages are colonial languages. 

  • Commercial language is colonial language 

  • Complete disruption 

  • Nations were randomly carved up, ignoring ethnic and local culture lines 

    • Different ethnic groups were forced together 

  • Diff ethnic groups were responsible for diff parts of government, finance and military. Assigning tasks to different tribes and regions. 

  • Prevent unity as much as possible, so they don’t unify against colonials. 

  • Once colonial barriers faded (liberation), there were civil wars because of years of built up animosity. 

  • When belgians left congo, only 3 congolese people in the entire country had a university education. 

  • Restricting access to education was done intentionally to maintain power. 

  • Control and devaluation of people are similar in Canadian residential schools. 


Basically:

  • The legacy of slavery is the Lack of investment in improving local yield and maintaining traditional farming practices. Point is to only be good at growing a few cash crops. Lack of literacy and education as well. 

  • The whole country was set up to channel wealth to one person. Sometimes leaders took advantage of that to enrich themselves. 

  • Poor africans suffered under colonization and slavery and then suffered under local government. As a result of 400 years of turmoil and poverty. A lot of indigenous crops and agricultural practices have been lost. 

  • 2k indigenous foods in canada, but less than 100 remain. 



Lesson 11: Africa is not generally overpopulated, but now its populations are exploding in some nations. e.g Nigeria

  • Population grew 4.5 times in 60 years in Nigeria 

  • More young people in population pyramid

  • Population exploding rapidly

    • Birth rate is constant, but death rate went down

    • Birth rate has not changed, but less babies are dying. Child mortality has fallen. 

      • Sanitation 

      • Vaccines 

      • Improved drinking water

  • Birth rate can slow if you empower/educate women (food productivity can pay for empowering)

    • Access to contraception and family planning

    • Primary literacy and education

  • To reduce the birth rate and stabilize population, a nation must increase food productivity/reliability and improve female literacy/empowerment, including access to family planning....as quickly as possible after improved access to health care/vaccinations


Lesson 12: However, black Africa has experts and even tall buildings

  • There are well-trained, and high infrastructure cities in africa 

  • Best way to solve problems is through partnership