Africa cannot grow enough food to feed itself. It is not feasible toexpect a poor African farmer to spend 400 euro to 500 euro per hectare to grow acrop if he can live on 1 euro per day as many do. For the money he has to spendon one hectare - he can live for a year. The NEPAD conference shows that they are looking at chemical fertilizer as the solution.The reasoning behind this is the success enjoyed by relatively wealthy farmers in Africa(predominantly of European origin), who have enough money to buy fertilizer. "Tè a fatige"

The poor results obtained with organic farming in South Africa together withthe lack of credible research and information, were crucial in the decisionbehind initiating research into organic farming as a discipline.

"We tend to think that water doesn't cost anything so we don't have to protect it," says Steve Maxwell, managing director at TechKnowledgey Strategic Group, a water industry management consulting firm. "The truth is that the planet has a fixed amount of water, while the population and industry continue to explode." As that fixed resource grows scarce, the need for conservation measures increases.One fruitful area is irrigation, says Maxwell, who points to: • Water reuse and reclamation programs for city parks and golf courses • Smart irrigation systems, whose automation increases efficiency • Consulting firms that help organizations implement and monitor efficient lawn-care technologies

The article's in the September 2008 National Geographic Magazine made a huge impact on me, knowing the benefits of vermicompost, it seems there is a huge gap that we must bridge between piling up waste and turning our garbage into good quality topsoil. Here is an extract of the article's written by Charles C. Mann and Joel K. Bourne, Jr.

To boost food production, Kramer and colleagues founded [title]SOIL[/title] [content] Sustainable Organic Integrated Livelihoods www.oursoil.org[/content] , a nonprofit group that builds composting toilets in rural communities to get much needed organic matter and fertility back into fields. "With the current hunger crisis, it's very clear," says Kramer, an adjunct professor at the University of Miami. "If Haitians had more local production, they would not be so vulnerable to imported food prices."Until then Haiti remains a poignant lesson in what soil scientists have preached for years: As a nation's soil goes, so goes the nation.

"Tè a fatige," said 70 percent of Haitian farmers in a recent survey when asked about the major agricultural problems they faced. "The earth is tired"