Hunger In Agriculture

The first United Nations millennium goal is to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. There are about 1.1 billion people living in the continent of African today. 239 million of them face hunger every single day, which is 47 times more than the population of Norway. That is unacceptable and it is also unnecessary. There is no excuse for why these people should suffer as much as they do, and why we should not feel inclined to help them. Understanding agriculture in the developing world is extremely difficult and for most people also quite boring, but one thing is not boring and that is food. Food is extremely important for our bodies to be healthy and to function properly, and it is also extremely delicious. If Africa´s cultivated land

Investing in research that works on creating better seeds that are able to survive extreme weather, like droughts and floods will help increase overall productivity. But that is only one side of the story, actually making sure that the farmers, particularly the poorest ones have access to this kind of inventions is much more difficult. If the distribution of better seeds becomes too unequal it might worsen the situation by putting already bigger farmers who can afford to attain them in a better position than the poor farmers. Better crops will increase the productivity of these particular farmers, but their sudden growth might crush the small and already struggling

We usually overestimate what is common knowledge, and forget that there was a time when we did not know the most simple of things. That is because the access to knowledge comes so easily in our society; we are surrounded by information whether it would be in school, on television screen or on the World Wide Web. Most of the people living in Africa do not have that kind of access to information; approximately 40 percent of Africans over the age of 15 are still illiterate. They don´t have good training about what to plant, when to plant or how to keep the soil productive. Just by gaining knowledge on how far apart to space seeds or how wide to dig a trench will make a dramatic improvement in productivity. Learning about crop rotation, which keeps the soil from being depleted can make a difference for millions of farmers. Investing in farmer education programs will help farmers grow more food and earn more money. Knowledge on when to plant and harvest during the year can make a difference between growing just enough for survival and growing enough for selling. As a result not only will the number of people suffering from severe malnutrition decrease, but farmers will be able to sell more of their crops and earn extra money. With the money they earn they would be able to expand their diets to more nutritious and greater varieties of foods, by buying more food instead of only