Africa

[cottonpicken]

Suprised to learn how big it is.

http://www.marilink.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/true-size-africa.jpg


The map shows how Africa (30,3 million km²) is larger than the combination of China (9,6 million km²),
the US (9,4 million km²), Western Europe (4,9 million km²), India (3,2 million km²) and Argentina (2,8
million km²), three Scandinavian countries and the British Isles (map gives no surface for these last two
areas).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8zBC2dvERM

[pourfarmer]

Crazy! no wonder deforestation in Africa
affects the whole world. Thanks for
posting!

[ado089]

This map highlights why I maintain that
the myth that they don't make anymore
farm land is crap. Most of sub Sahara
Africa is beautiful grassland prime for
agriculture. There is wonderful soil.
Even the adoption of modern farming
practices would dramatically improve
production. Such a vast land with huge
potential.

[rkaiser]

Right on ado, would not even need the modern methods you speak of. Just teach people how to plant gardens and little natural plots of grains if that is what they want to eat. Kind like all the backyards in developed countries.

More then enough space on the planet to grow food without so called modern methods. Grew almost twice as much as we needed for one year on earth last year and then wasted it. Even with a drought in the big "modern farming" country called the USA, and all the ground used to grow bio fuels.

[ado089]

Kaiser, that is currently what they are
doing however after centuries of
removing crop without adding fertilizer
back in a lot of the soils have nothing
left to give. The land that remains is
delicate and subject erosion and drought
meaning min till and other modern
practices are necessary to avoid a
southern plains dust bowl type
situation. Cambodia has similar
conditions where wild seasonal weather
and delicate soils make farming
challenging using traditional techniques
but could be reasonable productive using
a little bit of technology. With that
said there are many areas such as malawi
and parts of zambia and Tanzania that
are still highly fertile but due to
topography could only be farmed manually
as they are now. If you do want to see
your zero tech, non gmo, heirloom seed,
locally grown utopia I suggest a trip to
eastern africa. South America is
probably are better example of balance
between the old and the new and as
result dramatically more prosperous.

[parsley]

Thought you would be interested in wading
through this as it's worth the read; it's arduous
but I took my time. The commodities we sell are
only as valuable as the country we grow them in
or sell them to. Corruption and religion and crime
etc. all influence our bottom line. Open border
concept made me appreciate stringent border
controls. And lhe entire article reminded me that
we don't live in a he'll-hole. Lucky farmers.
Pars

http://studies.aljazeera.net/en/reports/2013/06/20
13624102946689517.htm