{"id":15386,"date":"2012-10-09T05:38:53","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T03:38:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/10\/africa-can-easily-grow-wheat-to-ease-hunger-price-shocks-study\/"},"modified":"2012-10-09T05:38:53","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T03:38:53","slug":"africa-can-easily-grow-wheat-to-ease-hunger-price-shocks-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/africa-can-easily-grow-wheat-to-ease-hunger-price-shocks-study\/","title":{"rendered":"Africa can easily grow wheat to ease hunger, price shocks-study"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

By Alister Doyle<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

OSLO<\/span> Oct 9 (Reuters) – Wheat production in sub-Saharan
\nAfrica is at only 10 to 25 percent of its potential and nations
\ncan easily grow more to limit hunger, price shocks and political
\ninstability, a study showed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The report, examining environmental conditions of 12 nations
\nfrom Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, said that farmers south of the Sahara
\ngrew only 44 percent of the wheat consumed locally, meaning
\ndependence on international markets prone to price spikes.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Sub-Saharan Africa has extensive areas of land that are
\nsuitable for profitably producing wheat under rain-fed
\nconditions,” according to the study by the non-profit
\nInternational Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

It said countries in the region were producing only between
\n10 and 25 percent of the amounts that the Center’s research
\nsuggested was “biologically possible and economically
\nprofitable” with a net return of $200 per hectare (2.5 acres).<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The 89-page study, issued at a wheat conference in Ethiopia,
\nsaid it aimed to identify ways to raise wheat production as “a
\nhedge against food insecurity, political instability and price
\nshocks.”<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

“Wheat is not an African crop, it is not a tropical crop
\n(but) many governments want to produce wheat locally instead of
\npaying for imports,” Hans-Joachim Braun, director of the
\nCenter’s global wheat program, told Reuters by telephone.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

The report estimated that African nations would spend about
\n$12 billion to import 40 million tonnes of wheat in 2012,
\nparticularly for fast-growing cities. More wheat should not be
\ngrown at the expense of other more viable crops, Braun said.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\u00a0 Continued…<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Alister Doyle OSLO Oct 9 (Reuters) – Wheat production in sub-Saharan Africa is at only 10 to 25 percent of its potential and nations can easily grow more to limit hunger, price shocks and political instability, a study showed on Tuesday. The report, examining environmental conditions of 12 nations from Ethiopia to Zimbabwe, said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-15386","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}