Amanda O’Donnell
March 5, 2009
12:52 pm
Disease Hits Kenyan Crops
With a quarter of Kenya’s 38 million people facing hunger, they are now reporting a rapid spread of diseases affecting the country’s vital wheat and banana crops. The crisis is being exacerbated by the country’s year old coalition government.
It is a deadly strain of a parasitic fungus called stem rust that is attacking the country. It could possibly wipe out the country’s wheat fields. The strain was first detected in East Africa a decade ago but it has continued to spread to other wheat producing areas, mostly because farmers were too poor to be able to afford the fungicide needed to control the problem.
The fungus is spreading very fast, It is already in Kenya, Ethiopia and is spreading north to Egypt and it has probably reached India. Although this stem rust is a controllable fungus with chemicals but it is very expensive to do so. Really the only solution that Kenya has is to bring in new varieties that are resistant to stem rust.
Wheat and banana farmers say they need the government to urgently release funds to help fight the diseases threatening to impoverish them and to leave east Africa's largest economy in even greater need of food aid.
It is hard to see another going through struggles like this. I mean the US may seem to be going through certain “struggles” right now but I don’t feel that we are running out of food by any means. This farmers are losing some of the only food that they are able to eat and many farmers this is their only means of income. When I look at situations like this I wonder how so many Americans can be so selfish and still feel that we are in such a tough situation. I feel that we are very lucky for what we have here and that many people don’t realize that they have fresh crops that are not infected that we are able to eat from. When stuff like this is brought to our attention I feel that it really opens our eyes to what is around us.
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-03-03-voa46.cfm
2 comments:
I agree. We are very fortunate and a lot of times we take it for granted. When we (the US) sees things like this we should prioritze. We need to take initiative and help so other countries will become aware and hopefully follow our lead.
This is a completely devastating story. It is so sad to see so many people struggling like this. I completely agree with your point on how so many Americans are so worried about materialistic things and don't often think about how so many people in the world are going hungry. Hopefully the Kenyan government can do something soon to take care of this situation soon.
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