African leaders pledge farming 'Green Revolution'

African leaders recommended on Tuesday scrapping taxes on fertilizers as one of 12 key measures to foster a "Green Revolution" in farming and reduce hunger in the poorest continent.

One third of sub-Saharan Africans face recurrent famine and under-nutrition and experts say this is due partly to a worsening problem of soil depletion, which occurs when farmland loses more nutrients than are being replaced.

"Population pressure now compels farmers to grow crop after crop thereby mining the soil of nutrients," Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo told heads of state and farming ministers from across Africa at a summit to address the crisis.

"Although more than 70 percent of Africa's active population is directly engaged in farming, our farmers have not enough to show for their toil," he said.

The modernization of farming techniques and increased fertilizer use spurred Green Revolutions in Asia and Latin America in the 1950s and 1960s that increased crop yields dramatically and eradicated hunger in most regions.

But in Africa, where many farmers cannot afford fertilizer, yields per person have fallen over the last 40 years and experts warn that if soil depletion continues unabated, they will decline by up to 30 percent over the next 15 years.
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