An article in the Guardian Professional outlines how providing assistance to subsistence farmers in Chad to implement low-tech solutions is what the country needs rather than improved market linkages.

Practices such as composting, intensive manure use, mulching, companion planting and green manure crops are not traditional to Chad but are showing promise in other sub-Saharan countries, says the article.

“Agroforestry strategies such as farmer managed natural regeneration and fertiliser tree systems have been successfully promoted in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.”

Most Chadians rely on subsistence farming for their livelihood. Traditionally this has involved growing crops such as peanuts, sorghum, sesame, millet and cassava within a slash-and-burn system. Crops are rotated every 3 or 4 years and then the land is left to fallow.

Previously this fallow period was around 15 years, but with population growth and the need to produce more food, the fallow is now just 3 to 5 years.

On such poor soils with long dry seasons, hot temperatures and deforestation occurring to supply the increased demand for fuel wood and charcoal, the environment is suffering. Farm families are eating a diet high in carbohydrates, low in protein, and low in vitamins and minerals. Acute seasonal hunger and chronic malnutrition are common.

Farmers in Chad cannot access fertilizers, irrigation and other technologies. There is no extra arable land to expand production and inadequate infrastructure to intensify production.

Support should be given to subsistence farmers to implement low-tech methods that can improve soils and conserve water, says the article. Improving livestock management, better extension services, face to face education, farmer field schools and village support groups are other interventions recommended.

Read the full story: The truth about feeding 9 billion people is millions will have to feed themselves