COULD THE CERRADO MIRACLE BE EXTENDED TO AFRICA?

COULD THE CERRADO MIRACLE BE EXTENDED TO AFRICA? The financial crisis is ultimately temporary, and the technological discoveries in Brazil should be enduring. The Economist article asks whether the changes in Brazil can be extended to Africa. Although much of Africa, like Brazil, can be classified as tropical, agricultural techniques are generally location-specific. The Economist quotes a former head of Embrapa about how “We went to the US and brought back the whole package [of cutting-edge agriculture in the 1970s]…. That didn’t work and it took us 30 years to create our own.” The Economist says that the biggest additional obstacle in Africa is most of the African savannah doesn’t get decent rain (which the cerrado does). I think the main reason for hope is that what has happened in Brazil illustrates how much traditional techniques of agricultural experimentation can accomplish when applied in a new setting.

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