Distinguished delegates, invited guests, ladies and gentlemen, comrades.
Thirteen years have now passed since the first world conference on food, held in Rome in October 1974, signaled the deteriorating trend of the food situation in the developing countries, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Total food production increased by 4% per year in Latin America and South-East Asia but remained far short of meeting requirements in Africa and South Asia. During the first half of the 1980s Africa's food and agriculture production declined by 2% a year, which is equivalent to a fall in daily per capita food supply, on calorie basis, of 1.2% a year.
A lot has been said about Africa's poor performance in food production. The causes are numerous and varied, and are of internal and external origin. Lack of technology appropriate to Africa's agricultural setting is one of several internal constraints limiting food production in the continent. Most agricultural research systems in African countries have been concentrating on internationally traded agricultural produce to the neglect of food crops. The very limited research work on food crops has been concentrated on high yielding varieties and application of fertilizer and very little attention has been given to land and water management and livestock as means of expanding food supply. Defective delivery mechanisms for the dissemination of innovations and the supply of inputs equally constrain self-sufficiency in food in Africa.
This conference on Management of Vertisols in Sub-Saharan Africa has now reached its conclusion. The conference has, I believe, created a congenial atmosphere for scientists from national and international research and development organisations to exchange experiences. The 60 paper contributions presented during this week have conveyed, to an exceptionally wide audience, established and new knowledge on the nature, ecology and management-related problems of these soils. In total acreage terms, Vertisols may not be very important on the African continent, but they are a most vital resource for human food and animal feed production in certain regions. One of these regions is certainly Ethiopia, your host country, as has been documented in the course of this conference. This explains our interest in the most positive outcome of this conference. As has also been documented this week, adequate management interventions have considerable scope for drastically increasing off-take from these soils. Experiences gained in Africa, Asia, Australia and the Caribbean region on the use of these rather special soils have been discussed. These discussions can be of considerable use in our own efforts to bring these soils to a stage of higher and sustained production. For staff of Ethiopian institutions this conference has been an opportunity to increase general awareness in various aspects related to the use of these soils. I hope this increased awareness will be coupled with an increased commitment toward the development of practical measures for the tapping of the considerable productive potentials of this resource. In this connection you may all realise that in a number of our countries national and international research institutions generate more technologies than development agencies can effectively disseminate.
In an attempt to make an assessment of this conference, I would remind you of a statement made by the Minister of Agriculture in his opening speech. He said "I sincerely hope that you will come up with detailed suggestions for research and development on the improved agricultural utilisation of Vertisols for human food production. These suggestions should take into account not only the ecology and pedology of the Vertisols, but also the socio-economic environments and resource constraints prevailing in our production systems. It is only then that we will be able to make reasonable use of these soils." This week you have deliberated extensively upon the potentials and inherent constraints of Vertisols, their agro-meteorology and livestock aspects, and on management technology and its applicability under varying physical and socio-economic conditions. The improved utilisation of Vertisols in the light of the incremental analytical knowledge is perhaps one aspect where one might expect more emphasis to be put in future research work.
Many African Vertisols support large numbers of livestock which play a diversity of roles. If Vertisols are cropped, livestock in the same production system normally have important functions in tillage or crop residue utilisation or both together, as well as additional attributes such as financial security, supply of protein-rich food and raw materials. Livestock, especially in agropastoralist systems and in smallholder mixed farming, can therefore hardly be separated from any interventions in soil utilisation A truly systems-oriented approach in research and development of these interventions is therefore necessary, taking into account interactions between crop and livestock production, and the general socio-economic conditions of target areas. There have been some reports on such an approach during the conference. I would hope, however, that such effects can be strengthened in the future. The development of new management methods for Vertisols is clearly a matter of interdisciplinary endeavour which, in most cases, requires the productive interaction of institutions with complementary mandates. I am pleased to witness serious efforts and suggestions in this direction. These institutional interactions have both national and international dimensions. The fact that international bodies such as ICRISAT and IBSRAM have not only strongly contributed to the efforts made by ILCA for this conference, but are also committed to establishing formal links with national efforts, is most encouraging. We are, therefore, convinced that this conference has contributed to the strengthened commitment to work along the lines of interinstitutional task-sharing with accelerated technology generation and transfer.
On behalf of my Government, and on my own behalf as an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Chairman of the Advisory Committee for Vertisol Management Research in Ethiopia, I would like to express my appreciation to all individuals and organisations who have contributed to the success of this conference. First I thank ILCA for organising, and ICRISAT and IBSRAM for cosponsoring, such a large, important and impressive conference. My appreciation is also due to scientific paper contributors, participants and observers. The role of the organising team at ILCA and the Technical Committee of the Vertisol Management Project in Ethiopia deserves special mention. I do not think I would be fair not to single out Dr Samuel Jutzi's outstanding contribution to the successful completion of this conference. I would like to express a special tribute to Dr Walsh, Director General of ILCA, for his wise initiative and guidance in organising this conference at a time when Africa's food situation is disturbing. Last, but not least, I thank interpretors, photographers and technicians for their most valuable assistance.
I hope your stay in Ethiopia has been a pleasant one and I wish you a safe journey home. I now officially declare this conference closed.
