It is undeniable that Farah is the most knowledgeable person Li Lan has ever seen in Somalia, and through a short conversation, Li Lan has also learned more or less about the fundamentals of the current situation in Somalia. Farah also has his own ideas on how to save his country.

Inviting Li Lan, it is obvious that he regards Li Lan as a task that can represent the Chinese government, and Li Lan did not say anything about this.

He had reason to believe that he was definitely not the first to hear Farah say this. Perhaps before him, many foreigners had already heard his remarks. But none of the people in front of them helped Farah in any way.

Li Lan can feel his persistence, although he can't represent China, but he is a person who really wants to change here, and he also has the ability to change here. Farah is right, meeting Li Lan may be the greatest luck in his life.

In the early sixties of the twentieth century, the food self-sufficiency rate of many African countries was 98 per cent, but by the nineties of the twentieth century it had fallen to about 50 per cent. From 1973 to the present, Africa has been the target of the United Nations food aid, especially Somalia in East Africa, coupled with the war, the food self-sufficiency rate is only a pitiful 20%.

What is the reason why there is always not enough food in Africa?

Somalia also needs a "green revolution" without enjoying the fruits of Jishu's progress, and the so-called science and technology are the primary productive forces, which is too difficult to achieve in Africa.

The so-called "green revolution" refers to the fact that since the 60s of the 20th century, developing countries have successively begun to rely on advanced jishu to increase grain production.

The Green Revolution has been a great success in the Shijie context, but unfortunately, like many countries in Africa, Somalia has not enjoyed the fruits of the Jishu Progress, with 90% of agricultural production still using simple hand tools and a low level of agricultural mechanization.

It is not the first time in people's memory that the United Nations has called on the international community to assist Africa on the food issue.

As recently as August 2005, in an open letter, then-UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called on the international community to lend a helping hand and provide 700,000 to 800,000 tons of food to southern Africa to help people there survive the food crisis that year.

Since last year, the situation in the East African region has been far from optimistic, with millions of people still facing severe food shortages in Somalia, Eritrea, Sudan (especially in Darfur) and Uganda due to the current violent conflict and bad weather.

Another important aspect of the impact on Somali agriculture is that the weather is not cooperative, and there is not enough rainfall to support agriculture.

Forty-seven percent of Africa does not have enough rainfall to support agriculture. In East Africa in particular, Somalia and neighboring countries do not receive enough rainfall each year to meet agricultural practices. On the contrary, we have to face drought every year.

In those parts of East Africa where rainfall is scarce, most farmers grow drought-tolerant crops. But even so, it is really not safe to rely on the sky to eat. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, only 7 per cent of Africa's land was irrigated in 1998, far below the Shijie average of 19.7 per cent.

Due to the frequent occurrence of pests and diseases such as drought and locust plagues, the grain harvest is not harvested, and the farmers lack the grain to sell, which directly leads to the lack of agricultural investment, and this scarcity makes the farmers have no funds to buy seeds, fertilizers and pesticides, so that a vicious circle of low grain production is formed.

Both natural and man-made disasters, ethnic conflicts, and wars have made it difficult for African farmers to survive.

In addition to natural disasters, Africa's farmers also have to deal with man-made disasters. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Africa has been the most volatile region on Shijie, with about 20 African countries experiencing at least one civil war for more than 40 years. On the one hand, the war has destroyed the productive forces and interfered with agricultural production, and on the other hand, it has increased the demand for agricultural products and worsened the imbalance between supply and demand of agricultural products.

In addition to war, it is also a "man-made disaster" for the population to grow faster than the food production. Statistics show that during 1975~1985, Africa's population growth rate was 3.1%, and the grain production increase rate was only 1.9%. In 1975, the per capita amount of arable land in Africa was 0.62 hectares, and by 2000 it had almost halved to 0.32 hectares.

In Somalia, population growth is 1.6 per cent, but food growth is negative every year.

Of course, mistakes in the decision-making of some governments can also be regarded as "man-made disasters". Shijie Bank pointed out that in the 60s of the 20th century, Africa was heavy on industry and light on agriculture in the process of implementing its industrialization strategy, and its investment in agriculture was particularly limited. Many African countries have long depressed the purchase prices of agricultural products, which has seriously dampened peasants' enthusiasm for production and greatly hindered the normal development of agriculture. However, this has had no effect on Somalia.

AIDS has made agriculture even worse.

According to the 2007 UNAIDS Report on the AIDS Epidemic, about 33.2 million people are living with HIV, and more than 80 percent of AIDS patients are concentrated in Africa, with the Middle East accounting for 30 percent.

Somalia has also suffered from this, and although Muslims are very strict about the relationship between men and women, AIDS has also severely affected Somalia as the times have progressed, coupled with the flow of refugees.

For more than 20 years, the impact of AIDS on food production in Africa has been far greater than people imagined, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) elaborated on this issue in 1994 in the article "The Relationship between AIDS and Agriculture in Africa":

African agriculture is a typically labour-intensive industry that is more vulnerable to AIDS.

First of all, the increase in the number of illnesses and deaths among peasants has not only directly reduced the labor force, but also removed the family members who care for the sick from the front line of production, and the traditional custom of not doing farm work during the mourning period has also caused a loss of peasant income.

Second, in some countries, the inheritance system of land ownership is male-centric, and more and more widows are unable to inherit land after the death of their husbands, making it difficult for them to engage in farming.

The disease and death of farmers directly affected the cultivation of important cash crops that require high human input, such as coffee and bananas, and turned to more drought-resistant crops such as sweet potatoes and corn that require less human input, which has changed the previous trade pattern of exporting advantageous cash crops in exchange for food, so that they are too poor to buy food.

On how to change that, Farah has a few key ideas.

The first step is to create a good research environment, and the project aims to overcome the brain drain of a small number of scientists by producing locally grown crop experts in West Africa.

At present, the brain drain from developing countries has become a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Even in poor Africa, the brain drain is very serious, with more than 20,000 high-quality talents leaving their countries every year to seek employment in developed countries such as Europe and the United States.

Farah believes that if Somali crops want to survive in the face of future floods and droughts, they need a group of crop talents who understand local knowledge and local characteristics, rather than foreign experts trained in foreign universities and foreign experimental fields.

Farah also said that he knew a number of Somali scientists in plant science, but most of them had PhDs in Europe or the United States, which meant that when they returned home, they did not have expertise in indigenous crops such as sorghum, millet and cassava, so they had to relearn how to grow different varieties of crops.

His idea is that Li Lan will help him train about 40 experts in plant cultivation with PhDs within five years, and these indigenous Somali scientists will be able to effectively study native crops and crop diseases.

The PhD program includes research and work, and usually also includes a two-year doctoral teaching program. Farah is confident that, with China's help, crop experts who graduated from Somalia will be able to develop crop lines that are better able to cope with drought, disease and other environmental stresses.

And he needs Li Lan's sponsorship, teachers, funds, scientific research and teaching books, etc.

In Farah's view, this will help stem Africa's brain drain. In the past, it was difficult for foreign-trained African experts to stay in their home countries, either not returning or even when they returned, they would eventually look for the best opportunity to leave.

At present, more than 100 million farmers in East Africa alone derive their basic economic income and nutritional needs from agriculture, and most sub-Saharan African countries rely mainly on natural precipitation for agricultural production, and most farmers produce on a small scale. In recent years, drought, environmental degradation and climate change have brought serious challenges to the region's agricultural development. In addition, despite the fact that three-quarters of Africa's population is engaged in agriculture-related activities, African investment in agriculture and agriculture has lagged behind population growth for many years, leaving Africa with the long-term failure to achieve the goal of sustainable economic and social development.

Agriculture, just one direction of Farah's idea. Li Lan originally thought that he would open his mouth to buy more and more advanced weapons from him, but between the lines, what he saw was the intelligence and wisdom of the Somalis. Understand the truth that it is better to teach a man to fish than to teach him to fish.

PS: This chapter is to make up for yesterday's non-upload, and there are two more chapters today. Ladies and gentlemen, don't forget to collect and vote for recommendations!