In spite of good rains in Africa in 1985, 30-35 million people suffered the effects of famine. Much of Africa is still dependent on food aid. The main causes of insufficient food production are land degradation--desertification--and high population growth. Distribution of the US $2.9 billion in food and non-food aid has been hampered by transport and logistical problems. The major challenge for 1986 is non-food support. Only US $460 million (15.3%) of non-food aid had been received as of March. Country profiles of Angola, Chad, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia show a pattern of high food assistance needs and displaced refugee populations. The 1st 6 of the group suffer from civil strife. There is some good news; e.g. Niger, which is embarking on agressive agricultural development, and Tanzania, which has enjoyed bumper crops, but the crisis is clearly far from over. Few African Governments have been willing to face the population problem; population in the area will probably continue to increase at 3% yearly. It is shown that desertification: reducing the biological potential of the land through over-exploitation, animal husbandry, and deforestation, is a wordwide problem particularly acute in Africa. Lost production totals $26 billion annually. Straightforward cost-benefit analysis of projects to halt or reverse the problem does not adequately take factors such as human attachment to the land into account. Unfortunately halting desertification does not receive the attention it should receive from donor agencies. Investment goes towards high-return projects, e.g. power dams; sugar factories, when a more careful study reveals that returns from afforestations are much more long-term. There has been increased consciousness of the long-term benefits of dryland rehabilitation, which will hopefully impact policy in the future. But since desertification is a self-accelerating process, there is a need for very rapid action.

中文翻译：

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非洲的粮食危机与环境保护

尽管 1985 年非洲雨量充沛，但仍有 30-3500 万人遭受饥荒的影响。非洲大部分地区仍然依赖粮食援助。粮食生产不足的主要原因是土地退化——荒漠化——和人口高速增长。运输和物流问题阻碍了 29 亿美元的粮食和非粮食援助的分配。1986 年的主要挑战是非粮食支持。截至 3 月，仅收到了 4.6 亿美元（15.3%）的非粮食援助。安哥拉、乍得、埃塞俄比亚、莫桑比克、索马里、苏丹、莱索托、马里、毛里塔尼亚、尼日尔、卢旺达、坦桑尼亚和赞比亚的国家概况显示出一种高粮食援助需求和流离失所难民人口的模式。该组的第 1 个 6 遭受内乱。有好消息; 例如尼日尔，它正在着手积极的农业发展，坦桑尼亚已经获得丰收，但危机显然远未结束。很少有非洲政府愿意面对人口问题；该地区的人口可能会继续以每年 3% 的速度增长。研究表明，荒漠化：通过过度开发、畜牧业和森林砍伐降低土地的生物潜力，是一个全球性问题，在非洲尤为严重。每年损失的生产总额为 260 亿美元。对阻止或扭转问题的项目进行直接的成本效益分析并没有充分考虑人类对土地的依恋等因素。不幸的是，停止荒漠化没有得到捐助机构应有的重视。投资用于高回报项目，例如大坝；糖厂，当更仔细的研究表明，植树造林的回报要长期得多。人们越来越意识到旱地恢复的长期利益，这有望影响未来的政策。但由于荒漠化是一个自我加速的过程，因此需要非常迅速地采取行动。