JDMcDsblog

This week’s online edition of the Ecomomist carries a review on Africa’s popuolation. It talks about the changes in fertility and the growth of an urban middle class who wnat fewer children. It also bears out the great differences between the ageing populations of Europe and the extremely youthful structure of Africa, as the pair of population pyramids above show.

We think of Africa as utterly in thrawl to nature, beset by drought and famine, but consider: “Only 4% of the continent’s farmland is irrigated. Double that amount, add in fertilisers, seed, credit, information and proper metal warehouses (in some places a quarter of the harvest may be lost to rot and rats), and Africa might not just fill its own 2 billion stomachs, but export farm produce as well.”