Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame • Hacker News Board

Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame

#91

Post by mikekchar » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 4:28 PM UTC

tbirdz wrote: post #90

mikekchar wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It gets even more crazy, though. Very frequently there are weird market conditions that create massive losses for large suppliers. Random google link: https://www.freshplaza.com/article/9056981/india-tomato-whol... You can see that the price dropped as much as 74% These things happen around the world surprisingly frequently. Large supermarkets, etc, can get access to these ridiculous prices and so it can cause prices…

Maybe it's cheaper to transport raisins than grapes? They are smaller so you could fit more of them on a truck. Also they are already dried out, so they may be less sensitive to shipping conditions.

It certainly is, but imagine a pile of 1000 pounds of grapes. Imagine an iphone. They have the same retail cost. Is this reasonable?

Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame

#92

Post by Top5a » Mon, Jun 03, 2019, 5:56 PM UTC

dang wrote: post #88

Top5a wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is both off topic and a flamewar topic, which the site guidelines ask people not to introduce. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html Please do not use such generalizations on HN.

Since you're clearly not interested in using HN as intended, we've banned this account. If you change your mind, you're welcome to email hn@ycombinator.com and give us reason to believe that you'll follow the rules in the future.

???

Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame

#93

Post by neodypsis » Tue, Jun 04, 2019, 5:01 AM UTC

Double_a_92 wrote: post #64

neodypsis wrote: post #44

One thing that shocked me is they breeding "giant rats" (Cricetomys gambianus). These are known vectors of monkeypox. Also, snails usually carry very harmful parasites to both humans and plants.

If they breed it it's a farm animal like anyone else.

Sure, but, e.g., pig, chicken or cow breeders are subjected to strict sanitary controls and microbiological testing programs.

Re: Millennials ‘Make Farming Sexy’ in Africa, Where Tilling Soil Once Meant Shame

#94

Post by jelliclesfarm » Mon, Jun 10, 2019, 7:42 AM UTC

infogulch wrote: post #31

zizee wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From your linked article, the reason people spend a greater percentage of their incomes on food is not because of the cost of food, but that their incomes are much lower: > The figures do not mean that food is more expensive in Nigeria than in the US. In fact, quite the reverse. The average American spends $2,392 per year on food, the average Nigerian half that: $1,132. The average Kenyan spends just $543 a year on f…

Look at it this way: if the percentage income spent on food dropped from 60% to, say 20%, that would effectively double their remaining income! I don't see how that could not affect a local economy, regardless of the absolute scale.

If food prices drop, won’t farmers make less too and hence lower income?

Maybe I am not understanding the math properly. Food is cheap in the USA because we import them from poorer countries where labour is cheap. And we also consume a lot. This benefits the exporting country. But if we were to produce our own food, the local production won’t be cheaper.