They drink out of stagnant ponds that harbor the eggs that produce the worms. In 1986, 3.5 million people suffered from Guinea worm, a horrendous disease that is painful to describe. We have now cut the sufferers down by 98 percent, to 70,000, two-thirds of whom are in southern Sudan. Because of the continuing civil war, we cannot get to many villages in that region. The main credit for this progress must go to the people in almost 22,000 villages who have corrected their own problem.
Agriculture is another subject that warrants our attention.
In the poorest nations, subsistence farming is a crucial element in the quality of life. Unfortunately, millions of African farmers, both men and women, labor throughout their lifetimes in relatively fruitless efforts. They practice slash and burn cultivation, exposing a new field each year to the rain and wind that remove the top-soil. Their traditional seeds and lack of crop nutrients severely limit yields. We now have about 600,000 farmers in 12 African nations who are learning how to plant in contour rows, use the finest known seeds, and maintain soil fertility.