Yes, they could if...

posted by Mireille

Can Africa feed the world? That was the question at a debate on food and agriculture last Tuesday in De Rode Hoed in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Olivier de Schutter, UN special reporter on the Right to Food and emiritus professor Niels Roling from Wageningen University, responded with 'Yes they can'! Or was it 'Yes, they could if...' ?

De Schutter started by making the picture clear: there are 1 billion people going hungry, not because of an insufficient quantity of food but because of social inequalities and poverty. The cause is not technical but political. De Schutter was therefore highly surprised to see the outcomes of the expert meeting on food security in Rome last month: increase agricultural production by 70 percent and produce 470 million tons of meat instead of 250 million now and the problem is solved. But production for and by whom? Eighty percent of the hungry people are food producers, yet they are still hungry!

Of course, the reinvestment in agriculture in recent years is remarkable and promising. It could help agricultural development in Africa, but the dark side is also visible: the gold rush for arable lands (needed for food security elsewhere, agro-fuels, carbon credits and ordinary speculation) has started already. And again, de Schutter questions this focus on production: why do we think the world population can only be fed in future by boosting yields? There is an alternative: the 2.5 billion small-scale farmers who are extremely productive on their small plots of land. They should be taken more seriously.

So here entered the 'yes, if...' part of the answer to the question of whether Africa can feed the world. Niels Roling was very clear: if institutional development takes place in Africa (property rights) and if Africa gets a chance to overcome the comparative advantage that Europe and America have enjoyed for decades, only then... For how can a market system in which some parties are excluded because of unfair rules be called a free market system? No discussion needed, the two speakers and the audience agreed on the fact that states have an important role to play in the production and trade of food. Still it was an interesting dicussion...The next question should perhaps be 'What must we do, if we want small-scale farmers to feed the world?'

Comments

[MURAGE ,BONIFACE WACHIRA]

Food and Land are inseparably linked politics of land comes from colonial history .If africa and the world is to solve problem of hunger the management hitherto by the rulers instead of leaders in africa have to be in tune to the changes taking place in the global economy and also the effects of climate shifts is largely unknown;then its imperative to look closely to the same policies which are failing in continental Europe and industrial north America,their long term effects to developed world and also to developing world.The turning point has reached and the world has to focus on the forgotten Africa ,china is making small steps towards this realisation,however lots of sincere work is needed at the grassroots for the future of small farms feeding the hungry world is to happen with assistance of like minds who see the return to investment and at the same time creating surplus without sacrificing the sustainability of ecosystems to support this new production systems which is ecological, economic environment for the issues at hand are so dynamic that we are not be able to do it alone looking at the cost and the benefits and the distribution of products and services within the rural,urban,regional and at the global level.The future is in the development of renewable energy and to be linked with food at the small scale level where the small units create the oneness of the 2.5 million small scale farmers then small will be great as the large is able to integrate therein since the cost structure of large scale farms is to be more costlier due to disequilibrium which will continue as energy demands surpasses supply of the energy structure .This is soon going to be unaffordable if the climate shifs accelerate ,time is now to respond to development of workable small scale farm units which relie on themselves as they pay off their costs without relying on handouts all the time .The age of consumerism is at its apex of development and the risks are greater to non food producers ,urban dwellers and generally consumers who dont produce .There is need for respective governments to realise there are many jobs which can contain the supply chain so as to decongest cities as more jobs open up it all depends on "food and energy integration" .thank you ladies and gentlemen