Food Shortage Solutions

Apr 14, 2012

The attainment of a proper balance between establishment of industries and the expansion of agriculture is a persistent challenge in Africa.

The attainment of a proper balance between establishment of industries and the expansion of agriculture is a persistent challenge in Africa.

Besides, the case for industrialization versus agriculture has not been rested. Policies that have over-emphasised the primacy of industrialisation have been inadequate but it is not too late to refocus on agrarian reform as a strategy for development and a solution for food shortages. NAADS was the right step in the right direction but was mismanaged.

Strategies ought to minimise the dis-equalising effects between the big commercial and small peasant farmers.

Agricultural progress is essential to increase the provision of food for an ever-growing non-agricultural labour force, raw materials for industrial production, savings and tax revenue to support development, to earn more foreign exchange and to provide a growing market for domestically manufactured goods.

There is a need to revisit the African Green Revolution of the 1970s that entailed new packages of agricultural inputs which included a combination of improved grain varieties, heavy fertiliser usage and controlled irrigation schemes.

The envisioned strategic agricultural solutions must entail planning for tackling the long term challenges of socio-economic and political upheavals that might upset not only the stability of agriculture but also other aspects of rural and urban life.

Some African Governments use coercive intervention which contradicts the principles of good governance. Lucid politicians have developed more diplomatic ways of deflecting instability.

The problem is that agrarian reform generates contradictions that include the aggravation of regional imbalances in countries that make political decisions which are skewed towards capitalism.

There are also the increasing inter-regional inequalities that cause political unrest; capitalist agriculture has political implications.

To achieve higher output, prices must be raised to make the necessary investments profitable to commercial farmers. Maintaining high support prices keeps consumer prices up. But high prices are a cost of living increase that adversely affects everyone albeit unequally!

Political tensions may arise from intensified regional conflicts, changes in the nature of rural class struggle, the growth of urban lumpens displaced by massive commercial agriculture and accelerated change.

Commercial farm proprietors ought to exercise good corporate governance to ward off instability; comply with local and international laws, transparency and accountability requirements, ethical norms, and environmental and social codes of conduct must be observed. Individual farmers should be enabled to freely buy and sell their land if they are to be motivated to participate in implementation of strategic solutions.

The decision to issue ownership certificates to customary landowners in order to give people more control over their land is commendable. But there is also a need for creating politics that can make the policies arising out of the strategies effective and changing the mindset of international institutions, developing nations and MNCs.

The impact of solutions that disorganise voting patterns is bound to cause political ripples throughout the political arena. A major restructuring of rural society would destroy the stability of any regime’s political base if it relies on votes from rural constituencies. Impoverished peasants migrating to the urban areas aggravate the problem of unemployment and constitute a political threat to the regime.

Political expediency overrides economics in Africa; solutions that cause instability raise questions about the applicability of massive agrarian reform and most the governments are reluctant to approve policies that skew voting patterns towards the Opposition.

But agrarian reform remains the major solution to increasing purchasing power in the rural areas because only through it can the population produce a surplus that can be converted into consumption. Raising productivity depends on upgrading the infrastructure; from credit institutions and marketing channels to irrigation and roads.

The World Bank could play a positive role in reinforcing the efforts of the governments: preventing misappropriation and diversion of resources by working directly with agricultural producers, cooperatives, rural SACCOs, and NGOs. Industrialisation based on maximising industrial linkages with agriculture makes a lot of economic and political sense.

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