Lessons for Africa to attain food security
Apr 04, 2010
AFRICA has suffered three problems in its development history: first, the 7th to 19th Century trans-Saharan slave trade depleted the continent’s close to 50 million economically active human resource pool thus retarding its development.
By Dick Kamuganga
AFRICA has suffered three problems in its development history: first, the 7th to 19th Century trans-Saharan slave trade depleted the continent’s close to 50 million economically active human resource pool thus retarding its development. This gave way to the 19th and 20th Century colonisation and massive plundering of the continent’s resources, close to $1.8 trillion during 1885 to 1980.
Then the 1945 to 1990 cold war politics, Africa was a vital arena of geopolitical competition between US, USSR and allies, consequently plunging the continent into chronic anti-development regimes and retarded institutions.
In this article, I describe five specific signposts directing to potential African vulnerabilities to external powers who are currently rushing to erect their strategic postures on the continent for its vast natural resources — land and energy recently triggered by the food, fuel and financial crisis.
The most significant will be how and whether Africa will be able to feed its people, in the 21st Century following the projected increase in global food scarcity, demand and failure of which will have irreversible political consequences for the continent.
First, since 2007, close to 100 million hectares of fertile agricultural land has been negotiated and acquired by foreign Governments, sovereign funds, foreign backed investment companies, and foreign rich individuals (mainly from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, India, China, South Korea, Germany, UK and Norway).
They are on a spree to secure stability of food, water and energy supplies for their populations in the 21st Century through land leases in Africa. At an average $800 per acre, Africa has the cheapest chunks of arable land in the world.
Ironically, African policy makers are carelessly leasing chunks of agricultural land to foreign states to grow food for their domestic markets. What is sad, is that sections of African populations are massively and chronically suffering food shortagefor example, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda occasionally extend begging bowls to the world for international food aid.
Second, climate change is producing unprecedented effects like the recent droughts in Kenya, landslides in Uganda and an advancing desert across the continent. Increased urban migration, demand for water for intense agriculture, bio-fuel crops and electricity will reach record proportions putting pressure on Africa’s resource sector.
Close to 300 million Africans do not have access to clean water, 600 million to clean sanitation; the numbers are projected to rise rapidly through 2025 and many African countries will be chronically short of fresh water by 2050.
Third, Africa’s population will add a staggering 350 million people to its current 900 million by 2025 and will have a quarter of the global population by 2050, the highest rural-urban migration and home to the world’s leading mega cities. Presently, two in five Africans sleep on an empty stomach, or are chronically malnourished, the numbers will rapidly rise as Africa competes with other parts of the world that have been food secure until recently. The World Bank predicts a 50% rise in global food demand by 2030.
Fourth, global energy security is directly competiting with food security; crops for food and for bio-fuels are already in stiff competition for the available arable land also creating global food scarcity and hikes in food prices. Land in major grain exporters like the US is giving way to bio-fuel farming, projected to produce 60 billion gallons of ethanol by 2030.
Fifth, Africa’s poor agricultural productivity and diminishing global official aid to agricultural research which has fallen by 65% since 1980 is affecting food production. The budget of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) has fallen by 50% in the last 15 years. In addition, Africa’s meager budgetary support for farming and structural adjustment programmes have crippled agriculture research and development.
What can be done?
First, African governments should embrace the prospects of agriculture as a window of opportunity to transform their societies, firmly take advantage of its comparative advantage in land resource to develop agriculture primarily for strategic food security, for its people. Africa also should harness its food and energy exports to its rich neighbours. Second, foreign capital investment is needed, but not in the current format of long term land leases which marginalise the local people.
Contract farming and land hiring for a specific limited period (10 years) that leaves smallholder farmers in control of their land and contracts to investors, could still deliver the investment capital, technical know-how, jobs to local farmers and predictable food security for Africa. It would also deliver African exports to foreign partners with no threat of backlash in the future.
Third, multilateral development institutions such as World Bank and African Development Bank should urgently direct their efforts on facilitating the above with development of the necessary physical infrastructure (roads, railways, ports and storage systems) to enable African states benefit from their resources.
Finally, there should be an immediate Pan-African conference to bring together researchers, experts, policy makers from Africa and world development agencies to discuss the strategic food security opportunities and threats to Africa in the 21st Century.
The writer is a teaching assistant at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland
AFRICA has suffered three problems in its development history: first, the 7th to 19th Century trans-Saharan slave trade depleted the continent’s close to 50 million economically active human resource pool thus retarding its development. This gave way to the 19th and 20th Century colonisation and massive plundering of the continent’s resources, close to $1.8 trillion during 1885 to 1980.
Then the 1945 to 1990 cold war politics, Africa was a vital arena of geopolitical competition between US, USSR and allies, consequently plunging the continent into chronic anti-development regimes and retarded institutions.
In this article, I describe five specific signposts directing to potential African vulnerabilities to external powers who are currently rushing to erect their strategic postures on the continent for its vast natural resources — land and energy recently triggered by the food, fuel and financial crisis.
The most significant will be how and whether Africa will be able to feed its people, in the 21st Century following the projected increase in global food scarcity, demand and failure of which will have irreversible political consequences for the continent.
First, since 2007, close to 100 million hectares of fertile agricultural land has been negotiated and acquired by foreign Governments, sovereign funds, foreign backed investment companies, and foreign rich individuals (mainly from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, India, China, South Korea, Germany, UK and Norway).
They are on a spree to secure stability of food, water and energy supplies for their populations in the 21st Century through land leases in Africa. At an average $800 per acre, Africa has the cheapest chunks of arable land in the world.
Ironically, African policy makers are carelessly leasing chunks of agricultural land to foreign states to grow food for their domestic markets. What is sad, is that sections of African populations are massively and chronically suffering food shortagefor example, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda occasionally extend begging bowls to the world for international food aid.
Second, climate change is producing unprecedented effects like the recent droughts in Kenya, landslides in Uganda and an advancing desert across the continent. Increased urban migration, demand for water for intense agriculture, bio-fuel crops and electricity will reach record proportions putting pressure on Africa’s resource sector.
Close to 300 million Africans do not have access to clean water, 600 million to clean sanitation; the numbers are projected to rise rapidly through 2025 and many African countries will be chronically short of fresh water by 2050.
Third, Africa’s population will add a staggering 350 million people to its current 900 million by 2025 and will have a quarter of the global population by 2050, the highest rural-urban migration and home to the world’s leading mega cities. Presently, two in five Africans sleep on an empty stomach, or are chronically malnourished, the numbers will rapidly rise as Africa competes with other parts of the world that have been food secure until recently. The World Bank predicts a 50% rise in global food demand by 2030.
Fourth, global energy security is directly competiting with food security; crops for food and for bio-fuels are already in stiff competition for the available arable land also creating global food scarcity and hikes in food prices. Land in major grain exporters like the US is giving way to bio-fuel farming, projected to produce 60 billion gallons of ethanol by 2030.
Fifth, Africa’s poor agricultural productivity and diminishing global official aid to agricultural research which has fallen by 65% since 1980 is affecting food production. The budget of the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) has fallen by 50% in the last 15 years. In addition, Africa’s meager budgetary support for farming and structural adjustment programmes have crippled agriculture research and development.
What can be done?
First, African governments should embrace the prospects of agriculture as a window of opportunity to transform their societies, firmly take advantage of its comparative advantage in land resource to develop agriculture primarily for strategic food security, for its people. Africa also should harness its food and energy exports to its rich neighbours. Second, foreign capital investment is needed, but not in the current format of long term land leases which marginalise the local people.
Contract farming and land hiring for a specific limited period (10 years) that leaves smallholder farmers in control of their land and contracts to investors, could still deliver the investment capital, technical know-how, jobs to local farmers and predictable food security for Africa. It would also deliver African exports to foreign partners with no threat of backlash in the future.
Third, multilateral development institutions such as World Bank and African Development Bank should urgently direct their efforts on facilitating the above with development of the necessary physical infrastructure (roads, railways, ports and storage systems) to enable African states benefit from their resources.
Finally, there should be an immediate Pan-African conference to bring together researchers, experts, policy makers from Africa and world development agencies to discuss the strategic food security opportunities and threats to Africa in the 21st Century.
The writer is a teaching assistant at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland