More Investment in Production Won’t Cure African Food Crisis

The food crisis in African states will not be solved by investment to spur agricultural production because the problem is not food output but poverty that is making food unaffordable for urban Africans.

This is the argument of Gilles Saint-Martin, the head of international relations for the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development, known by its French acronym CIRAD. CIRAD’s approach to sustainable development focuses on the long-term ecological, economic and social consequences of change in developing communities and countries.

Saint-Martin talks to Hilaire Avril about the dire need for investment in African agricultural research; the effects that the economic partnership agreements will have on food production; and whether the African Union should adopt its own Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

Q: You recently wrote that, despite last year’s food riots in many developing countries, ‘‘African agriculture is not disaster-stricken, and […] agricultural production has steadily increased across Africa since the 1960s, picking up even more speed since the 1980s.’’ How do you explain the food crisis currently affecting several African countries?

Gilles Saint-Martin (GSM): First and foremost, the problem is poverty. Last year’s food riots were mainly urban crises, affecting city-dwellers who could not afford to buy basic food anymore. The problem is not agricultural output, which is sufficient, but poverty, which makes it unaffordable.

The solution to the crisis is to tackle both issues, that is, to increase agricultural production and to decrease poverty by fostering rural economic activity.

The problem is that, for several years now, the traditional solidarity system between the African countryside and the cities has been severely undermined by repeated crises and that it has now broken down. Therefore, city-dwellers bear the full brunt of rising food prices.

Several CIRAD studies show that agricultural production has significantly risen in several African countries. Cassava outputs in Central and West Africa, for instance, have increased. But the problem is that the demographic increase is faster. We, at CIRAD, do not believe massive foreign investments will solve the problem of African food security. We’re still waiting to see what the outcome of investments such as those made in Senegal last year will be.

For the moment all the examples we’ve seen are geared towards ensuring food security for rich countries, which invest in agriculture for their own food security (and) not to share the production with the African country hosting the investment.
However, there are some under-reported but interesting initiatives - mainly in the Indian Ocean. Mauritius, for instance, which faces significant food supply challenges, says it would consider investing in countries with a high agricultural potential such as Mozambique, and sharing the production between investors, producers and the global market.

But, again, the main problem remains that of urban populations accessing affordable food. It’s going to get worse as migrants send fewer remittances back home to urban Africans because of the global economic downturn

Q: The African Development Bank, the International Fund for Agricultural Development and other organisations recently created an ‘‘Investment Fund for African Agriculture’’. Are such funds the solution to the food crisis?

GSM: There is currently a trend towards increasing agricultural output rather than implementing regional policies that foster rural activity to help urban populations access affordable food while regulating prices on a regional level. What worries us is that, whether public or private, these funds’ position seems to be ‘‘let’s simply produce more, and we’ll all be fine’’.

Q: How do you expect the proposed EPAs (the trade liberalisation deals that the European Union is pressing African, Caribbean and Pacific countries to sign) to affect this situation?

GSM: We at CIRAD tend to think these agreements should be signed with caution. But many countries have signed them anyway, as they would otherwise have lost access to European markets.

Our partners in Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon recently told us ‘‘if we hadn’t signed the agreement, we would not have been able to keep selling our bananas in the European Union’’. Several countries signed these agreements essentially under the pressure of producers’ associations, who were afraid they would lose access to markets.

I haven’t followed the latest developments but, as they were proposed two years ago, EPAs seemed based on an outmoded model.

Q: What is CIRAD’s answer to the food crisis?

GSM: We’re very preoccupied with innovation, which is a key element in solutions for the North as well as the South. CIRAD focuses on research, so we naturally invest in innovation, whether in urban or rural environments, to mitigate poverty and to enhance food security and a more efficient use of resources.

Unfortunately, supporting innovation and research has never been considered a priority. Many donors tell us ‘‘we want immediate results, so you must implement innovating ideas urgently’’. But the period of time needed to implement innovating ideas in real social settings, with tangible objectives, are not compatible with the expected response time to a food crisis.

Our African research partners have been entirely de-structured by the (International Monetary Fund’s) structural adjustment policies in the 1980s and 90s. Most have still not recovered. We work mainly with young African scholars and researchers, but young recruits are scarce in Africa.

This is our main warning call. African research capacities need to be rebuilt, created or consolidated in order to foster innovations allowing us to cope with evolving societies, to preserve limited resources and to secure food supply.

Also, after several years of soul-searching, we have identified the development of the rural sector, by intensifying ecological production, as a priority. That means not relying on more fertilizers or herbicides, but optimising the use of ecosystems’ natural cycles and learning more about the way plants and soil work.

Q: Should Africa adopt its own version of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy?

GSM: Some versions of it already exist. In West Africa, the Economic Community of West African States and the West African Economic and Monetary Union have adopted regional agricultural policies which are not structured like the CAP but resemble it in that they harmonise national policies, including tariffs.

The Southern African Development Community and East African Community are also thinking of similar schemes. I think it’s unavoidable. Solutions can’t be found on a national level, they have to be regional.

The 2005 food crisis in Niger, for instance, was not a national but a regional emergency, which could have been solved if regional procedures had been put in place to share resources between Niger, Nigeria and Mali. This must be the priority for food security policies.

Q: What role could Europe play in constructing these regional clusters?

GSM: Europe’s organisational model for regional agriculture cannot be replicated but the EU could assist in setting up African region-wide systems.

But these regions’ agricultural products must also be protected, from time to time. The European CAP was built on these principles and still protects European farmers to some degree. The CAP so far focuses on markets, resources and consumer protection. In 2013, when the CAP is to be reformed, I think it should include food security as one of its main objectives.

European farmers, when you talk to them, are preoccupied by their production and purchasing power, of course. But they are also conscious of the food security problems the world faces. Incorporating world food security in the CAP’s objectives would be a positive evolution. It would help decompartmentalise the EU from global agriculture.

Environmental Impacts Threatens Food Security

Worldwide demand for food is expected to grow steadily over the next 40 years, but 25 percent of the world's food production may be lost to 'environmental breakdowns' by 2050 unless urgent action is taken.

This is the message in a document presented to environment ministers from more than 140 countries meeting in Nairobi, Kenya under the auspices of the United Nations Environmental Programme Governing Council to discuss climate change and other environmental challenges. The document, titled "The Environmental Food Crisis: The Environment's Role in Averting Future Food Crises" calls for an increase in food production to meet the needs of an estimated 2.7 billion more people. "Elevated food prices have had dramatic impact on the lives and livelihoods, including increased infant and child mortality, of those already undernourished or living in poverty and spending 70-80 percent of their daily income on food," it reads. The UNEP meeting comes as the host country Kenya is engulfed in a severe food crisis with up to 10 million people facing starvation due to poor rainfall and high fertiliser prices among other things.

Kenya's policies were criticised for failing to address the problem by developing systems geared at improving food production. "Kenya should be one of the countries rethinking how agriculture production systems should be improved. Kenya should not be facing food shortage. It needs to be able to feed itself not only today but in years to come even when population increases," Achim Steiner, UNEP executive director said. Maize flour, the staple food in Kenya, is now retailing at about 80 U.S. cents a kilogramme, way too high for a country where half the population lives on less than a dollar day. A year ago, maize cost the equivalent of 30 cents a kilo. Similarly steep price hikes led to riots in in Cameroon in February 2008, when protesters outraged by high food prices took to the streets demanding huge cuts in prices. The unrest was the worst in 15 years in the central African country. "People could not understand how a country which was previously food sufficient could suddenly be food insufficient, with high prices on basic food commodities," Mary Fosi, a senior official in the country's environment ministry told the meeting. "The main problem is that mechanised agriculture in the country is very small. There is need to focus on advanced agricultural systems that will increase food production," she noted. It emerges that lack of investment in agricultural development, including modern technology and machinery has played a role in reducing yields in Africa, where most farmers still use the hand hoe to till land. Critics contend that for the continent to achieve food security, it needs to move from the idea of carrying hoes and machetes to the farm and embrace a new era of technology-driven agriculture. But authorities are on the defensive, saying governments cannot afford to invest in new technologies and machinery just yet. "The technology is there; it is not that we do not want it, but our economies are poor," Bonaventure Baya, director of Tanzania's National Environment Management Council told IPS at the meeting. According to Baya, immediate measures to achieve food security must include educating farmers to diversify and plant alternative crops that are resistant to changing climatic conditions. This, he says, will also help conserve the environment. "Intensive land cultivation and growing of the same crop over a long period of time degrades the soil. Increasing food production and security must take into account protection of the environment, including the soil," he observed. As the meeting considers ways of increasing food production, farmers think they have the answer - government subsidies. Peter Andenje is one such farmer. As chairman of the Association of Small Scale Maize Growers in Kitale, western Kenya, he says the government needs to subsidise fertilisers and high-yielding seeds which are critical in getting increased harvests. "Many farmers cannot afford the high cost of fertilisers and seeds; some are now growing the plant without applying fertilisers. This has resulted in to very low yields. Some have abandoned growing the crop because of the high cost of inputs," he said in an interview with IPS. The UNEP document launched at the Nairobi meeting cites the issue of providing subsidies to farmers as a crucial safety net in achieving increased food production and security. But subsidies for African farmers have been vehemently opposed by donors and remain a contentious issue at international trade talks. "What we must not do is neglect the fact that we have an environmental crisis unfolding in the agricultural production sectors and we must tackle that alongside the trade agenda, not one after the other because we are running out of time for both," Steiner stated. "This is a reasonable, fair and appropriate measure now that we are facing the challenge of sustainability in agriculture production."