Africa: 'Subsidies Will Solve Africa's Food Crisis'

As the food situation in Africa becomes critical, the continent's governments have been asked to immediately start giving farming subsidies to overcome a crisis that could condemn millions of people to starvation.

Akinwumi Adesina, who heads the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) office in Nairobi, told The EastAfrican last week that no country ever achieved food security without farm subsidies.

He criticised the West, which he says subsidises its farmers while asking governments in the developing world to abandon theirs.

Governments in the EU and the US spend an estimated $237 billion on agricultural subsidies yet advise Africa not to support its farmers, Dr Adesina said.

He added that the only difference between a farmer in Europe and his counterpart in Africa is government support.

The issue of farm subsidies remains emotive and is said to be at the centre of the failed World Trade Organisation talks.

According to Dr Adesina, the time has come for Africa to say "No" to the World Bank and International Monetary Fund imposed programmes, which he said are to blame for the failure by African farmers to even feed themselves.

Dr Adesina said that in his more than 20 years of involvement in agricultural development, he has found that it is only in Africa that farmers get food aid simply because they cannot afford the inputs and technology required to increase farm productivity.

"Taking governments out of agriculture was a big mistake," Dr Adesina said, adding, "They must come back to provide the necessary support.

It is for this reason that Agra has started a farming subsidy programme that will see governments adopt farmer support programmes to supply inputs like fertilisers, seeds, machinery and markets with the objective of revolutionising agriculture in the next three years.

According to Dr Adesina, Malawi has shown the way by becoming the first country in sub-Saharan Africa to not only produce enough for its people but also a surplus for export -- and, in a continent not known for generosity, has supplied neighbouring Lesotho and Botswana with food aid.

Dr Adenisia said that Malawi's success resulted from the personal initiative of President Mbingu wa Mutharika, who defied the Bretton Woods institutions' no-subsidy policies and instituted what, three years down the line, has become a showcase of how Africa can quickly turn around its production.

When, in 2004, President Mutharika introduced the subsidy programme, Malawi, one of Africa's poorest nations, was a net importer of food, with millions of its people faced with starvation and malnutrition.

Over 90 per cent of the country's people relied, and still do, on agriculture and ordinarily, food stocks would run out within the first month of harvesting.

President Mutharika committed $50 million to help farmers acquire seeds and fertilisers and within the first year, the country produced 1.3 million tonnes of maize above the national requirement. Suddenly, the country was growing 3.6 million tonnes, more than double its food needs.

It immediately exported 160 million tonnes, donated 10,000 tonnes to Lesotho and Botswana and retained the rest for its strategic reserves.

Since then, there has been no turning back for the country's farmers, who this week will be hosting an international conference to showcase how Africa can escape the starvation trap. Malawi is today producing ten times what it did three years ago.

According to Dr Adesina, Kenya is better placed than Malawi to dramatically increase its agricultural production.

"Kenya enjoys two rainfall seasons while Malawi has only one, giving the country a natural advantage," he said, and added that the East African country is headed in the right direction with Agriculture Minister William Ruto championing a farmer support programme through commercial banks and the Agricultural Finance Corporation.

The farm subsidies involve creating a network of farmers, agro dealers, banks and the government.

An eligible farmer is given a voucher which he takes to agro dealers and collects inputs. The dealer presents the voucher to a participating bank, which in turn invoices the government. The farmer pays back after he has sold the produce.