Page 38 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Community

prices, African governments once tions. There have been some gains The private investment that was
again promised urgent measures to in production, but imports of cere- promised in return for these policies
ramp up food supplies and domestic als and other basic foods continue and handouts, whether in contract
production, with some even promis- to grow in many African countries. farming schemes or plant breeding,
ing to bring back the long-lost days Part of the problem is that these has either not materialised or failed
of food self-sufficiency. initiatives have not done enough to badly.
protect local production from the
In the aftermath of this food crisis, dumping of cheap imports. Most Consider the case of rice. Rice is not
several major initiatives to boost measures were either temporary, a traditional staple crop for most of
national food production were open to abuse from large traders the continent, but urbanisation and
launched in Africa, most of them and smugglers, or simply too weak cheap imports from Asia and the US
closely coordinated with foreign do- and backed up with too few resourc- have contributed to a galloping rise
nors and multilateral agencies. Some es to make a difference. Moreover, in consumption across the continent
of these initiatives are continental, many African governments have over the past 50 years. Production
like the G8’s New Alliance for Food signed onto and/or are negotiating has failed to keep up with consump-
Security and Nutrition in Africa or trade agreements that make it much tion and today Africa imports about
the African Development Bank’s harder to implement food import half of what it consumes, spending
Feed Africa Strategy. Others are restrictions and protections for local roughly US$3.5 billion a year on rice
regional, like the “Rice Offensive” food producers, including the re- imports.
of the Economic Community of cently-launched African Continental
West African States (ECOWAS), or Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA). With the spike in rice prices in 2007-
national, like the Grande Offensive 8, Africa’s political class had little
agricole pour la nourriture et l’abon- The corporate model falls choice but to take action to reduce
dance (GOANA) launched by Sen- apart the import bill. But any efforts that
egal’s former President Abdoulaye might favour local production over
Wade. Certain African governments The other major defect with these imports had to run up against the
have also enacted policy measures post-food crisis initiatives is their interests of the powerful cartel of
to curb food imports and support focus on big business. Over the past transnational trading companies and
domestic production that were not decade, African governments, at local business elites that control the
on the table prior to the crisis, such the behest of outside donors, have lucrative rice trade into Africa. So,
as food reserves, targeted import changed laws and regulations, grant- rather than take on these forces,
duties, quotas, foreign exchange ed tax breaks, handed out lands and many African governments chose
controls and even bans on specific money and set up special economic instead to enlist them in their strat-
food items. zones with the hope of attracting egies to reinvigorate national rice
But, despite the impressive names investment from agribusiness corpo- production.
of these various initiatives, most rations. But, ten years on, it is clear
have fallen far short of their ambi- that this strategy has not worked. These strategies to lower tariffs for
companies investing in local rice
production has done little to curb
imports and has resulted in a shock-
ingly long list of corporate rice
farming projects that have gone bust
across Africa in recent years. The
projects wasted millions of dollars
in public funds and deprived African
farmers of lands and water to pro-
duce food. They undermined, rather
than supported, African government
pledges to reduce rice deficits.

Mali is the one country in West
Africa that has achieved its rice
self-sufficiency targets, but this

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