Page 39 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

Community

Country/Agency Measure Year
trade.

Nigeria Foreign exchange prohibition on imports of rice 2015
These are simple and low-cost
ECOWAS Regional Food Security Reserve 2013 ways that African governments
can get behind their food produc-
Zambia Ban on imports of certain fruits and vegetables 2017 ers and support them in providing
high-quality, locally-grown food for
Egypt Export ban on rice 2008/2017 their populations, without having to

Burkina Faso Decree requiring public programmes to procure local foods 2017 depend on foreign donors. Yet most
African governments remain entirely
Tanzania Suspension of rice imports 2018 focused on supporting agribusiness
corporations. Not only do they
Table 1. Some measures to restrict food trade enacted by African governments provide these companies with tax
incentives and corporate-friendly
was done despite the actions of big food prices spiked in 2007-8, the regulations and policies, but they are
business. All of the corporate rice even giving corporations their coun-
farm projects announced in Mali price of bread shot up because try’s most fertile lands and import-
Egypt is one of the world’s top
after the 2007-8 food crisis failed. importers of wheat, but the gov- ant water sources.
Mali’s path to self-sufficiency was ernment was able to partially offset
only achieved through the political this hike in the price of bread by It is incredulous that, in the face
struggle and hard work of its small- of a climate crisis and population
scale rice farmers. They seized on blocking rice exports and keeping its boom, African governments have,
population supplied with affordable
the rice crisis of 2007-8 to put in local rice, despite efforts by the grain over the past ten years, given away
place a national rice platform led by traders to keep their export channels over 10 million hectares of fer-
rice farmers, which then pushed the open. tile lands to foreign companies to
government into taking measures to produce foods for export. These
restrict imports and support farmers What stands out in Egypt and Mali’s large-scale land grabs were mostly
in increasing domestic rice produc- rice self-sufficiency stories is the undertaken without consulting the
tion, mainly by ensuring access for marginal role of big agribusiness rural communities that live on the
small farmers to lands and water and food companies. The main lands and have deprived them of
and by getting the government to the access they need, now and in
purchase local rice for its national actors here are smallholder farmers the future, to land, forests and water
and, in the case of Mali, a vast web
rice reserves. The rice farmers also of small traders and retailers, or, in sources to feed their communities
teamed up with the small-scale the case of Egypt, a state purchase and supply local markets.
millers, merchants, transporters and and distribution system. Both gov-
other actors involved in local rice Corporate seeds are no cure for
markets to educate consumers on ernments also regulated trade, and climate change
big business was not able to set the
the benefits of local rice, and they agenda on rice policy. This shows
have fought a constant battle to that food self-sufficiency is achieved When it comes to seeds, African
keep the big trading companies from through government support of governments have similarly spent
re-opening the doors to imports. the past two decades complying
local production, not through cor- with demands from the big seed
porate agribusiness and international
Egypt is another rice self-sufficient
country in Africa, but with a much
longer record. At the time of the
rice price crisis in 2007-8, Egypt
was actually exporting significant A peasant and
volumes. Much of the country’s rice street vendor in
crop is purchased for the nation- Kumasi, Ghana.
al food subsidy program, which Photo: GRAIN
provides discounted staple foods to
nearly two-thirds of the country’s
households. When international

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