.
30 June 2009
Abuja — Development in Africa should be boosted through labour-intensive production on small to medium-sized farms while governments should assist small farmers with credit lines and infrastructure and protect them against fluctuations in world food prices.
These are among the proposals offered at the Agribusiness Forum 2009 hosted by the European Marketing Research Centre (EMRC), South Africa's department of agriculture, fisheries and forestry, the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations in Somerset West near Cape Town, South Africa.
"Two-thirds of the world population are trapped in a cruel web of circumstances that limit their rights to the necessities of life. These include decent jobs, education, healthcare, housing and, most importantly, food.
"The situation is exacerbated by the global financial slowdown," South Africa's minister of agriculture, fisheries and forestry Tina Joemat-Pettersson said in a speech read by an official at the conference.
"It is overwhelming that at the centre of this slowdown are billions of poor households, the majority in Africa and Asia, who spend a larger portion of their income on food than middle and high income households," Joemat-Pettersson pointed out.
Agricultural output per person has fallen in Africa. From 2005 to 2007 it was 15 percent lower than 1960 to 1962 levels. African countries are also increasingly dependent on agricultural imports. In South Africa, agricultural imports were worth 4,1 billion dollars in 2008 - an increase of 41 percent when compared to 2006/2007.
"There is agreement that development should, as in Asia, take the form of labour-intensive production on small to medium farms. This will generate jobs needed to reduce mass poverty and provide the food and savings that are the basis for industrialisation," stated Joemat-Pettersson.
The two-thirds of Africans whose livelihoods depend on agriculture, receive only between five and 10 percent of public resources. This effectively means that too little is spent on research and development, accessing markets, storage facilities, handling and transport, marketing and trade, she explained.
According to Dr Namanga Ngongi, president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), only seven countries in Africa are consistently able to spend 10 percent of their budget on agriculture. AGRA is an African organisation based in Kenya and Ghana that works towards establishing agricultural research and funding partnerships to improve the plight of farmers in Africa.
This flies in the face of the Maputo Declaration that the African Union adopted in 2003, pledging that at least 10 percent of national budgets would be devoted to agriculture.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Daily Trust. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
