Abubakar Ibrahim
2 July 2009
Abuja — Oxfam International has tasked heads of states attending the African Union Summit in Libya to produce radical agricultural reform policies tilted towards poor farmers as hunger will increase in the face of global economic and climate change crisis.
Addressing newsmen Tuesday in Abuja in partnership with the United Movement of Small Scale Farmers, the Interim Country Director, Oxfam GB in Nigeria, Ayodeji Ajayeoba said that "under-investment and bad policies by African governments and international donors have exacerbated chronic poverty and hunger for tens of millions of Africans. 60% of all Africans live in rural agricultural areas, while the urban poor are also increasingly facing food crisis and malnutrition".
While praising AU for making agriculture the summit's theme, Oxfam said local communities must have a greater say in shaping policies that affect their lives if real change was to occur. It urged African governments to meet their commitments at the 2003 AU Summit in Maputo, Mozambique to allocate a minimum of 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and more for rural development.
According to Ajayeoba, only seven African countries including Nigeria have met the Maputo target while others "are averaging only about 4.5%"
A summary of a 56-page Oxfam report presented at the briefing by Prof. Gbalagabe Ayoola blamed complacency by public authorities in developing countries to investment in agriculture."This complacency has hampered farmers' ability to cope with price volatility, climatic and economic shocks, or to pull themselves out of poverty. Yet rich countries did not neglect their own agricultural sectors. Respectively, USA and EU invested annually an average of $17,765 and $7,615 per farm from 1986 to 2007." The report made various recommendations including budget-supported agriculture complemented by funding from civil society groups and research tailored to the conditions of specific locations, building of rural infrastructure, education and healthcare for impact on productivity.
It also recommended support for low external input technologies, empowerment of farmers and communities, treating people as key resource to development, strengthening labour rights and investment in women's needs.
UMSSF spokesman, Josiah Mahwash urged the federal government to avail 60 percent of its intervention fund to small scale farmers because of their substantial population ,instead of 20 percent."A minimum of 60% should be accessed by agro-producers while 40% should go to agro-processors."
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