No reason for Africa to be food-deficit continent – US
With more than half of Africa’s population engaged in agriculture, the continent has recently been hit by hunger at two of its regions. They are the Sahel region and the Horn of Africa.
At the moment, more than 15 million people are at risk in the Sahel alone – across the semi-arid belt from Senegal to Chad; and an equal number in the Horn of Africa remain vulnerable after last year’s food crisis in Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, according to a just-released United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report – Africa Human Development Report 2012: Towards a Food Secure Future.
Due to food shortages, hunger seems to have struck some parts of Africa, which some say is not only devastating families and communities in the short term but also undermining human development.
But US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson believes that there is no reason for the continent to be a “food-deficit” one despite its enormous promise and potential in the agriculture field.
“Africa has enormous promise and potential in the agriculture field, and there is absolutely no reason why Africa should be a food deficit country and why there should be food insufficiency in the continent and why it cannot, in fact, be a major agro-producer, not only for the continent, but also for export globally and around the world,” Mr Carson told journalists via telephonic conference call May 16, 2012.
He was briefing journalists across the continent on US policy on the region.
Carson said President Barack Obama’s new major initiative called ‘Feed the Future’ is designed to create a green agricultural revolution in Africa to end food insufficiency as it happened in Latin America and Asia in the 1960s and ’70s.
He said President Obama will on the eve of the upcoming G8 Summit be speaking on the issue of food security, agriculture and food self-sufficiency in Africa. In attendance will be President John Atta Mills of Ghana, President Yayi Boni of Benin, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia, and President Kikwete of Tanzania.
US-based National Public Radio (NPR) reports that President Obama will be announcing a multi-billion dollar food security initiative which is to boost investments in rural Africa in hopes of lifting millions out of poverty.
The NPR report cited the Administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Rajiv Shah saying that the initiative will include several billion dollars in investments from private companies.
“So this big new effort is really designed to address that, and its African leaders themselves [who] are leading the way,” Shah says.
“It is our focus here to step up our efforts in agriculture, and you will be hearing a lot more from the President on this issue,” Mr Carson told journalists.
According to him, the green agricultural revolution has not yet come to Africa where some 70% of all households depend primarily or secondarily on agriculture.
Back to the UNDP report, it states that food security must be at centre of Africa’s development.
The report argues that sub-Saharan Africa cannot sustain its present economic resurgence unless it eliminates the hunger that affects nearly a quarter of its people.
During the launch of the report in Kenya, the UNDP Administrator, Helen Clark said “Impressive GDP growth rates in Africa have not translated into the elimination of hunger and malnutrition. Inclusive growth and people-centred approaches to food security are needed.”
Arguing that action focused on agriculture alone will not end food insecurity either, the report called for new approaches covering multiple sectors; from rural infrastructure to health services, to new forms of social protection and empowering local communities.
Ensuring that the poor and vulnerable have greater voice through strengthened local government and civil society groups is also needed to ensure food security for all, it added.
By Ekow Quandzie
Watch the UNDP Report on Africa