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| Two mothers and their children preparing food in Congo [PHOTO: UNDP] |
Washington: A new World Bank report says that Africa’s farmers can
potentially grow enough food to feed the continent and avert future food crises
if countries remove cross-border restrictions on the food trade within the
region. According to the Bank, the continent would also generate an extra US$20
billion in yearly earnings if African leaders can agree to dismantle trade
barriers that blunt more regional dynamism.
The report was released on the eve of an African Union (AU) ministerial
summit in Addis Ababa on agriculture and trade.
With as many as 19 million people living with the threat of
hunger and malnutrition in West Africa’s Sahel region, the Bank report urges
African leaders to improve trade so that food can move more freely between
countries and from fertile areas to those where communities are suffering food
shortages. The World Bank expects demand for food in Africa to double by the
year 2020 as people increasingly leave the countryside and move to the
continent’s cities.
According to the new report―Africa Can Help Feed Africa:
Removing barriers to regional trade in food staples ― rapid urbanization will
challenge the ability of farmers to ship their cereals and other foods to
consumers when the nearest trade market is just across a national border.
Countries south of the Sahara, for example, could significantly boost their
food trade over the next several years to manage the deadly impact of worsening
drought, rising food prices, rapid population growth, and volatile weather
patterns.
With many African farmers effectively cut off from the
high-yield seeds, and the affordable fertilizers and pesticides needed to
expand their crop production, the continent has turned to foreign imports to
meet its growing needs in staple foods.
“Africa has the ability to grow and deliver good quality
food to put on the dinner tables of the continent’s families,” said Makhtar
Diop, World Bank Vice President for Africa. “However, thispotential is not
being realized because farmers face more trade barriers in getting their food
to market than anywhere else in the world. Too often borders get in the way of
getting food to homes and communities which are struggling with too little to
eat.”
The new report suggests that if the continent’s leaders can
embrace more dynamic inter-regional trade, Africa’s farmers, the majority of
whom are women, could potentially meet the continent’s rising demand and
benefit from a major growth opportunity. It would also create more jobs in
services such as distribution, while reducing poverty and cutting back on
expensive food imports. Africa’s production of staple foods is worth at least
US$50 billion a year.
Moreover, the new report notes that only five percent of all
cereals imported by African countries come from other African countries while
huge tracts of fertile land, around 400 million hectares, remain uncultivated
and yields remain a fraction of those obtained by farmers elsewhere in the
world.