VoyForums

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time | Archives: 1, 2, [3], 4 ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 22:29:39 12/01/02 Sun
Author: weird_enigma
Author Host/IP: 209.252.119.119
Subject: World economic policies hurt African farmers, creating starvation

Economic policies hurt nations' farmers
Many can't compete with cheap imports, free-market prices
SUDARSAN RAGHAVAN
Knight Ridder

GWENGWE, Malawi - Government corruption, AIDS and erratic rainfall are among the chief culprits behind the food shortages in southern Africa. But the international community has made things worse, say Western and African relief agencies, local activists and human rights groups.

In the early 1990s, global lending agencies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, wealthy governments and Western consultants began urging poor African nations to embrace economic belt-tightening policies in exchange for billions of aid dollars.

Money-losing socialized agricultural programs were privatized, trimmed or cut at the same time foreign investment in Africa's agriculture was shrinking.

IMF officials say their policies, while stringent, are necessary to force some African governments to spend their budgets on education, health and most of all on long-term economic growth that can reduce poverty.

But the shift to free-market policies backed by the IMF and the United States has impoverished millions of the subsistence farmers and villagers who are the continent's economic backbone and its key to food security.

"People have been left more vulnerable as a result of some of these policies, and they now have fewer resources to cope with this crisis," said Penny Fowler, adviser for Oxfam, a relief group based in the United Kingdom.

State grain-marketing boards that guaranteed an affordable price for corn, the region's staple crop, have been dismantled and price controls lifted. Now, few starving Africans can afford free-market corn prices, which have risen as much as 400 percent.

Fertilizer subsidies also have been lifted and currencies have been devalued, making fertilizer and other agricultural items unaffordable. Rural banks and credit schemes were shut down or privatized, making it harder for poor farmers to borrow money to buy fertilizer and seeds.

The sharp reduction in free "starter packs" of fertilizer and improved seeds is a key reason for Malawi's poor corn harvest, the United Nations says. Soaring costs, the agency says, could lead to fewer crops being planted this month, even if the weather is good, paving the way for another poor harvest next March.

And with international trade barriers lifted, poor African farmers find it hard to compete with cheap imports of crops such as cotton and sugar, which often are subsidized by the United States and European Union. Subsidized crops are flooding global markets, driving down prices and putting many African farmers out of business, African leaders and Western aid workers say.

The IMF, World Bank, Oxfam and aid workers argue that it's hypocritical for the rich countries that are the main shareholders in the World Bank and IMF to push for open markets and free trade in poor African nations while subsidizing their own farmers. This, in effect, closes many U.S. and European markets for African goods that can't compete with the artificially low prices.

Much of the anger is aimed at President Bush, for pushing a bill through Congress that sanctions $100 billion in farm subsidies over the next eight years.

At September's IMF and World Bank meeting in Washington, World Bank President James Wolfensohn chided the United States and other rich nations for wasting $1 billion a day on farm subsidies, more than the total gross national product of sub-Saharan Africa.

The IMF estimates that poor nations could gain $8 billion a year if rich countries cut their agricultural subsidies. Oxfam and other aid agencies agree that agricultural reforms are necessary and free markets should be part of stimulating Africa's agricultural growth. But they say one-size-fits-all reforms have not generated such growth. Instead, poverty has grown in Zambia, Mozambique, Malawi and other nations that have enacted IMF and World Bank agricultural policies.

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]
[ Contact Forum Admin ]

Forum timezone: GMT-5
VF Version: 3.00b, ConfDB:
Before posting please read our privacy policy.
VoyForums(tm) is a Free Service from Voyager Info-Systems.
Copyright © 1998-2019 Voyager Info-Systems. All Rights Reserved.