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FARM-Africa calls for G8 leaders to seek long term solutions to rural hunger in Africa
Whilst the world’s most powerful leaders meet in L'Aquila, Italy, to begin the G8 summit, FARM-Africa calls on the decision makers to listen to those people we represent - like farmer Julius Moses Otim from Ojemorun village in eastern Uganda. People like Julius need leaders to consider how best to assist the world’s poorest billion people so that they can feed themselves equitably, healthily and sustainably.
The current global conditions have been described as “the perfect storm.” High food prices, financial chaos and the growing threat of climatic change have attracted welcome attention on the fundamental issues of global food production and supply. While the world focuses on the financial crisis this issue must not be allowed to mask the worrying trends of a lack of long term commitment to resolving global hunger. FARM-Africa knows that small holder farmers are entrepreneurs – given market linkages and training, they can grow food both for household consumption and also for the market and are a crucial part of the solution to hunger in Africa.
For nearly 25 years FARM-Africa has been lobbying leaders to invest in long term solutions to African hunger that will enable African farmers to improve their families’ livelihoods sustainably and cut their reliance on food aid. Finally after decades of neglect agriculture is back in the spotlight but we must ensure that the current drive for change does not lose momentum nor result in unkept promises.
“These are fine words from the G8 leaders but there must be long term action to back them up. I was in Gleneagles in 2005 when promises were made to radically improve the lot of African farmers and yet what happened to those promises? Though we are in difficult times we must not lose sight of the need to find a sustainable solution to hunger. We must not let this moment to face on the biggest challenges to mankind pass us by or it will return to haunt us,” said Dr Christie Peacock, CEO of FARM-Africa.
FARM-Africa supports the approach of the Japanese Government which lays emphasis on the importance on long- term investment to solve a problem that stems from years of a disgraceful underinvestment in agriculture, and also the shift in focus by Prime Minister Gordon Brown and the Obama administration in the US to move attention away from the provision of food aid to tackling the root causes of hunger.
The huge spike in food costs is a reminder of the need for appropriate solutions to food insecurity to ensure that African farmers (who comprise 80% of the African population) are able to feed themselves for the long term rather than being the passive recipients of food aid.
FARM-Africa’s role in acting as a bridge between research and small scale farmers and its comprehensive approach including providing advice, training and market linkages have been proven to have a very positive impact. Through FARM-Africa’s Maendeleo Agricultural Technology Fund (MATF) the results of our approach speak for themselves. A programme to introduce a more resilient variety of rice in Uganda saw farmers record an increase in yield from 960kg to 1500 kg per acre. The price of 1kg of rice increased from Ugandan Shillings 650 (20 pence) at the beginning of the project to Ugandan Shillings1200 (35 pence) at present. The numbers of farmers adopting the new variety has increased from 6,000 to approximately 66,000 across Uganda. The impressive return on investment generated through the fund shows that has shown for each US$1 invested between US$1.3 and SU$21.4 have been generated.
In northern and eastern Uganda, where farmer Julius Moses Otim lives, the impact of recent food cost increases is having a huge impact on the lives of local farmers. “There is nothing that you can get freely, food has become very expensive and money has lost value". Crop damage due to severe weather conditions has increased the cost of food and increased food insecurity. In Amuru district, eastern Uganda, the food security situation in seven sub-counties has been assessed as dire with many families surviving on one meal day. In Pader district the inflated cost of food means that three quarters of households are spending 100% of their income on food.
FARM-Africa welcomes reports suggesting that this year’s much-anticipated G8 meeting will bring an announcement of a long overdue commitment by members to invest US$12 billion over the next three years in agricultural development. This commitment underlines the need for global leaders to gear up and address the interrelated issues of food security, economic growth and stability. FARM-Africa asks that this meeting will reverse the trend of cuts in budgets for international development - Italy, the summit’s host country announced a 56% decrease in its international aid budget last December. FARM-Africa recognises the global financial situation is challenging but these economic issues can not be allowed to overshadow the overwhelming issue of food security.
Comments
I could not agree more about the imperative to tackle food security issues in impoverished regions of the world. The problem of applying the prevailing western ethic of agriculure to these regions is that if that sould lead to replication of western methods and practice then agriculture in these regions will also contribute to increased GHG emissions, just as western agriculture has done so over centuries, and most notably in the last century. While the west does not suffer food shortages or scarcity as such I would argue that the west does suffer food insecurity of another kind. There is food insecurity in the increasing dependency upon the industrialised nature of food provision which places heavy reliance upon 'value added' and in so doing marginalises and devalues basic food commodities. This requires a bit of open mindedness to grasp but is well illustrated by the state of British dairy farming and the artificially low milk price. The farmers cannot make much more than simply cover the cost of production, and the processors are under price pressure too, driven by the disproportionate power of the supermarkets and in this country, led by one in particular. The farmers cooperative was intended to be an antidote to this imbalance of power, but the demise of Dairy Farmers of Britain graphically illustrates the point. the other issue is the state of western health. Diabetes in particular. There is not space to present the full argument here, but if the alarming rise in the diagnoses of type 2 diabetes is not attributable to one or more aspects of the modern western diet then my name is not Pragmatic. Time for action on agriculture With announcements on agriculture expected from the G8 today, Farm-Africa's new chairman, Martin Evans, tells Liz Ford what Africa's subsistence farmers really need http://www.guardian.co.uk/katine/2009/jul/10/farmers-g8-martin-evans?commentpage=1&commentposted=1 If we humans really got to grips with understanding the primacy of energy we could get to grips with the problem. - Arguably.
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