30 June 2008
Global Food Crisis Demands New Approach to African Agriculture
Private sector integrated investment needed in Africa, U.S. aid official says
Chicago -- The world is in the midst of an unprecedented food crisis, a situation that underscores the need for a transformation of African agriculture, a U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) official told agribusiness conference attendees.
To create real growth in African agriculture and feed the hungry, he said, investments must be made along the entire value chain of key food staples.
USAID’s Franklin C. Moore, speaking June 26 at the 2008 U.S.-Africa Agribusiness Forum in Chicago, said that the current situation calls for more than “business as usual.”
Moore told the audience attending the two-day event that the poorest 1 billion people in the world -- many of whom are in Africa -- are living on just $1 a day and face stark choices by being forced to spend about 70 percent of their daily income on food.
He attributed the current food crisis to fundamental imbalances between supply and demand in major food staples, but added that those imbalances present opportunities for both Africans and Americans.
Moore summarized how the United States is working to confront the crisis. The latest U.S. response to the food crisis began on May 1, he said, when President Bush asked Congress to provide an additional $620 million in new funding to address the humanitarian aspects of the crisis and an additional $150 million in longer-term agricultural solutions.
“Recognizing that the high food prices have had a disproportionately high impact on Africa,” he said, the United States government is seeking to focus this new tranche of food aid on Africa.
That amount, he said, may also include the set-aside of some $20 million to look at science and technology research as it relates to staple food crops in Africa.
The United States provides more than $1 billion annually in food aid worldwide.
Moore said the United States is moving at deliberate speed to support those countries that have put in place a policy environment and comprehensive investment plan to increase agricultural growth.
“In short, our desire is to focus on countries that have the potential to increase production and marketing of food staples and are committed to supporting their agricultural sectors, including creating the policy conditions to help private sector investment in agriculture expand and help the sector flourish,” he said.
Moore said conversations in the past with the Corporate Council on Africa (CCA), which sponsored the forum, have revolved around flowers, green beans for the European market, coffee, tea and cocoa. “We tend to talk about either high-value crops intended for export or traditional export crops,” he said.
While that will continue, he said, “real growth and transformation of African agriculture will come from integrated investments along the entire value chain of key food staples, including the livestock, meat and milk sectors. These value chains serve both growth and food security objectives,” he said.
Africa’s total food demand is about $50 billion annually, he said, and it is estimated that the demand level will double to $100 billion by 2015. Africa currently imports 25 percent of grain products in the form of maize, rice and wheat, he added.
Food markets across Africa must be strengthened, he said, along with trade, transport corridors and comprehensive value-chain development.
What is most needed, Moore told his audience, is a “comprehensive and integrated approach to make food more affordable.”
Such an approach, he added, must promote sound market-based principles, increase agricultural productivity through the practical application of research and alleviate transport and supply-chain bottlenecks.
Additionally, he said, what must be targeted is the elimination of waste from poor production and storage methods. “Currently, in post harvest for many staples, there are many countries that lose up to 40 percent of what is produced,” he said.
What is hoped for overall, he said, is that African production of food staples and the markets for these staples significantly increase. “We don’t look at this as business as usual” and it is not another iteration of the green revolution, which was public-sector-driven. What must be done, he said, largely must be stimulated and driven by the private sector.
“Now is the time,” Moore said, for the private sector to invest in staple food crops.
Also addressing the forum was Ambassador John J. Danilovich, chief executive officer of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), who described MCC’s accomplishments to date and stressed that his organization is proud of its work in strengthening African agribusiness.
