Images of African Agriculture

Its affects

And failures

Re-imagining African agriculture

Some Facts Africa occupies 20% of the world’s landmass 800 million people live on the continent 70% of this population live and work in rural areas Despite common representations of agricultural failure in Africa, Africa supplies massive quantities of coffee, cotton, sugar, tea, cocoa, and vegetables to European and American markets. However….

Rising food insecurity

What is Food Insecurity? Neo-Malthusianism: Thomas Malthus, an 18 th century political economist, argued that people’s insatiable desire to reproduce, drives populations up while simultaneously placing greater pressure on food supplies. This lead inexorably to food insecurity and famine. Amartya Sen: Nobel Prize winning economist argued that food insecurity is not a problem of production. Rather food insecurity is the product of a lack of Capabilities to access sufficient food.

Increases in food imports The paradox of African agriculture: Despite the majority of the population being engaged in agricultural, and high levels of exported agriculture goods, Africa has recently become a net importer of food. All this while levels of food insecurity have risen.

White Man’s Burden: Colonial representations and continuation – Take up the White Man's burden -- Send forth the best ye breed -- Go, bind your sons to exile To serve your captives' need; To wait, in heavy harness, On fluttered folk and wild -- Your new-caught sullen peoples, Half devil and half child. McClure's Magazine, Feb. 1899

The Colonial Legacy The Three C’s: Commerce, Civilization, and Christianity Hegemony on a shoestring budget Modernization as Progress: Hut taxes, Industrial Labor, and Cash Cropping Indirect rule and Native Reserves Feeding the industrial sector and colonial administrators

Post-colonial Africa: Modernity and The Developmental State With the help of foreign lenders, African states financed massive development schemes aimed at expanding the export agriculture sector: –Irrigation projects –Dam building –Input subsidies –State run markets and guaranteed pricing This occurred within, and was supported by, a global political economy that made imported food from America cheaper than locally produced food.

Neoliberalism: Dual Agricultural Economies and Representations The emergence of neoliberalism in Africa: the debt/export nexus and the withdrawal of the “State”. Export agriculture and its privileged position in neoliberal ideology. Subsistence agriculture: Ignored and undermined by a political economy that supports export agriculture and relies on imported food. The irony: Though neoliberal ideology emerged from the “West”, the cheap imports of food to Africa from the “West” are heavily subsidized.

Food Aid, Neoliberalism, and Export Agriculture: A Destructive Conjuncture Because export agriculture is privileged in neoliberal ideology (mostly as a way to pay foreign debt), infrastructure, training, and government /development spending go to supporting the production of export crops. Most of which are inedible. The best land, irrigation schemes, and technological development are aimed at export agriculture. Images of famine and hunger in Africa, which ignore the success of African export agriculture and result from the failure of subsistence agriculture, gives politicians in the west the political leverage they need to continue to subsidize their agriculture through food aid programs. As a result, underproduction of staple food crops are made up for with food aid donations from highly subsidized agriculture from the “West”

Market Failure and Food Insecurity Food aid is channeled through local markets. The low market price of food aid provides a disincentive for staple food production. Cash, instead of production of staples, becomes necessary to meet household food needs. Market failure of exports, both urban and rural, can limit people’s access to cash and thereby limit their ability to gain access to food.

Conclusion: Images of the failure of African agriculture ignore the successes of the export sector. These images provide the political leverage necessary to continue massive food subsidy programs in Western countries. Food aid is funneled through African markets at prices that undermine local food producers. At times when global markets for African exports collapse, people loss the ability purchase the food they need to survive, while having been discouraged from producing the food themselves. Food insecurity in Africa is not the result of backward production techniques or a lack of modern knowledge. Instead, food insecurity emerges from the conjuncture of an over reliance on export agriculture, the myopic vision of neoliberal ideology, highly subsidized food aid, and continuous representations of Africa as a place in need of modernization.