1. We refuse to bow: Food prices show defiance
Michael Waithaka1, Joseph Karugia2, Jonathan Nzuma2 , Miriam Kyotalimye1
5th African Agriculture Science Week and FARA General Assembly
17-24 July 2010, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
2008 The impact of the food prices crisis on African countries was profound. High costs of food imports put enormous strains on most economies as the surging food prices led to social unrest and political tensions in several countries.
In 2009, food prices throughout Africa continue to rise even though global food prices declined in the last quarter of Domestic prices remained high and many of the factors that contributed to high and volatile prices remain unaddressed. A continuous analysis of the food situation in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) shows that the easing global food prices do not present any immediate relief to the food crisis.
An outlook into 2010 based on trends of production, regional trade volumes and prices of major food crops, livestock products and key inputs (fuel and fertilizer) and policy responses by individual governments.
The initiative to update food prices
Due to a paucity of information on food price transmission in the markets within ESA, in June 2008, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) in collaboration with the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System Eastern Africa (RESAKSS–ECA), the Alliance of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, private sector and the National Agricultural Research Systems analyzed trends, causes and policy actions in response to rising food prices.
Given the unstable prices of staple food crops, one alternative that can be pursued is to shift consumption to orphan crops like sorghum, cassava, potatoes and bananas. However analysis conducted with 2009 data shows:
Prices of sorghum, banana and potatoes in almost all ESA countries rose sharply
Linkages between prices of staple food crops and of orphan crops have been weak.
Orphan food crops do not seem to adequately substitute for staple food crops except in drought periods.
Orphan crops may not adequately cushion consumers against rising food prices.
Conclusions and Policy Recommendations
Given the social problems the crisis created, adoption of short- to medium-term coping strategies and long-term surveillance policy measures are needed. The short-term strategies protect the poor without distorting the domestic food economy while long-term “resilience” measures allow farmers to take advantage of production incentives and stabilize the economy to prevent vulnerability to future crises and price variability.
Short-term Coping Strategies: These can be achieved through distribution of relief food and the release of public stocks of food staples by governments; adoption of food safety nets to cushion the vulnerable; provision of agricultural inputs and services; abolishing of price controls and export restrictions; adjustments in trade and tax policy measures; and macro-economic policy management
Long-term Resilience Measures: Priority areas of investment include: agricultural research; agricultural services; rural infrastructure to ensure that what is produced reaches markets; rural financial services, markets and linkages so that smallholder farmers can buy fertilizer and better seeds, gain control over when and where to sell produce, and insure against risks; agro-processing to add value and reduce post-harvest losses.
1 Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa. Plot 13 John Babiiha Road, P.O. Box 765, Entebbe, Uganda
2 Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support Systems, ILRI Campus, P.O. Box 30709, Nairobi