African Seminar
Agricultural Expansion
Currently, African countries suffer under the weight of an underutilized agricultural system. Despite vast quantities of arable land in Africa, subsistence farming is common, famine and droughts are frequent, and food security in Africa is in peril. The reasons for this state of affairs include manipulation of food prices by Western governments and the fact that the “green revolution,” a worldwide movement that increased crop yields enormously, has not affected most African countries. Increasing Africa's food productivity is critical to African and global security.
Part of Africa's problem is the fact that Western governments such as that of the United States provide enormous amounts of money to farmers, which artificially increases the supply of crops from those countries and lowers their cost. Although these subsidies help reduce food prices for citizens of Western countries, they make less developed countries unable to compete agriculturally or export food products to other countries. As a result, many African countries are net importers of food, despite the fact that these countries may have larger agricultural resources than Western countries. This situation creates dramatic food insecurity in these regions; for example, during the 2007-2008 world food crisis, which mostly began in developed countries, the effects of higher food prices in the West reverberated across African countries, causing food shortages and rioting. However, Western countries are mostly opposed to elimination of these subsidies, because in many cases Western agricultural industries would not exist without subsidies. One country that has had success in reducing agricultural subsidies is New Zealand; although it is more dependent on agriculture than the US, and it had enormous agricultural subsidies, after agricultural reforms in the mid-1980s, its agricultural production soared and it now is one of the world's least-subsidized agricultural markets.
Another agricultural problem that Africa faces is the failure of the Green Revolution to affect most African countries. From the mid-1940s to the 1980s, agricultural production in developing countries expanded enormously; this was mostly due to advances in pesticide use, fertilizer production, irrigation, and newly bred plant varieties that produced better crop yields. These advances led to an enormous increase in world food production; however, they have not generally spread to African countries. This is due to a number of factors: African governments tend not to spend money on agricultural development; foreign aid for agriculture is lacking; farmers are unable to acquire seeds, fertilizer, and methods of irrigation; farmers are unable to acquire loans for the initial costs of seeds; and farmers do not know about or understand new crop production methods. New crop production methods could help to lift millions of African farmers out of poverty, but enthusiasm among governments is lacking and funding is scarce. In addition, Africa's poor infrastructure makes seed distribution unwieldy and expensive in many rural regions. If African countries could repeat the success that Asian countries have had with new farming techniques, it would help liberate entire populations from the risks of famine.
Africa's agricultural woes are daunting, but not insurmountable. They require enormous political will and international cooperation to solve; the issues that they involve necessitate intense negotiations. However, if they are solved, millions of Africans will be freed from the ruthless cycle of subsistence farming, food importation, droughts, famine, and insecurity. This is one of the most important international issues that the UN faces.