World Agriculture Forum-2013 to be held in Hyderabad

To discuss steps to make farming economically viable in the era of the WTO regime, a three-day World Agriculture Forum Congress will be organised here from November 4-7 next year.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate the Congress, being held for the first time in Asia, which has the theme “Re-shaping agriculture for the sustainable future of small and marginal farmers”.

An agricultural trade fair will also be organised concurrently. As a prelude to the Congress, a meeting was held here today to discuss the agenda and related issues.

World Agriculture Forum Chairman Kenneth M. Baker; WAF Advisory Board chairman and former Prime Minister of New Zealand James B. Bolger; Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy; Agriculture ministers — Kanna Lakshminarayana (AP), Ramkrishan Kusmariya (Madhya Pradesh) and D Prasad Mishra (Odisha) — attended the meeting along with others.

The primary objective of the Congress was to discuss with all key stakeholders including farmers’ organisations, industry, Government and scientists the steps for “re-shaping and re-positioning” small farm-holder agriculture to make farming economically viable in the era of the WTO regime, WAF Chairman Baker said.

Speaking on the occasion, Bolger noted that the challenge was to feed nine billion people in the world in the next 40 years, up from seven billion now.

“About 800 million to one billion people are left hungry everyday now, out of the world’s population of seven billion. We have to feed not only these people but also an additional two billion people in the next 40 years. We need to produce 70 per cent more food in the next 40 years,” Bolger pointed out.

The task, therefore, in front of agriculture sector was “immense”. “It’s not a question if it is possible but it’s a question of the will. The world can feed itself better if there is a political will,” the former Prime Minister observed.

“We need to use all the safe sides to reach the goal of feeding all,” he added.

Stating that the WAF was trying to reach out to the world, Bolger said the WAF Congress was for the first time being held outside the US.

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Basu: Is help from corporate agriculture beneficial?

Iowans are regularly reminded of our role in helping to feed the world’s hungry, and from a technological perspective, we have certainly played an important role. An Iowan launched the so-called Green Revolution, and the World Food Prize that he created annually honors others who have made important innovations in agriculture. Iowa today is in the vanguard of the biotech revolution.

So it may be hard to contemplate the paradox that even as we have helped block world hunger, we might also inadvertently be contributing to it. There is growing evidence around the world that high-yield technologies that require costly and potentially harmful chemical fertilizers and other inputs squeeze small farmers out in favor of large conglomerates, resulting in impoverishment or suicides.

Recent weeks have brought a few occasions to think about this. Members of the Des Moines Occupy movement announced plans to protest the World Food Prize events this fall. Instead of “pro-corporate agribusiness recipients who support GMO crops and the use of harmful pesticides and chemicals,” the prize should honor people “who advocate sustainable, safe, local agriculture in the U.S. and abroad,” the group said in a statement.

Occupy also noted that corporate agribusiness has gone beyond controlling food supplies to also controlling “governments, laws, and patents.”

That might sound like a conspiracy theoryuntil you consider the Tanzania land deal negotiated by an Iowa Board of Regents member, which was the subject of a recent complaint to the state ethics board. Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement filed the complaint, alleging that Bruce Rastetter, the founder and managing director of AgriSol Energy Corp., had a conflict of interests with a deal involving Iowa State University.

AgriSol would have paid the Tanzanian government a mere 25 cents an acre for the right to cultivate 800,000 acres, by evicting some 160,000 Burundian refugee farmers. For decades, they had been growing a variety of crops, producing more than 40 percent of the district’s food on just 4 percent of the land. Under the AgriSol deal, they would be given $200 apiece and the land would be turned over to corn and soybeans.

AgriSol stood to make $300 million. And the corn and soybeans wouldn’t necessarily feed Tanzanians.

AgriSol’s consultant was advising the company to seek a guarantee from the government that it could export all the food it produces — even if there were a food shortage in Tanzania.

Critics, including former CBS news anchor Dan Rather, called it a “land grab.” Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement alleges Rastetter used his status as a regent and big donor to get Iowa State University involved, falsified a financial disclosure statement with the state ethics board, and didn’t disclose the land deal to the regents until six weeks after joining the board — after it was reported in the press.

If the theory is accurate, Rastetter’s $1.75 million gift to ISU’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences may have opened some doors for him there. In 2007, officials traveled to Tanzania with him. Even the person who had been in charge of the refugee camps was evidently co-opted into being a legal adviser to AgriSol.

Rastetter was appointed to the Board of Regents by Gov. Terry Branstad after being his largest 2010 campaign contributor. Rastetter recused himself from the project last September, and ISU later said it would stop advising AgriSol on the project. But Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement asked for Rastetter’s resignation from the regents.

All this points to the broader potential for U.S. companies, with compliant or even corrupt governments, to exploit small farmers in the developing world under the guise of helping them. We may not be able to control what their governments do, but we should take a closer look at what our own companies pass off as “help.”

Rastetter and others had claimed the deal would help Tanzanians improve their food production techniques. But the large-scale, high-yield, monoculture model would not have suited the farmers it displaced in order for American investors to get rich.

Many Iowa small hog farmers lost their livelihoods when corporate agribusinesses like Heartland Pork displaced them. Now, in the face of skyrocketing prices, some of the same principals have turned to Africa, where land can still be had cheaply. Rastetter previously owned Heartland Pork.

It is hard to challenge corporate agriculture in this state. It’s promoted by targeted state university research, and its principals fund the political campaigns of elected officials — who might return the favor with plumb appointments.

So it falls to grassroots groups like Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement to call for an investigation. Some of its members lost their own hog farms to Heartland Pork.

Branstad won’t even wait until the outcome of the state ethics board complaint to voice his confidence in Rastetter’s judgment — a clear signal to the board. But the board should show its independence by conducting a thorough investigation.

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Africa's Economy Grows, but Many Stomachs Are Empty

BY KINGSLEY IGHOBOR

Each year, governments, journalists, development experts and others look forward to the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report. The report includes a ranking of countries based on life expectancy, literacy, quality of life and so on.

Once it is released, governments and citizens of countries with high rankings immediately trumpet their achievements. Those with lower rankings, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was last in 2011, come in for criticism.

When UNDP announced it would launch its first-ever Africa Human Development Report (AHDR) in May, many expected that it would also include a general country ranking. Instead, the regional report focuses on the theme "Towards a food secure future," with extensive analyses and recommendations on that topic. If the intention of the 190-page report was to generate debate on filling empty stomachs in Africa with nutritious food, that goal is being accomplished - probably beyond expectations.

Setting the tone

Helen Clark, UNDP administrator, and Tegegnework Gettu, director of the programme's Africa bureau, set the tone in the opening pages. Ms. Clark writes: "It is my hope that this first Africa Human Development Report will energize a debate on how to strengthen food security ... and lead to more decisive action."

Mr. Gettu's preface is a provocative clarion call on African leaders. "Africa is not fated to starve," he writes. "That is an affront to both its dignity and its potential.... Africa must stop begging for food.... Had the African governments over the last 30 years met their people's aspirations, the report would not be necessary. One quarter of the people in sub-Saharan Africa would not be undernourished, and one third of African children would not be stunted."

Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo echoed Mr. Gettu's theme, calling the report "an indictment of African leadership in the area of food production. It tells us what we know: that the poverty of Africa is the making of African leaders over the years."

During Asia's green revolution, for example, many Asian countries spent up to 20 per cent of their budgets on agriculture, while African countries currently spend between 5 to 10 per cent on the sector. This is despite African leaders' commitment in 2003 to allocate at least 10 per cent of national budgets to agriculture. The report notes that Africa spends more on the military than on agriculture.

Hunger amidst plenty

Launched in Nairobi, Kenya, and simultaneously in five other African countries (Zambia, Ghana, Ethiopia, Senegal and South Africa), the report further highlights what Mr. Gettu considers a harsh paradox of suffering amidst plenty. "Hunger and malnutrition remain pervasive on a continent with ample agricultural endowments," he says. "Africa has the knowledge, the technology, and the means to end hunger and insecurity."

The report raises an alarm over poverty in sub-Saharan Africa, calling the region the world's most food insecure. Up to 25 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's 856 million people are undernourished, with 15 million people facing serious risks in the Sahel and an equal number in the Horn of Africa.

The worsening food situation in sub-Saharan Africa dampens glowing reports on Africa's fast-growing economies, which have expanded by an annual average of 5 to 6 per cent during the past decade. However, notes Ms. Clark, "Impressive GDP growth rates in Africa have not translated into the elimination of hunger and malnutrition."

At the Nairobi launch, Ms. Clark canvassed coordinated solutions. "Building a food-secure future for all Africans will only be achieved if efforts span the entire development agenda." Without good roads, for example, surplus food cannot enter the market.

Important steps

The report lists steps that can be taken right away to stem the tide of food insecurity: "greater agricultural productivity of smallholder farmers; more effective nutrition policies, especially for children; greater community and household resilience to cope with shocks; and wider popular participation and empowerment, especially of women and the rural poor."

Many African leaders are already picking up on various aspects of the report. Africa's first elected female president, Ellen Jonson-Sirleaf of Liberia, considers the role of women in food security "profound and critical." According to President Johnson-Sirleaf, better education and access to food assets such as land, capital and labour will likely increase productivity by 20 per cent. The report urges countries to "end decades of bias against agriculture and women," because women's education can lower malnutrition in children more than does an increase in household income. Compared with other regions, African women have the least access to land.

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki, who co-launched the report in Nairobi, linked nutritious food to mental and physical wellbeing, stressing that "it also enables people to exercise their freedoms and capabilities in different fields." Kenya is rated as a high-risk food-insecure country. President Kibaki attributed this to the impact of drought in the past five years, although Kenya's agricultural sector has been revived from a negative growth of 2.3 per cent in 2009 to a positive 6.3 per cent by 2010.

Opinion is unanimous that climate change will have a negative impact on agriculture. "Africa is most susceptible to variations in agro-climate," maintains Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, who notes that "climate change exacerbates the problem of food insecurity." In addition, the report explains that the semi-arid region from Senegal to Chad and the Horn of Africa, particularly Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, have all been affected by severe climate conditions.

While acknowledging the impact of drought on food security, the report notes that famines often get the headlines, even though uneven access to food due to low incomes is as much a problem. "The silent crises of chronic malnourishment and seasonal hunger do not receive nearly enough attention." It adds that increased agricultural production does not necessarily guarantee food security unless there are improvements in access to health, better roads, more job opportunities and empowerment of women.

Bright spots

Notwithstanding the deplorable food situation in sub-Saharan Africa, there are many bright spots, including Mr. Obasanjo's Nigeria, where the government's Agricultural Transformation Agenda is expected to ensure food sufficiency and create 3.5 million jobs by 2015. Ghana has already halved poverty by boosting cocoa farmers, becoming the first sub-Saharan country to achieve the first Millennium Development Goal, which is to reduce by half the proportion of people living in poverty and hunger by 2015.

Malawi undertook a huge seed and fertilizer subsidy programme and turned its food deficit into a 1.3 million tonne surplus in just two years. In Senegal child malnutrition was lowered from 34 to 20 per cent between 1990 and 2005 through increased national agricultural budgets. By increasing agriculture's budget from 1.6 per cent in 2008 to 7.7 per cent in 2009, Sierra Leone grew 784,000 tonnes of rice, above the domestic requirement of 550,000 tonnes.

As the continent posts world-beating economic growth rates, it needs to move faster to fill empty stomachs with nutritious food. If it achieves that goal, then the release of UNDP's first Africa Human Development Report may be seen as an important contribution to that effort.

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Demining process increases cereal production

Lubango – The ongoing demining process in country, mainly in The southern Huila province, is enabling the opening of new agricultural fields and increasing of cereals production over the last four year.

This was said to Angop on Friday by the vice governor for Political and Social Affairs, José Araão Nataniel, when assessing the development programme in the province over the last four years with members of the hearing and social concert council.

He said this action is part of the government programme aimed to fight hunger and poverty, through which over 63.000 peasant families benefited from land and other assistance for practicing agriculture, due to demining process.

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Aid groups question Group of 8 plan to fight African hunger

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa -- A plan to improve agriculture in poor countries through private investment won a tepid welcome Friday from humanitarian agencies, which said the Group of 8 major industrialized nations should stick to its previous commitment to donate $7.3 billion a year.

The G-8's New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition announced Friday to fight global hunger calls on multinational corporations to invest $3 billion in agriculture in developing countries, mainly in Africa. But aid agencies questioned whether the money would reach the small farms that grow most of the continent's food.

With more than half Africa’s population living on $1.25 a day and a quarter suffering chronic hunger, fostering a “green revolution” across the continent is seen as the way to lift populations out of poverty and to provide adequate nutrition.

But global climate change has hit hard in many African countries, making some farm areas marginal and forcing food prices up. Africa’s population is expected to double by 2050, increasing the intense pressure on food resources.

Gregory Adams, spokesman for the humanitarian and advocacy organization Oxfam, said one of the key reasons for the lack of agricultural growth in African countries in recent decades has been a systematic government failure to invest in rural roads and other infrastructure that would enable farmers to increase production and get their goods to market.

Oxfam also argues that climate change and food wastage in both developing and developed nations contributes to the sharp increases in global food prices that have left many people hungry.

At a 2009 meeting in L'Aquila, Italy, the G-8 promised to provide $22 billion for agricultural development in poor countries over three years. With just months to go in that  agreement, around 44% of the money has been disbursed.

But aid groups question the new focus on private investment to deliver the next phase of agricultural development.

"Where is the sustained commitment from the G-8?" Adams asked. "This problem was caused by several decades of public disinvestment in agricultural development. You don’t solve it in three years.

“We want to see the G-8 give a commitment commensurate with the scale and level of the problem," he said. "We’d like to see leaders double down on their commitments at L’Aquila and continue the $7.3 billion a year for the next three years.”

But Kenya’s Calestous Juma, director of Harvard’s Agricultural Innovation in Africa Project, said the lowered funding commitment was at least honest. “There’s been a huge gap between public commitments by Western donors and actual delivery. I’d prefer they underplayed and delivered than overplayed and not delivered.”

Some agencies questioned whether the shift to private investment signaled that European Union governments, facing financial crises of their own, were backing away from promises to end hunger in the developing world.

But Juma said the investment pledges by large multinational corporations was a significant vote of confidence in the future of African agriculture.

“They would not be interested in making a commitment if they didn’t believe it has a future,” he said in a phone interview. “That level of commitment by foreign firms also helps to get African leaders to think about complementary investments in energy, transport, irrigation and communications. This is the role that the African public sector can play.”

It would also encourage African businesses to invest in agriculture.

The barriers to a “green revolution” in Africa, are myriad: lack of access to improved seeds, fertilizer, irrigation and markets; lack of storage and refrigeration; poor transportation and infrastructure; and insufficient bank finance.

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Rajiv Shah, told journalists Friday that boosting food production through private investment would raise 50 million people out of poverty and hunger in the next 10 years.

The alliance announced Friday will include G-8 and African leaders, aid agencies and multinational companies such as Unilever, Diageo and Vodafone. The role that farmers will play was less clear, said Adams.

The central objective is to encourage small-scale farmers to increase their output and their capacity to get goods to market.

“In partnership with Africa’s people and leaders, our goals are to increase responsible domestic and foreign private investments in African agriculture, take innovations that can enhance agricultural productivity to scale, and reduce the risk borne by vulnerable economies and communities,” said a White House statement on the initiative Friday. “We recognize and will act upon the critical role played by smallholder farmers, especially women, in transforming agriculture and building thriving economies.”

In addition to pledges of $3 billion from the private sector, the alliance would seek another $1.2 billion over the next three years from donors -- a far cry from the $7.3 billion annually humanitarian agencies were calling for.

Adams said African countries faced vastly different challenges among themselves and compared to the rest of the world in fostering a green revolution. He cautioned against drawing analogies with the Asian and Latin American green revolutions that spurred economic growth in past decades.

“We have a different global market and a different climate, and new technologies and solutions," he said. "A green revolution in Africa is going to look different to what it looked like 40 or 50 years ago.”

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