allAfrica.com: Nigeria: Coalitions Emerging to Tackle Food Crisis (Page 1 of 1)

An alarm was sounded at the Pan African Parliament (PAP) over the global food crisis last week when a member asked the regional assembly to find lasting solutions to the challenge of food poverty in the continent.

Hon. Athumani Janguo, while making a presentation at PAP, which is holding its Ninth Ordinary Session May 5-16 at Midrand, South Africa said that the Parliament should persuade Heads of State, governments, regional economic communities, non-governmental organisations and the international community to get to the root causes of the problem and address them.

The acting chairperson of PAP's Permanent Committee on Agriculture, Rural Economy, Natural Resources and Environment, said Africa was most at risk in the worsening global food situation. The crisis is likely to worsen malnutrition and HIV/AIDS as well as increase crime and violence in Africa, he noted.

Rioting over rising food prices have already been reported in a number of countries in the region. And last week, troops fired at similarly protesting crowds in the capital, Mogadishu, killing two, according to agency reports. World Food Programme executive director, Josette Sheeran, has called the worsening food situation a 'silent tsunami'.

The famine has been on in the continent for five years, Janguo added. Around 30 million citizens, most of them women and children have suffered hunger, starvation, and even death. The Horn of Africa and some Southern African countries, including Zambia, Lesotho and Zimbabwe, are the hardest hit.

He observed that Africa suffers chronic food shortages despite its vast arable land. His presentation cited inappropriate government agricultural policies as the major contributing factors to Africa's food crisis.

The MP asked his colleagues to encourage their countries tackle the problem. According to him, 50 percent of Africa's food crises are caused by internal and cross-border conflicts which displace millions of people. Other major factors he cited include vermin invasions, inappropriate government policies, poverty, outdated farming methods, climate change, land exhaustion, overgrazing and poor infrastructure.

Modibo Traore, Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa of the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), who also addressed the session, said $17 had been allocated as food emergency package and agriculture support for 20 African countries.

Meanwhile, Economic Community of West African States Ministers of trade and industry are meeting in Abuja May 19 to role out measures to mitigate the effects of the rising cost of food on citizens. An intra-regional plan is to be developed to cope with the situation, ECOWAS Commission said.

The vice president of the commission, Mr. Jean de Dieu Somda, had addressed ambassadors of member states last month, and said poor distribution was responsible for distortions in the food situation in the region. He was responding to concerns raised by the ambassadors during ECOWAS 18th Mediation and Security Council meeting.

On a longer-term basis, expert will further diagnose and fine tune and finalise the region's agricultural policy. The Agriculture Policy of the Economic community of West African States had been adopted in 2005 in Accra.

The agriculture policy, termed ECOWAP, seeks to feed the region's growing rural and urban population. Dr. Adrienne Diop, communications director of ECOWAS, told THISDAY Development that the scope of the agricultural scheme covers agriculture, fisheries, livestock, food and natural resource management..

It worried Ms Diop that only 20 per cent of arable land is being used in the region. There is water, she added, but what is needed is water management, a system of irrigation and coordination that can create and retaining and re-directed water to where it is needed.

Diop further told THISDAY Development that trade ministers are deeply involved in the agricultural programme because "If you farm and don't trade, you have a problem". A review of the status of the negotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union is on the agenda of the trade ministers.

Agriculture is what is expected to drive the market assess initiative of the New Partnership for Africa's Development. And ECOWAP is the regional instrument of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Programme of the NEPAD for West Africa. ECOWAS member countries are to harmonise the document and place emphasis on aspects of implementation that need mainly national-level actions.

The search for a new vision for African agricultural development continued at Salzburg, Austria, late last April, when over 60 experts debated issues of vital concern to the future of agriculture in the continent.

Former UN scribe, Mr. Koffi Annan used the platform of the three-day conference to call for 'bold pro-poor policies' to address the global food crisis and a uniquely African Green Revolution for the continent.

The Salzburg Global Seminar, the Future Agriculture Consortium and the Institute of Development Studies of UK organised the seminar. The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, Kilimo Trust and the UK Department of International Development, among others, supported the seminar.

"To address poverty at its core, particularly in light of the growing threat of climate change, we need a uniquely African green revolution," Annan said. "Our farmers need better seeds, soils, and prices for what they sell. They need access to water, markets and credit. They need policies that accelerate rural economic growth, investment and job creation".

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which the former UN Secretary General chairs was established last year by Rockefeller and Gates Foundations.

The African Union seeks to achieve a 6 per cent annual growth in food production by 2015. This will however only be possible if African countries place agriculture at the centre of their development agenda. The World Development Report 2008, published by the World Bank, says Sub-Saharan Africa relies heavily on agriculture for overall growth.

But public spending for farming in the region is a mere 4 percent of total government spending.

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