Christopher Jator Njechu
6 June 2008
Buea — International Monetary Fund, IMF, Special Adviser for Africa, Eugene Nyambal, has said the current food crisis in the country is an opportunity for the government to regain its food self-sufficiency.
Cameroon can rely on its own food production
Nyambal said Cameroonian authorities should be able to use the challenge to produce and depend on locally produced foodstuff.To him, importation measures must be precautionary. But food sovereignty and self-sufficiency is good.
The IMF official urged Africa to rethink of providing itself with an opportunity for development and exhort subsidising farm inputs and consumption of locally produced food.
The financial expert, who is also author of Afrique: Les Voies de Prosperite,(Africa: Ways and Means To Prosper) said the February strike in Cameroon, like in other parts of Africa, was not a surprise to him.
Hear him: "They are a reflection of the predictions and main conclusions of my book on the loss of impetus by the development policies that have been implemented for some decades now. Africans' standard of living is currently subject to a triple pressure.
Firstly, there is an imported inflation, which is attributed to food dependency. Unlike the other continents, Africa has not succeeded in linking up its cities to its countrysides so that development can kick off.
"The purchasing power of major African cities goes to sustain the farmers of other continents while African countrysides are being deserted because of the absence of regular incomes. It is an unbearable situation."
"Secondly, Africans are victims of domestic inflation, which is linked to the reinforcement of the situation of private incomes that started in the 1990s when the state disengaged itself from sectors such as water, electricity or telecommunications without setting up an adequate regulatory environment.
"Finally, the rise in the cost of living is taking place in a context where economic and social policies are generating little growth and employment."During a chat with The Post in Yaounde recently, the IMF official said the current inflation cycle may be a long-lasting one, with the risk of extreme hunger on the entire continent.
"The surge in the prices of basic commodities is not a temporary phenomenon. It is a structural crisis that requires Africans to radically change their policies and behavioural patterns. Africans have to learn again to consume what they produce. They will have no excuse if they are hard hit by famine.
How can it be explained that Africa is unable to feed its population despite the fact that it is the continent with the highest percentage of rural population? The increase in prices of agricultural produce is linked to the changes in world economy.
"With regard to supply, we can cite oil price hikes, which contribute to the addition of the cost of agricultural and transportation inputs as well as the bad weather conditions in leading rice and wheat producing countries.
With regard to demand, we may cite the increases in consumption in emerging countries like China and India, the misappropriation of part of the agricultural production to manufacture bio-fuel in the US and Europe, and speculations on international capital markets with a view to protecting themselves against a drop in the dollar."
Concerning its impact, The Post learnt that all African countries are not in the same boat. Oil producing countries will simply have to grapple with an increase in budgetary expenditures, while poor countries will need more assistance from the international community to avert situations of famine.
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