Africa needs to prioritise its agriculture
What you need to know:
- Hunger in Africa is not due to lack of resources; rather, it is lack of the political will to prioritise it by channelling resources to farming.
- Only nine African countries have honoured the Maputo agreement on agriculture that countries should commit at least 10 per cent of their budget to agriculture. Last year, Kenya committed a paltry 4 per cent to agriculture.
- Second, slaying the dragon of corruption. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda lose up to $ 2.8 billion annually due to tax evasion and incentives and exemptions that the governments provide to multinationals. This is much more than they spend on agriculture.
Economic reports have in the past 10 years harped on the positive economic indicators in Africa.
The formerly hopeless continent is undergoing unprecedented economic expansion driven by a vibrant youth population based on technological uptake and a spiking global appetite for her raw materials.
Yet the continent faces daunting challenges, the most urgent of which is fighting food insecurity. Unless Africa prioritises its agriculture, the grandiose infrastructural projects that it is so enamoured with will not do much to raise its people’s living standards.
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Hunger in Africa is not due to lack of resources; rather, it is lack of the political will to prioritise it by channelling resources to farming. For example, although the continent accounts for a mere 2 per cent of the global military trade, many sub-Saharan African countries spend more on the military than on agriculture.
Zambia spends more on defence than on agriculture. For the 2011-15 period, Uganda’s budget allocation to security was double that of agriculture, while Nigeria’s 2013 expenditure on defence was roughly four times that of agriculture and rural development.
The money wasted on defence equipment could buy Africa the three million tractors and equipment needed to mechanise sub-Saharan Africa’s agriculture.
African leaders would rather buy fighter jets, gun-ship helicopters, and tanks than tractors or fertiliser. One tank costs roughly 50 times what a tractor costs.
A fighter jet costs several hundred times the price of a combine harvester. Yet a tractor can last 50 or more years, while the average lifespan of a tank is between 10 and 20 years.
10 PER CENT OF BUDGET TO AGRICULTURE
Only nine African countries have honoured the Maputo agreement on agriculture that countries should commit at least 10 per cent of their budget to agriculture. Last year, Kenya committed a paltry 4 per cent to agriculture.
Africa’s agricultural problems are not just at production level; it is estimated that between a third and three-quarters of grain harvested in Africa is lost due to poor post-harvest management.
What is to be done? First, cutting non-essential military hardware and grandiose infrastructure projects would release money for agriculture.
Second, slaying the dragon of corruption. Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda lose up to $ 2.8 billion annually due to tax evasion and incentives and exemptions that the governments provide to multinationals. This is much more than they spend on agriculture.
Third, fast-tracking intra-African trade by opening up our borders. It is easier to import grain from Europe than from Tanzania. While this is changing, poor roads, food cartels, and corruption form formidable non-tariffic impediments to quick food mobilisation to needy areas.
Fourth, enhanced utilisation of science and technology. This is critical for increased productivity and requires new approaches to research.
Finally, Africa must stop behaving as though it is a bottomless pit of raw materials. So long as it relies on these materials as the basis of economic growth, the “Africa rising story” will just be hot air. Consider the oil-based economies that are in a spin as petrol prices tumble.
Dr Mbataru teaches at Kenyatta University’s School of Agriculture. [email protected].
