Article by James N. Kariuki
For the past century and a half, Africa has tried various agricultural approaches without much success. In the colonial era our agriculture adjusted to exporting unprocessed agricultural products to the metropolis. At the time, African farmers were mere appendages to the colonial settlers bound to 'feeding' colonial plunders to their mother countries.
Against this background, Africa embarked on growing coffee, tea, cocoa, sugarcanes etc. to satisfy the sweet tooth of Europe.
These were the days when we went to town to sell our fresh string beans, fruit, vegetables, eggs etc to buy processed sugar, tea, coffee and bread for our own consumption. Yet, the latter were nutritionally worthless and they cost comparatively more. We exchanged health to appear Westernized. Colonial mentality was under way; we were embracing a ‘colonial attitude of mind.’
Unwittingly, Africa was dancing to the European forces of mercantilism; the foreign dynamics that had triggered our colonization. To serve European needs, we de-emphasized growing staple foods. Our agriculture succumbed to the imperial order of priorities.
But we did not abandon staple foods altogether. The impulse was to relegate such informal chores to subsistence levels. But agricultural low production could not absorb our young and strong men. They went to town for employment. Agriculture was left to the aged and women.
Independence finally came. For export we continued to produce West-bound products in abundance and grow just enough staple foods for subsistence. We did this with the blessings of our indigenous governments which saw little value in investing substantially in agriculture. Yet, our home-grown authorities pushed the agriculture sector to continue growing cash-crops because they attracted ‘foreign exchange’ which was vital for other developmental purposes.
In post-colonial era, the assigning agriculture to secondary status continued but it was finally challenged. Firstly, there were the recurring cycles of hunger and famines, making Africa the world’s food beggar. African scholars started to object that their governments had embarked on the wrong road by de-emphasizing agriculture. Professor Ali Mazrui was one of these. Professor Herbert Vilakazi was another in post-apartheid SA.
Secondly, ugly truths and questions were asserting themselves. Africa is well endowed with arable land and water. Why is it that, since independence, its agricultural output had declined while rising in the rest of the world? Why were 250 million African malnourished and one third of them chronically hungry? In short, why had Africa become synonymous with hunger?
Ironically, there is indisputable evidence that Africa can compete agriculturally. After all, it has served European needs for raw agricultural products for centuries. Small Kenya has supplied high-grade Arabica coffee to the West since the colonial days. Now it is a leading exporter of cut flowers.
More dramatic is the news is what came to be known as the ‘Malawi miracle.’ A 2000-2005 crop failure left Malawi staggered by famine. The country’s president committed his office and prestige to the improvement of the county’s food security. As a result, the farmers got access to fertilizers and higher grade seeds
By 2007, little Malawi had more than enough to feed its people and a surplus to sell and donate to neighbors. If feasibility was the issue in Africa’s failure to feed itself, Malawi’s illustrious achievement was a classic case of instant departure from famine to surplus. Africa could indeed move from the status of a begging bowl to that of a breadbasket in our lifetime.
Two years ago, I wrote a short article in an East African newspaper urging the region’s officialdom to engage in food security issues, at least to encourage a culture of agricultural knowledge-sharing among people in the farming sector. This could be done via establishment of basic internet connectivity throughout the region.
The piece was prompted by two developments. Firstly, in 2007, former UN’s Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, established the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), based in Nairobi and Accra. The NGO’s objective is to enhance food security in Africa, anchored on smallholder farming. By its formation, AGRA was a high-level affirmation that agriculture is indeed central to Africa and its destiny.
Secondly, I had learned of a model that amalgamated Western technology, the homeland and its diaspora in support of all, especially the motherland. The Vietnamese had evolved such a model in a bid to bring their largely agrarian country into the forefront of the digital era.
The plan called for formation of a loose alliance of Vietnamese technologically-trained diaspora, its government and a multinational corporation based in the former major military enemy, the US, to push Vietnam to become the world’s largest exporter of information technology. We may be witnessing the early makings of another Asian tiger?
Conceptually, the Vietnamese model seemed applicable to Kenya relative to agriculture. Computer know-how in Kenya and its dynamic diaspora should be sufficient to establish a network of the country’s farmers via the internet. With government endorsement, such computer wizardry could do wonders in facilitating agricultural knowledge-sharing in Kenya and beyond.
In 2010, there was even more dramatic news; revolutionary change is at hand in Africa’s agriculture. Indeed it was a bold prediction that, within a generation, Africa will be able to feed itself.
Harvard Kennedy School Professor Calestous Juma had published a book, the New Harvest, that explains why Africa is ready to become food self-reliant. Indeed there are only two missing links. Firstly, political leaders needed to provide farmers with the incentive to grow more by constructing larger regional markets. Secondly, various actors in the agricultural sector must be connected to enable them to constantly cross-pollinate ideas. Today, agricultural technical knowledge is in silos, an unacceptable reality.
These objectives require commitment and intervention of the highest executive office in each country: the presidency.
It was instructive that the New Harvest was launched at a meeting of the heads of state of the East African Community. Additionally, its findings were adopted by the 19-member Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, the continent’s largest trading bloc.
Adios African famines?
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