food |
With a food import bill of Africa hovering around $35 billion per annum, can Africa feed itself?
This question in
the context of food security was on the front burner of a meeting of
African journalists that was organized by Media for Environment,
Science, Health and Agriculture (MESHA), a Kenyan-based organization and
the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a leading research and
advocacy think tank based in New Delhi, India.
The meeting was
held under the theme: "The Crisis in African Agriculture." The event
brought together about 30 journalists from around Africa and India to
discuss the fact that Africa has become a net importer of food
particularly now when the continent was reportedly spending some US$35
billion a year on food imports. Experts say this is more than what the
continent receives in total overseas development assistance.
"What has led to this state of affairs? Asked Richard Mahapatra, managing editor of Down To Earth, (CSE) publication.
"India is caught in
this import trap too. African countries are actually entering the
Indian crisis trap. We need commitments from our government to move out
of this agricultural import trap.
"Climate change is
already destroying all efforts to lift Africa from the food import trap.
We need to interrogate issues around this and engage our policy
makers." Aghan Daniel, a veteran Kenyan journalist, says the future
state and role of agriculture in Africa is a critical discussion if we
are to increase food production and enhance food security on this
continent of one billion people.
"Challenges that we
face as African journalists, are the things that should spur us to do
more. Is the crisis in agriculture in agriculture or it's in reporting
agriculture.
"We have to tell it
well, in a principled manner. We have to tell the story in a way that
examines our home grown solutions as well as others coming from
outside." Aaron Yancho Kaah, a veteran Cameroon journalist said the
African media must take a convincing and engaging standing on
agricultural issues such as land, food import policies, climate change
responses and others that can help the continent attain food security.
"We must adopt a
convincing and engaging stand on agricultural issues facing the
continent," he said. "We must influence the thought process on all
agricultural matters affecting Africa." Pan African values have been
touted for promoting deeper economic integration among African states.
International
agricultural organisation say Africa's annual food import bill of $35
billion, is estimated to rise to $110 billion by 2025. This, they say,
will weaken African economies, slow agricultural production and export
jobs from the continent.
Most of Africa's
imports are made up of rice, maize and wheat and experts attributed the
rising imports to rapid population growth, growing land scarcity, rising
land prices, the migration of Africa's rural youth into non-farm
employment in record numbers as well as the rise in urban-based investor
farmers. At this meeting, a sharp focus on food self-sufficiency saw
journalists lamenting the negative effects that huge food imports had on
the continent.
"The biggest
problem in agriculture is the policy-maker," says Yancho Kaah. "There is
no serious commitment from them to strategically transform the
agricultural sector. They focus more on talking about free inputs to
garner votes."
Uduak Amimo, a
veteran Kenyan journalist and former BBC correspondent blames poor
leadership and governance for the crisis in agriculture. "A lot of the
crisis we see today in agriculture are due to poor leadership and
governance at both the national, regional and international level," she
says. "As journalists we should be bold enough to dig deeper and examine
the issues that are causing Africa to rely heavily on food imports and
yet it is sitting on this sector with a vast potential."
She further says
changing tastes, copying western have worsened the situation. "We have
strayed from our own indigenous diets. We have evolved and we are now
eating everything western. As journalists we need to understand these
trends and make adequate preparations to cover Africa's agricultural
issues.
comprehensively. "As African journalists, we have to be assertive
and know our own stand point when it comes to agricultural issues
facing the continent.
Says Kiran Pandey, a
media expert at CSE: "Journalists should desist from solely relying on
official statements. You must go beyond hand-out journalism or even
press release." She says it was more important to also look at the
plight and needs of smallholder farmers who bore the brunt of climate
change and other related agricultural policies.
Africa has become a
net food importer and has to grapple to find strategies to feed more
people in future. This continent of more one billion people has 65
percent of the world's arable lands that are yet to be cultivated. CSE
researchers say if this land is cultivated it could feed over 9 billion
people.
Journalists can
only inform and the bigger role to transform the continent largely lies
in the hands of policy-makers, farmers, financial institutions,
researchers, politicians and other critical stakeholders such as NGOs
and international financiers.
They also firmly
believe that the continent must break the food import chain and aim for
self-sufficiency in food production. They all agreed that the media had a
big role to play by enhancing the understanding of not only Africa's
agricultural crisis but the vast untapped opportunities that could help
it attain food security.
African journalists
all agreed that the media needs to focus more on reporting: Research,
innovation and technology facilitating growth of Africa's agric sector
Showing passion in reporting about Africa's agricultural sector
Critically
examining the barriers and opportunities in agriculture Engaging the
media owners to cover critical agricultural issues Setting the agenda to
propel the transformation of Africa's agricultural sector forward Media
collaborations to cover critical and emerging agricultural issues.
Digging deeper to
analyse the competing agendas Promoting the notion that 'Agriculture is a
lucrative business' Reporting in a convincing and engaging way to
elicit interest in agric matters among youth and the general public
Promoting Pan African values when reporting agricultural matters.
Media must take a
firm stand on land issues Upgrade skills and strategies for covering
agric matters Uncovering corruption and mismanagement stalling the agric
sector Promoting good leadership, accountability and transparency in
the sector
There are no easy
answers to the crisis in agriculture in Africa, but since food matters
touch everyone, it can be argued that journalists by using their pen
critically and in a constructive way, can help Africa to feed itself.
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