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Slipping Backwards: The Food Crisis in Africa
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Takes position that famines in Africa of the 1950's &1960's are not a thing of the past. Currently, food production per capita is on a general decline. Mass starvation recurs due to political strife as well, i.e. Somalia. Discusses needed changes.... More...
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Paper Abstract:
Takes position that famines in Africa of the 1950's &1960's are not a thing of the past. Currently, food production per capita is on a general decline. Mass starvation recurs due to political strife as well, i.e. Somalia. Discusses needed changes.

Paper Introduction:
SLIPPING BACKWARDS The Food Crisis in Africa Two or three decades ago, the prospect of mass famine loomed over much of the developing world. When concern about population growth first came to general attention, it was cast in the most starkly Malthusian terms: the prospect of populations outstripping food supplies seemed imminent. Since that time, however, much of the developing world has made progress in developing its food resources; or at the least has held its ground, so that population growth is seen in a broader and longer-term ecological context. The Indian subcontinent is an outstanding example of a region doing far better in terms of food availability than was expected a generation ago. Africa, however, i

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2). ReferencesChazan, Naomi; and Timothy M. A further political condition also had negative effects on thecapacity of many African states to achieve adequate food production. The burden of indebtedness means that African statesare still under pressure to seek export earnings rather than internal foodself-sufficiency, while food aid -- indispensable in the short run --undercuts agrarian development in the longer term. Increased production would drive down prices, making foodmore affordable in the cities and the countryside alike. First, agriculture, unlike industrialdevelopment, was not really considered worthy of major and sustainednational effort. Small rural producers -- thechief producers of food -- were the least influential segment of thepopulation. 5). 3 ) --and he is not necessarily the worst offender. Even where governmentalresources were not outright squandered, political conditions militatedagainst basic rural development. The Indian subcontinent is an outstanding example of aregion doing far better in terms of food availability than was expected ageneration ago. Freeor low-priced distribution of food by relief agencies, for example, tendsto undercut the earning power of farmers, reducing incentives for domesticfood production. Several interrelated factors have led to the African food crisis, but(except for special cases linked to desertification on the fringes of theSahara), these essential components have all been linked together in thenature of the African state. Tothe degree that many states have any real political existence, thatexistence is concentrated on the cities, especially capital cities. This was, most likely, a product of colonial times, when theirexports of cash-crops or raw materials had been the colonies' raisond'etre. After a generation, noeasy solutions have been found for the food crisis of Africa. If there were any incentivesacting on these farmers they were either to shift to export cash crops or -- since producer prices for these were also floundering -- to abandon theland entirely and go to the city in the hope of finding work. It has been said that "there is, indeed, no such thing as anapolitical food problem" (Chazan and Shaw, 1988, p. Emphasis on export crop development tended, if anything, to reducefood production as land was converted to cash-cropping (Whitaker, 1988, p.39). To put it in blunt terms, if an African government is overthrown, asmany have been overthrown, its fall is far more likely to arise out ofdisaffection among the population of the capital city than out ofdisaffection arising in the countryside. SLIPPING BACKWARDS The Food Crisis in Africa Two or three decades ago, the prospect of mass famine loomed overmuch of the developing world. How Can Africa Survive? TheAfrican states lacked this sort of continuity and duration. Total per capita food production onthe continent has actually declined since independence in the 196 s; aftermaking slow progress in the 197 s, the continent as a whole went sharplybackwards in the 198 s. The "nations" of modern Africa are almost allartificial, the inheritors of a colonial system that was itself arelatively recent (later nineteenth-century) graft onto the African socialfabric. "The political cost of offending the urban population was muchhigher than that of incurring the wrath of the small farmer" (Chazan andShaw, 1988, p. Advanced, powerful nations, after all, were characterizedby their cities and their industries, not their countrysides and farms.Second, where agriculture was given attention, it received that attentionin the form of an emphasis upon export crops intended to earn foreignexchange, rather than food crops for domestic consumption. Africa, however, is the one world region where the anxieties of the195 s and 196 s have not been allayed. The Spanish illustrate this point well; over two centuries ofSpanish colonial rule established Latin culture in South America. Even the measurestaken to alleviate famine can be counterproductive in the longer run. Herelive the populations most likely to identify with the new state, ratherthan to hold the more traditional identifications that have their strongesthold in rural villages. Shaw (1988). Thesmall farmer was at the least discouraged from investing in greaterproductivity with respect to food crops. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.Whitaker, Jennifer Seymour (1988). In various parts ofAfrica, individual post-independence leaders have engaged in personalcorruption on an epic scale; in Ghana, for example, Kwame Nkrumah mayrightly be accused of having impoverished his country (Whitaker, p. In the abstract, the optimum policy is onein which governments cease to intervene in food markets with disruptivemeasures such as subsidies, and instead make measured investments in therural infrastructure. It is not clear that there are any straightforward general solutionsto the food problem of Africa. Coping with Africa's FoodCrisis. The cities also have whatever industries havedeveloped, and are home to the majority of both the elites and of emergingmiddle classes. The degree to which such measures can be broadly adopted in practiceis open to question. But, of course,holding down food prices acts as a disincentive to food producers. Thus, through the 196 s and 197 s, African states tended to followpolicies of subsidizing food prices for urban dwellers. Moreover,increased productivity would allow farmers to sell food at lower prices perunit without their overall incomes dropping. This should include agricultural education, and takeplace in a way that would encourage small farmers to increase production ofstaple crops. Forthe most part, though, the food problem in Africa is indeed human andpolitical. Since that time, however, much of the developing world has madeprogress in developing its food resources; or at the least has held itsground, so that population growth is seen in a broader and longer-termecological context. When concern about population growth firstcame to general attention, it was cast in the most starkly Malthusianterms: the prospect of populations outstripping food supplies seemedimminent. The states thus had extremely shallow roots, and they becameindependent at a time of rapidly rising expectations. With respect to food production, theseattitudes had two effects. As it turned out, however, this emphasis was doubly unfortunate.Falling relative commodity prices tended to undermine the earning capacityof export crops even as those crops were supplanting food production. Other famines, however -- as along much of thesouthern fringe of the Sahara -- though caused in part by politicalturmoil, have had other fundamental roots in ecological conditions. In the 198 s, under pressure from the World Bank and otherinternational lenders, African governments retreated from these policies.The political effects, however, have in general been precisely what leadersfeared: rising political unrest in the cities, where struggling workers andmembers of the middle class are most able to translate their frustrationsat high food prices into political action aimed at the government. There have been repeated episodes of massstarvation; some, as in Somalia, have had their immediate roots inpolitical conditions. New York:Harper & Row. For the most part, African states have no logical connection totraditional cultural or political alignments, and they and their colonialforebears have not existed long enough to establish new realities on theground. Africans came to independence believingthat they would, in a few decades, move to what is now called economic take-off into industrial development.

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