Boost rural investment in developing nations
By Per Pinstrup-Andersen, 2001 World Food Prize Laureate
Originally Published by The Des Moines Register, July 13, 2008
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Pinstrup-Andersen |
Rapidly increasing food prices and food riots have caught the attention of governments, particularly in countries where their legitimacy is at stake, such as Haiti, Egypt, Pakistan and the Philippines.
The immediate reaction of most governments is to put a brake on price increases for domestic food through price controls, export bans or elimination of import tariffs. Poverty relief, consumer food subsidies and food aid are also parts of many governments' attempts to reduce hardships on the poor and - probably more important - on the lower-middle-class urban consumers who riot.
The knee-jerk reaction is to focus on the immediate humanitarian needs. The World Food Program and the multitude of nongovernmental organizations dedicated to these needs should get the necessary resources. They're playing a critical role in providing relief to poor people, for whom higher food prices may mean starvation and death. But if immediate aid is all we do, then we as the international community will have forgone an important opportunity to generate economic growth, reduce poverty and hunger and avoid another food crisis.
For years, governments in most developing countries, including those in sub-Saharan Africa, all but ignored rural and agricultural development as a key to economic growth and poverty reduction. They're now facing the consequences: Millions of poor farmers are unable to expand production in response to the higher prices and thereby escape poverty, because governments failed to invest in rural infrastructure, such as roads, institutions, market information, agricultural research, appropriate technology and primary health care. Governments failed to prioritize agricultural development because plenty of food was available at prices below the cost of production, thanks in part to U.S. farm subsidies and similar agricultural policies in the European Union and Japan.
In countries such as Brazil, where investments were made in spite of low food prices, farmers are benefiting from the high prices, producing more food and reducing the upward pressure on food prices.
In most sub-Saharan Africa countries, where rural investments have not been made, a large share of the farmers produce less than they need to feed their families. They are net buyers of food, hungry even when food prices were low, and suffering from high food prices along with the urban poor. They cannot get access to a well-functioning market for what they produce, and they can't get the inputs they need, such as fertilizer, at reasonable prices. These farmers do not have access to credit and high-yielding crop varieties, and they are frequently sick, without access to health care.
The food crisis has taught governments in poor countries that you ignore rural and agricultural development at your own peril. However, acting on that lesson requires capital many of them lack. The international community must offer both humanitarian support to help those who cannot afford to feed themselves and financial support to bring the rural populations of poor countries out of poverty and into the market economy by producing more food.
The governments of poor countries are paying attention. They now need our encouragement and support. Are we from the United States, Europe and international organizations ready to make a large-scale contribution to a permanent and structural solution to the poverty problem and the global food crisis? Will the rhetoric about poverty and hunger reduction and the ideals of the Millennium Development Goals finally be converted into action? Will the findings of the World Bank's World Development Report - that agricultural development is the most effective vehicle for general economic growth and poverty reduction in low-income countries - be followed up with appropriate action?
If we do not act now, reduced food prices brought about by expanded food production in Australia, Brazil, Canada, the United States and other countries with good rural infrastructure may once again lead us to ignore the many millions of rural poor who suffered from hunger when food prices were low and will continue suffering if all we do is to feed urban population groups who threaten government legitimacy.
