Hungry African nations feed the world

When you think about rural Africa, it’s almost always the face of a poor malnourished child that comes to mind with barely any clothes to his back and often chasing a van that’s bringing in food packets. But one would never think of Africa as a continent that is feeding the rest of the world.

According to the report in the Observer this Sunday, the oil rich Middle East, the space crunched Europe, the over populated Asia and of course the giant Americas have all found a solution to their depletion of natural resources like land and water by moving their food production to the extremely fertile, poverty stricken and iron fist controlled countries of Africa.

And some of the poorest nations of the world are now growing millions of tones of food on hundreds of thousands of hectares of land to feel the billions in the richer countries.

The Observer investigation estimates that up to 50m hectares of land has been acquired in the last few years or is in the process of being negotiated by governments and wealthy investors working with state subsidies.

The biggest buyer is Middle East with Saudi Arabia leading the way. British companies are growing vegetables and flowers in Angola, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Tanzania while Indian firms are in Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Senegal and Mozambique, where they are growing rice, sugar cane, maize and lentils. Almost all the food produced is for consumption at the investors’ domestic market.

Land to grow biofuel crops is also in demand. To meet the 10% target by 2015, most European countries have now acquired almost 4 m hectare land in Africa for their biofuel needs. Another factor that experts feel will shoot up food prices and push millions more into starvation.

While many African governments argue that starvation doesn’t exist in their countries, the UN and Aid workers there beg to differ. In many areas the deals have led to evictions, civil unrest and complaints of land grabbing.

Over 20 countries in Africa including Sudan, Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Malawi, Ethiopia, Congo, Zambia, Uganda, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Mali, Sierra Leone have opened up their arms to welcome foreign giants to ‘exploit’ their land and water resources. The indigenous population is however worried about their own survival.

In October 2009, 46% population of Ethiopia was malnourished and the Ethiopian government asked the international community for emergency food aid for 6.2 million people due to a prolonged drought. Last month Reuters reported that another 7 million Ethiopians are part of a food-for-work scheme, which means more than 13 million of the country's 80 million people rely on aid to survive.

Yet the Observer found that foreign companies were not being charged for water. One such farm in Awassa in Ethiopia (pic above) uses as much water a year as 100,000 Ethiopians. It is spread over 20 hectares and grows millions of tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables in computer controlled conditions. The daily output is 50 tonnes of food. All of which gets shipped to the Middle East.

While NGOs and aid workers are asking if this is the 21^st century colonization where the rich take what they want while the poor struggle to make ends meet; the benefits of bringing in expertise, technological know how and generating employment in Africa cannot be overlooked.

Perhaps a watchdog is required like the UN to monitor these deals and check if the benefits are reaching the poor and those displaced are duly compensated. I know it’s easier said than done in countries of Africa raged by civil war and unrest. Some of my African journalist friends had to escape their country when their reports exposed the dark deeds of those in power. Yet, they did not put their pen down and wrote about corruption and injustice. They strongly believed that the Africa situation could and would change.

I remember attending a talk last year by Gerard Prunier, Research Professor, University of Paris who discussed his book 'From Genocide to Continental War: The "Congolese" Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa'. Prunier remarked that Africa is still evolving and is bound to make all the mistakes that Europe and America made during their ‘evolution’ (dark ages). However it will be a few decades for Africa to stand on its feet but the speed at which Africa is growing is applaud able. And this gives hope.

Read the complete Observer report