Usually, when one thinks of the major conflicts
that are going on in Africa, they think of the HIV/AIDS dilemma or the constant
civil wars that have been occurring since the time of independence. However,
there are many more very important issues that are happening on the continent
that need to be looked at. The amount of food that is being produced in many
overly populated countries in Sub-Saharan Africa is just simply not enough.
With the supply of food going down, but the demand going up, basic economics
tells us that there is a problem. Of course, the theory is correct. Citizens of
these countries are spending so much of their income on food that it is taking
away funds for things like “school fees, sanitation, and health” (Addis, Ababa,
and Nairobi, 2011). The lack of funds spent on education and health services,
due to too much spending on food is happening in countries like Uganda, which
need all the funding they can get on these programs. Considering HIV/AIDS has
severely affected Uganda in the past, the money to further educate the country
on how to prevent the disease is not available, which is causing even more
problems. Along with the problem of the lack of money, the shortage of food is
also pushing more and more women into professions like prostitution in order to
provide for their family. They want to make enough money to put food on the
table for their children, but engaging in such practices are making them more
susceptible to HIV, which links back to the lack of education in the countries.
The reason why these food shortages are
occurring can be traced back to “inefficient farming, an estimated loss of 40%
of produce on the way to the market, and the high cost of fuel” (Addis et al.,
2011). The amount of good farmlands is hard to find, and it is even harder to
get land titles and land rights. With 40 percent of produce being lost on the
way to the market, it is no wonder there is a shortage. Hopefully a plan will
be thought up in order to decrease this number by at least half. In regards to
the cost of fuel, the reason this is making food prices go up and supply go
down is because it is costing more to put effort into farmlands. Farmers need
fuel to start up their machines, and if they have to pay more to do this, the
more money they are selling their goods for.
Not having enough food in these African
countries is starting to cause riots, which in turn is putting more pressure on
the African governments and leaders, which never leads to good things. However,
there are some countries like Kenya that are trying to help this issue by
managing food markets. What I like about some of these countries is that they
hand out “vouchers” for other goods that allow the people to have more money to
spend on food. Maybe if these ideas were implemented into all the countries,
the problem would not be as bad. However, these programs cannot last forever. What
I think needs to be done here is to have foreign and maybe even domestic aid
step in to help solve this severe issue. Some of the ways would help with food
shortages would be “exploiting unfarmed land, building more reservoirs,
warehouse and roads, using better seeds and more fertilizer, and installing
drip irrigation” (Addis et al., 2011). If these conditions continue to get
worse, what does this mean for the futures of these countries? Will the riots
start to turn into food wars? Will the people living in these rough areas be
able to make it? Tough ideas to think about, but it is interesting how this
major problem is happening in our world and its often not talked about as much
as other issues in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Works Cited:
Addis,
Ababa, and Nairobi. "A Recipe for Riots." The Economist. The
Economist Newspaper, 26 May 2011. Web. 06 Nov. 2012.
<http://www.economist.com/node/18745313?zid=304>.
I like how you point out the fact that sometimes issues of food scarcity in sub-saharan Africa can be overlooked. As you point out lack of food can lead and add to many of the conflicts some of the countries are already facing. For example we learned in class that often times Civil Wars emerge because of the lack of the food and exploitation of natural resources by the ruling elite. On another note, Africa does not have the best climate for harboring crops which makes it difficult for many countries to harvest and provide enough food for their people. Once again, increased foreign AID seems to be a necessary and important measure at combating food scarcity.
ReplyDeleteYour comments reinforce the idea that Africa needs a 'green revolution', in the sense of more efficient farming methods and tools. The fact that 40% of produce is lost during transport is a huge loss and would further contribute to food scarcity. If farmers were encouraged to use more efficient farming methods, tools, or transport, a large percent of Africa's food shortage may be solved. Of course implementing these changes are another issue altogether.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the African must invest in educating farmers on more efficient methods and in more advanced farming technology rather than simply subsidizing food. The reason is that i've read a few articles, which talked about how in Uganda with the government controlling food prices and lowering them, it has created a black market where farmers would bring their produce to neighboring countries since they could get more money from selling it there rather than domestically. Also it has been well known that African countries have always been on a very delicate balance, where a year of drought would cause devastating famine which destroys the people and economy. This was seen in Mali where they went through a period of relative prosperity in the 80s since food was plentiful which correlated with the amount of available rain yet with drought in the 90s, it took very little time to undo the optimism and lead to famine in the region. farming technology and GMOs are very viable solutions to this devastating problem which ripples through aspects of life in Africa.
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