African farmers can take advantage of rising food prices to break out of poverty, says WFP

Addis Ababa 2 April 2008 (ECA): African farmers should take advantage of the rising prices of food to embark on the right strategies to break the cycle of hunger and poverty, the Executive Director of World Food Programme (WFP), Ms. Mrs Josette Sheeran said in Addis Ababa yesterday at the joint ECA/AU conference of African ministers of finance, planning and economic development

Addressing a panel discussion on the impact of recent rise in oil and food prices on Africa's economies, Ms Sheeran said while the global rise in price of essential foods was worrisome, “this could be an important opportunity for African farmers as we saw with the case of Brazil to use the increased price of commodities to break out of poverty.”

She said the use of foods for energy purposes was driving prices up and worsening food situations in Africa. “For the first time,” she said, we are seeing foods being bought by the energy market and food prices at fuel levels.”

Ms. Sheeran said last year, over 100 million metric tones of maize went into biofuels, adding that WFP vulnerability analysis indicated that even where food was available, it become un-affordable, a situation, she said that had triggered conflicts and uprising in some African countries.

She said WFP would submit a proposal in June 2008, which would change the organization from a food aid agency to a food assistance agency. “We will use the power of food assistance to break the cycle of hunger,” she said.

In his contribution, South Africa's Minister of Finance, Mr. Trevor Manuel, said African countries should be careful with the illusion that may come with debt and debt relief.

“Debt relief does not bring new wealth; it does not reduce the vulnerability of a country to price shocks,” said Mr. Manuel.

Instead of accumulating more debts and requesting relief, African countries should discuss taxes in all ramifications – generation, collection and the accountability that comes with it.

Liberia's Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs, Toga McIntosh, said the challenges Africa faced today were not new to the continent. “We have dealt with them before, but we have no succeeded. We should start asking ourselves what we should do differently as countries and as a region.”

The Minister said Liberia's food import was high and that the local production of rice was low, but stressed that the situation was bound to improve as Liberia revitalizes the agriculture sector.