Free Trade Can Add To World Hunger

The food summit is addressing the wrong questions; increasingly, food security is not a question of agricultural policy, but of trade policy, said Charlie Kronick at ActionAid. Many small farmers are encouraged to participate in producing cash crops, and it is unlikely they will do well out of it, he said. He believes this is because so much power is concentrated with large multinational commodity buyers.

The agency estimates six large groups such as Cargill and Ferruzzi control 60-90 per cent of global trade in commodities. All power is concentrated in the hands of the buyers rather than the sellers, Kronick said.

 

Many poor farmers in developing countries turn to cash crops believing they will make a profit but, with little access to infrastructure, the chances are against them, the report notes. Production of cash crops takes local farmers attention away from growing food for their own needs, but does not give them a big enough profit to buy in food to substitute. At the same time, as more farmers move into cash crops, supply increases and prices go down.

Advocates of free farm trade say market disciplines ensure enough food is produced with the greatest efficiency, but ActionAid says that as trade increases, benefits are not guaranteed to go to producers. The report says the drive for profits leads to short-term maximisation of gains and acts against sustainable management of resources.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation, the United Nations food watchdog based in Rome, says 800 million people worldwide do not have enough to eat.

ActionAid is active in Sierra Leone, where many farmers have turned to growing tobacco as a cash crop. However, in the Bombali district in the north of the country, this has exhausted land that was once forested but is now bare and incapable of supporting crops. Agricultural programmes often direct farmers towards greater use of agro-chemicals, ignoring local methods which are often more suitable for the land type. Self sufficiency in rice in Kenya has declined from 89 per cent in 1980 to 49 per cent in 1992. Imports to make up the shortfall increased by 50 per cent since 1986 to 185,657 tonnes last year costing $30 million - about 25 per cent of the countrys entire export earnings.

In Malawi, the report says poor farmers saw good returns from the early liberalisation of farm markets. Soyabeans, sunflowers and tobacco crops promised real cash in hand. But when more farmers planted these crops, supply soared and prices collapsed. In spite of market liberalisation and the withdrawal of government intervention, the report estimates that in Malawi 30 per cent of the rural population are still hungry and 43 per cent are unable to buy even a basic basket of needs.

Hunger and the global agenda, ActionAid, Hamlyn House, Macdonald Road, Archway, London N19 5PG. Fax: 0171 272 0899.