FOOD ACCESSIBILITY - Challenges of agricultural production and food security in Africa

H~g~e~ Dlants f:x atm0spher~c carbond:0x:de ~ntv sugdrs :n their green leaves. 1~ th Ls fundamental ~~,)l')J~I:al pr o c e s s (photosvnchests ) , oxyge n Ls released intu the atmusph~re. Furests, therefure, clean the air by taking up the carbun diuxide and releasing uxygen. In this prucess, forests regulate the wurld climate by absorbing the pollutant carbon dioxide.

Deforestation results in an excess of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere producing the "greenhouse effect." It is estimated that in Africa, about 3.6 aillion ha of forests are cleared each year. Cote d'ivoire has the highest deforestation rate in Arica (70 per cent). Burning of forests and grasslands, which is also common in sub-Sahara Africa, releases carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Massive afforestation programmes are,

therefore, needed in sub-Sahara Africa. Setting aside one day in a year for tree planting is not adequate. Afforestation must be carried out throughout the year; ,~e pld~ted seedlings must be luoked after keenly including their protection from goats and sheep.

V. FOOD ACCESSIBILITY

Access to food encompasses both physical and economic aspects. Physical access to food relates both to the adequacy of supply and to the _effi~iency of the distribution system including storage, preservation, transport.

marketing and processing. Economic access to food relates to the ability of groups of people to establish entitlement over a requisite amount of food.

The challenge of improving food security in Africa would, therefore, include actions aimed at improving the procurement system and the food

marketing system as well as actions aimed at providing the people at risk of hunger with income which will permit them to purchase their reqUired food.

The procurement system can be improved either by boosting local

production or by importing to supplement domestic production. Other ways of enhansing the procurement system include the draWing up of a multi-year food requirement plan, the establishment of food security stocks, the prevention of post-harvest food losses, and the establishment of an early warning

system.

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-Imp r c v Lng the d Ls^t r Lbut lon syst e n r equi r e s t.he de ve Lo pment of adequate

:nfrdstructures su~h as markets, f0ads, tranSp0rt, and stvrage; the

establ~shment of market intelligence ~nformation; and the prov~s~on of

~ncentives to both producers and traders. The ~ncomes of households will also be improved depending on Governments' policies regarding employment and transfers. These three components necessary for improving food security are interlinked in that an improved marketing system could considerably improve the procurement system which in turn will contribute to raising incomes of the majority of the population. In view of this close relationship of the three components, the importance of the marketing system in food security policy is great as it can promote dependable supplies of low cost food both for rural and urban populations. The major problems inh~biting the

development of an adequate marketing system include Governments policies

regard~ng f00d trade, ?ricing, and stvrjg~.

S0vernments' ~ener~l ~Jl:cv dnd Fv0d Market~ng

In the majority of African countries, if not in all, Governments have used direct or indirect mesns to influence the trade of agricultural

commod~ties, including the marketing of locally consummed food stuffs, of expurt cfupS and uf impurt fvud _~tems. Such an intervention is guided by

soc~al considerations including the following:

1. Ensuring that food is accessible to everyone and more particularly to the inadequately nourished citizens;

2. Establishing a developmental strategy through the stabilization of agricultural commodity prices or in order to transfer revenues from marketed agricultural surpluses to the secondary and tertiary sectors; and

3. Adopting a political strategy in order to provide incentives to producers or to favour the powerful urban consumers.

In order to achieve these objectives and effectively control the market, Governments in most African countries have established commodity marketing boards and have promulgated laws regulating food trade (domestic food marketing, export of agricultural commodities and import of food stuffs).

In S0 d o Lng , G0ver:lments^l a l s o have been keenly aware of the Lr resp0nsibility in develuping the marketing serv~ces including the Cunstructivn 0f ruads and uther cummunications facilities, assembling centres, whulesale stures, retail markets etc. and the establishment and

enf~rcement ~f basic c~mmercial legislation. While it is normal that a Government be involved in agricultural marketing with a view to achieving national economic development and ensuring iaproved food security for its citizens, particularly those of its low incoae consumers, the experiences of African Governments so far in this regard have not always been very

encouraging.

At first, the publicly managed marketing boards were, at best, able to prvcure vnly abuut SO per cent Jf the t~tal fu~d sales. A1s~, many studies have repurted inefficiency uf the public marketing b~dies caused by

~:smanagement and s~r~0us lack vf ~:nancial med~S. Bes~des) many

Governments have regarded the parastata1s as means of restricting the role of private traders and administrative as well as technical staff have usually maintained an attitude of hostility towards the private

entrepreneurs who are seen as opponents to the public marketing system.

Alsu, the cunt,nu~us subsidies allocated to the marketing boards by

Governments ~ften bring ab~ut unfair competition with the private traders and in many cases leads to disencentive in the food marketing sector.

Besides its involvement, Government can contribute positively or negatively to prumoting efficient food marketing as it has the responsibility of

developing marketing infrastructures.

There is no doubt that laudable efforts have been made by national Governments to upgrade p~rts and rsi1waya and to construct roads and other

communications facilities. Also, Governments (assisted by municipalities) have established a sizeable number ~f city markets. It is particularly noteworthy that African Governments invested in highways construction, making accessible, if not most of the production areas, at least the collection centres and increasing the volume and speed of traffic. These elements have contributed to improving the commerce systea in general and to some extent the food procureaent system. However, there i8 still .uch to be

-d,)ne ~n order tJ 0rgan~ze a large turnover Je~ause, ~s ~~ the subs:stence

f~rm~ng cJntex[, f00d prJdlJcti0n for the market is st~lL ~rregular and

scattered. Also with regard to public markets, many are so badly maintained that they prvvide low standard cvnditions of hygiene and waste disposal.

T~is ~s because the markets are usually des~gned taking Lntv account vnly arichitectural elements and ignoring aspects dealing with their

operationality.

Govera.ents' Pricing Policies

The instrument vf food pricing policy is very cvmplex particularly when related tv fvvd security. If the "spirit uf enterprise" vf private

vperatvrs cvntributes to the effectiveness vf the foud marketing system, then t~ere ~s also nv dvubt that private marketers 0perate on prvf~tability

basis and tend to sell fvvd tv the better vff cvnsumers in order tv secure

h~g~er ma~J_'s. ~ls0, ~t ~s very CJmmJn t~at ~0wer~~1 ~raders ~se var:Jus svcial and pvlitical priviledges tv control fvod markets. The

"laissez-faire" attitude of Governments can therefore lead to market

imperfections and to artificial scarcity of food. The level of food prices is therefvre vf great concern tv Gvvernments in their efforts tv make 'food

access~ble to all gr0ups vf consumers.

Fvr lvcally cvnsummed fOvd cvmmodities and especially cereal crvps, state interventIon In price formati0n) administrati~nand management was initiated during World War 11 in cvuntries of the Eastern and Svuthern Africa subregivn where many colvnial farmers were settled and early in the 1960's in all other cvuntries. The major vbjectives fvr pricing policy are svmetimes in conflict with each vther as Governments attempt to provide incentives to producers and cheap food to non-producers and particularly urban citizens. It is common that price fvrmation involves quite a number vf departments including the Ministries vf Agriculture, Commerce, Finance and the State contr~lled Grain Marketing BYards. Also, the criteria used in determining price levels are either not clearly defined and/or based on unreliable data on market situations. The fixed prices set relate to

producers' price (procurement price) and to retail price (consumers' price) and are administered either thruugh a pan-territorial (comavn to all

prvducers ~r consumers thrvughvut the country) or zonning pricing systems.

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Alt~0ugh the dual .)bject~ve ratr0nale beh~nd the system tv keep a !evel of

:ncen~~ve tJ producers and en3ure that fuvd ~s affurdable tv almust everyone cs noble, ct calls for some critical assessment including: unresolved

conflict vf interests between pruducers and consumers and restriction of competition.

Unresolved conflict of interests between producers and consumers. This dilemma is embarrassing as it seeks to stiaulate production and protect farmers' income and at the same tiae to keep consu.ers prices low enough in order not to sffect the nutritional welfare of low-income urban people.

Governments hardly decide on whose interest is paramount. From the on-going pricing policies adopted in most African countries, the fixed prices do not necessarily represent a sound appreciation of market forces and there is no clear determ~natiun vf promoting the producers' interests. According tv FAO estimates based un data frum 27 African countries, pruducer cereal prices and reta~l fvod pr~ces fvr 1978-80 lncreased by 14 and 10 per ce~~

respectively compared to those of 1969~71. Also, compared to other developing regions, the real producers' prices of cereals for African farmers rose by less.

~llrthermure, even in cases where the level of producers' prices pruvide real ~ncentives to boost production, price policy alone will not be enough to sustain the expected results. For a farmer who has no transportstion means to get the produce to market or has no market outlook, his enthusiasm of providing more produce will be quickly smoothered. Therefore, incentives should not be simplitically limited to price level.

Restriction of competition: The fact that public parastatals are choosen as the basic institutional framework for implementing and administering pricing policy will adversely sffect the dynamism of the private operators involved in the food marketing sector. In view of the poor performance of the public institutions and the excellent performance of the energetic women traders, particularly in West Africa, there is a serious need to consider restricting the public role to establishing the genersl policy for guiding private operators and for controlling the fairness of marketing operations. Also, pricing policies which tend to favour both producers and consumers by fixing procurement price at satisfactory level and reducing marketing margins will affect the whole marketing system. In

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-suc~ a .~:uati0n, publ~c ~nstrtut:,)ns will bulld substant:al defrcits wh:ch will further abS0f) ~Lar~e resuurces and private operat0fs ~ill nut invest in the marketing sectur at such high risks.

Theref0re, any pricing policy must also take lnto account the ~nterest

uf the private fOud traders and, more particularly, the setting of price levels should take into account the costs to the marketing operator, particularly transport differentials.

If the fact that the price elasticity of demand for food of the poor is high and can determine the fluctuations in per capita food consumptiun justifies that Governments intervene in times of precipitous price rises) their permanent intervention in price formatiun could lead to supply shortages and subsequent fvod :nsecurlty.

Storage as a component of Food Security P01:cy

The constitution of food reserve at household level is a component of subsistence farming and the millions of small reserve stocks at this level are the major component of food security in Africa. Such household reserve stocks are of small size, are progressively consumed during the period between two harvests) are rarely carried over to more than one year and the cost element to manage them is minimal. Before independance and especially in countries where the urban population became quite large, the colonial administration established silos and warehouses to store grains in order to ensure regular and adquate supply to the urban mining and export crops plantation workers who were engaged in activities preventing them from

prvducing theer cequired food. Large scale food stocks, were effectively established with the rapid urbanization of Africa following independance.

Whiie the many private food marketers kept individual small to medium-scale stores, most African Governments, through their parastatals, chose to

established large scale silos and warehouses in an attempt to control the greatest share of the marketed surplus. For both Government parastatals and private traders, the rationale behind storing food was primarily commercial.

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The ~,)ncept of bu~ld~ng f00d secur~ty reserves ~as vnly glven lmp0rtance

fvllvw~~g the harvests fa~lures wh~ch h:t the Sahel:an Zone vf West Afr:ca early in the 1970's. Constituted fuud security reserves were in most cases managed by public institutiuns and under the direct respunsibility uf the Grain Marketing Boards.

While storage is one of the most important single element in food security, the experience of managing stocks in Africa has revealed

constraints with respect to inappropriateness of location snd scale of food reserve stores and predominance of food grains.

Inappropriateness of Location and Scale of Food Reserve Stores. The fact that Governments' decide to bear the responsbility of managing security reserve stucks, has resulted in a situation where the locatiun of the stocks has come to be determined more by political exigencies rather than economic or operational cuns~derat~vns. Stocks are usually constituted either fn the neighbourhood of cities or in inaccessible areas which are nonetheless of interest to political leaders. Although it seems reasonable to establishe reserve stocks near cities to cope with the emergency needs of the

unemployed urban poor, the problem is that in cases of severe crop fai'iures in rural areas, the stocks are hardly transfered in time to the affected areas.

The ambitious large scale silos and warehouses that have been

established by Governments have also brought about additional problems. In some cases, the public parastatals lack financial resources to procure a corresponding volume of food and, as a result, the large silos or warehouses are often kept half-empty. The reverse situation is also true when the capacity of public parastatals is outstripped by huge surpluses during times of good harvests. Also, most of these large scale storage faciliteis have been established using modern building structures. Although such structures give the advantage of controlling temperature and humidity, their management has been generally associated with lack of skills and subsequent huge

losses. As a result, stocks which are earmarked as security reserves are often totally lost.

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-Predum~na~ce 0f fJud gra:ns: Food reserve stocks are now exclusively

c0nst~tuted w~th gra~ns while other staple fuod such as roots, tubers, meat and daory products are left out. Cereal graons are durable commodities and more approproate for long term storage without special condotlons. It has already been pointed out in Section I of this report that in countries such as Nigeria, Cote d'ivoire, Ghana, Gabon, Cameroon, Congo, Rwanda and Zaire, tuber crops contribute a larger share than cereal to the per caput calorie intake (table 1). Thus, in view of the importance of these food commodities and the production potential in Africa (95.8 million tones of root and tuber crops in 1985), they cannot rationally be excluded in any nationsl or

regional food security policy. Their perishability cannot prevent Africans from looking at ways of preserving them, more particularly as traditional processing methods are known to exist. The fundamental issue is wether Africa must design food security programmes based un all food items pruduced in the continent or rely on cereals production supplemented by imports.

Implications of Food Trade in Africa's Food Security

In the past, when Africa was self-sufficient in food, food commodities were rather seen as biological necessities and their values were first seen

in human use. With the rapid growth of total populatin and urbanization, food has become mure and mure "commoditized" and Its ecunumic value more and more recognized. The food trade at the domestic level and its political importance due to trade offs between producer and consumer interests have already been highlighted; it is nonetheless noteworthy to add that in practice, agricultural producers have, in general, received little

protection as they normally receive little of the subsidies while supporting heavy taxes on their exports. This discrimination has had consequences for both agricultural production and income distribution and contributed to much of the rural poverty and hunger.

As Africa is an agricultural primary commodity exporter and food importer, the trade relationship of the continent with other regions will necessarily affect the continent's food policy since food security does not depend solely on domestic food production. Among the major elements of the internatonal economy which affect domestic food policy are the ,balance of

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payments and ~he rate vf exchange. Pres~ntly, the reduced demand fDr

Afr~Ld's pr~mary cJmmud~t~es cuupled w:th the depressed prices vf eXp0rts have seriously cncreased the costs of providing food security to Africans.

Also, the food importing countrces are also input importers. This situation has necessarily made their domestic food outputs more expensive than world market prices and tended to encourage them to import food stuffs. With their burden of indebtedness, msny African countries can now hardly cope with investing in increasing domestic food production or paying for

commercial imports. Therefore, many of these countries are more and more dependent on massive food aid to offset domestic deficits. The problem, however, is that food aid, which was originally seen as an emergency

measure, has become an essential component of the food security schemes of these countries. The volume of the food aid requirement of Africs for 1988/89 has been put at over 3.6 million tons (table 2).

The mass~ve E0ud a~d tv Afr~ca has c0ntr~but~d w:thuut jvubt tv save thousand of lives, prevented million of people from starving and has been used, in some cases, to promote labour-intensive developmental projects. It is, however, more and more subject to criticism including the fact that food-aid represents surplus disposal by nature and since its delivery is often not planned, it has contributed to the curtailment of domestic

production efforts. Also, as food aid is composed mainly of cereal grains with a great share uf wheat, it has tended to affect cunsumption habits which, in turn, have affected domestic production.

As far as the exchange rate is concerned, it has been established that uvervalued rates act as an implicit tax on agriculture as farmers are given less for their crops than the price would be if the domestic currency was market determined, and are charged more for imported inputs and consumer gouds. Even though devaluation is politically sensitive, it could, however,

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