African Unification Front
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AUF AGRICULTURAL POLICY
REFORMING AFRICA'S AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY
Agricultural production is the most important economic and social activity in Africa. Yet there is continuing marginalisation of farmers, the implementation of impractical agrarian policy continues, and rural-urban displacement is at an all time high so that slums are literary exploding into existence in every one of Africa's cities. This poses grave social consequences for Africans everywhere.
Agriculture is labour absorptive, yet the number of Africans employed in agriculture has declined steadily since the 1970s by the millions. Millions of rural wageworkers lost their jobs, the majority of them in food crop sector. Consequently, urban flight has become the main source congestation in the cities, and rural migration is at the core of military insatbility in Africa.
Competition with other less strategic sectors of the African economy are on the verge of destroying farming in Africa. The growth of the diamond industry is a case in point. Thousands of farmers in the DRC, Angola, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Madagascar, and other states, now pan for gems, gold and other minerals because farming is not as profitable in the short-term. The environmental, ecological, health and economic implications of this tranfer of labour is drastic and unacceptable.
The AUF aims to:
1] To limit the establishment of large landed estates that produce only for export outside Africa. Democratisation of land ownership and distribution, in order to give access to land to the millions of landless families. Organising agrarian reform settlements in such a way to guarantee income and a permanent improvement in living standards.
2] Food Security: End the oligopolisation of control over the internal agricultural market by large multinational corporations. Develop agriculture aimed towards the internal market, aiming to guarantee the provision of high quality food to all Africans.
3] To instigate a selection process whereby certain small farmers integrate into agro-industry, reducing drastically their total number, increasing technology and selecting the most appropriate region for each product. Strengthening of Family Agriculture- the implementation of agricultural policies especially those concerning of prices, subsidised rural credits and agricultural security which are capable of ensuring the increased income and productivity of the one million family farms.
4] Protection of subsistence agriculture, especially in regions where it is integral to the maintanance of healthy communities. Cooperatives and agro-industries - promote agro-industrial co-operatives in order to democratise access to the market and create conditions to improve farmers’ income.
5] To support the agrarian public sector, by state’s regulation of stocks, providing technical assistance, agricultural research, and in the spending of public resources on rural credit. Living Standards - valuing the rural milieu and its way of life and culture, guaranteeing all inhabitants an improved standard of living, better housing, transport, leisure and communication.
6] To regulate the development of biotechnology in favour of communities and limit the involvement of large multinational groups in the biotech sector. Employment - stimulate the rural employment, both in agricultural and non-agricultural activities. In addition, to guarantee the fundamental socio-economic rights of all those who wish to work as wageworkers.
7] To increase employment in agriculture by approximately 5% per year. To guarantee access to primary education to all rural dwellers, improving the curriculum and the necessary conditions in schools, valuing, equally, the teachers and all educational activities. Create opportunities so that children, young people and adults, are all able to study.
8] Encourage and support rural social movements, and intellectuals concerned with in the ‘agrarian issues’. Environment — develop policies to protect the environment and our natural resources, in such a manner that is conducive with farm production, promoting the rational use of both solar and hydro-electric power.
9] Reduce the concentration of land, reduce the concentration of income in the countryside, reduce dependency on imported provisions for the cities, reduce dependency on the agro-industries controlled by multinationals, and, as a result, an end impoverishment of the rural population.
10] Semi-arid Areas — implementation of a special development plan for the semi-arid Northeast Africa, and the Sahel, by combating drought and seeking a permanent improvement in living standards in those regions.
11] The Agricultural Public Sector — restore and reorganise the organs that make up the agricultural public sector rendering them at the service of the small-scale producers, and of the aforementioned agricultural development plan.
12] A New Technological Model — implement research and stimulate agricultural technology which is compatible with our soil conditions, climate and continental resources; seeking an equilibrium between increased productivity and the preservation of the our natural resources and environment.
13] Industrialization of SSA - stimulate the labour-intensive industry, in particular the agro-industries in the provincial municipalities of the SSA, in order to stimulate socio-economic progress equally in all regions of the nation, whilst creating employment opportunities, above all for the rural youth.
VIABILITY OF AGRARIAN REFORM
Small and medium-sized properties under 100 hectares are responsible for 80% of rural employment, and for the production of over 50% of Africa's total production: 50% of coffee, 80% of beans, 60% of corn, 30% of wheat, 95% of potatoes, 80% of tomatoes, 95% of bananas and 60% of cocoa.
Therefore, it is essential to guarantee that these small farmers have the stimulus to remain in the countryside lest they are forced to migrate to the cities, thereby merely lengthening the unemployment queues. One such form of stimulation is agricultural security.
The AUF aims to support family farming and agrarian reform in order to reduce social tensions in the countryside. The current unfolding agricultural disaster in the African rural areas was provoked by the application of neoclonial economic models of underdevelopment.
RURAL CREDIT & INVESTMENT IN AGRICULTURE
Millions of African farms have disappeared since 1960, especially those that were less than one hundred hectares, which constituted 90% of all farms. Thousands of establishments went bankrupt due to SAPs required by the IMF and WB and enforced by neo-colonial governments. Every year there is a net transfer of billions of dollars from agriculture to urban sectors. Agricultural income has fallen by billions of dollars in the last 20 years.
The defaulting on rural credit has grown by over 200% in some areas. The total value of agricultural production in Africa is not growing because, among other dire problems, the prices of African agricultural produce are falling. The average extended African family of small producers would require an investment of several thousand dollars in order to ensure productivity...this money is not available in any African state, and can only be generated by political unification of Africa into one state. At least 10 billion dollars in rural credit would be required to stabilize farming in even one of the Sub Saharan States with a population above 10 million.
Idealy Africa has to increase to 200 billion dollars per annum in spending on agriculture and rural credit. The AUF supports the increase of subsidies for the agricultural sector. Note that among member-states of the OECD (Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development) alone, US$ 360 billion a year is spent on agricultural subsidies. In the US, 50% of liquid income of the average farmer originates from federal government subsidies deposited in framers’ accounts. The EU spends 40% billion in subsidies to support its farmers.
Under the present agricultural model only 10% of the Africa's rural businesses are financially viable, whilst only a miniscule percentage of 200 million family farmers remain so. Millions of hectares that were once farmed are now no longer cultivated. Because the economic survival farmers is threatened, they have reduced the area of land under cultivated. Because of increasing financial distress caused by the SAPs, all across Africa the number of machinery purchased or sold in Africa has fallen because farmers can nolonger afford tractors.
Africa must only import products that cannot be produced in Africa... Since the 1960s Africa's imports have leapt to billions of dollars worth of imports, all of which can be cultivated in Africa.
Because of neocolonial agricultural policy, there has been a rural exodus of millions of Africans. If agricultural failure continues, between millions of people will have to leave the countryside in coming years, especially those in the Sub-Saharan Africa.
Per Capita Production: Grain production averaged 522 kilograms per person 30 years ago. In 1999, this had fallen to 50o kg per person.
Banks hoard a significant percentage of all credit destined for agriculture. In the ‘developed world’, banks charge only between 4 and 6% interest.
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Agriculture has a key role to play in generating incomes, jobs and foreign trade that create the resources to stimulate development and growth in other parts of the economy. Nurturing these growth linkages is critical for future development in Africa. However, the economy of the African Union can not grow if the economies of the constituent states and communities are limited to the resources and opportunities that exist only within their borders.
Linkages are needed with markets all across the AU in which firms, farms and business operators can effectively complement (as opposed to competing). Linkages promote opportunities for trade and investment flows, income generation and employment. Agriculture has a key role to play in creating and sustaining the linkages with markets outside of Africa as well.
In the African Union single market, food and commodity markets, offer opportunities for agricultural development and trade. Constituent states will have better means to develop comparative advantage in some part of the system. Food commodities offer the opportunity to focus AFrican Union resources, technical services and job creation efforts on the generation of goods and services that are of mutual interest to local and regional markets.
The most significant opportunity this activity will address is the availability of locally produced wholesome, processed affordable and sanitary food products by small and medium size enterprises.
There is demand for convenient, nutritious and safe food. In the formal sector, large scale manufacturers provide the large share of processed grains, dairy and confectionary products in most African countries. Even though relatively inexpensive technologies are on the market which could enhance the production capacity of small scale food processors, for any number of reasons, especially in rural areas, have yet to gain exposure or gain access to needed food processing technologies.
Post-harvest loss accounts for the waste of over 50% of Africa's food. Investment in processing and storage can produce safe quality foods will address the wastage and generate income for small and medium scale food processors. The food processing sector of the AU economy already has a robust sector that can be augmented. Networks in the sector include groups such as the African Association of Business Women, West African Enterprise Network, Africa Business Roundtable, Southern African Business Council, Southern African Agribusiness Federation, national food processing associations, Industrial Development Research Council and other commodity networks and associations.
The Food Processing Sector requires support services, including access to market information and research, and product inspection and certification. Capacity building in the sector depends on rationalizing and standardizing business practices, information technologies, market Analysis, product development, and developing processing technologies.
Access to information, and a coherent infrastructure in the AU will help to match applied food technologies to food processors servicing target markets; strengthen the capacity of small and medium scale entrepreneurs to produce efficiently high quality, safe, processed foods; and to develop product development models permitting to introduce processed foods at low costs.
It is necessary to enable African farmers to develop strategic alliances among partners with common objectives, such as food technologists, trade and professional associations, commodity groups, food processors, and business advisory services. These alliances are to work towards improving understanding around common interests, strategic planning, and delivering food processing technologies to entrepreneurs, primarily rural entrepreneurs, desiring to supply processed foods to interested markets.
List of Organisations in Agricultural Research in the African Union
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Analytical Services Lab.
International Institute of Tropical Agriculture
PMB 5320, Ibadan,
Nigeria
e-mail - l.ndimele@cgiar.org
Tel: (+234-2) 241-2626
ext 2316 / 2314
fax: (+234-2) 241-2221
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