• by IPS Correspondents (washington)
• Friday, November 11, 1994
• Inter Press Service

WASHINGTON, Nov 11 (IPS) - The World Bank will make new efforts to provide "green revolution" technology to boost lagging food production in sub-Saharan Africa as a part of a new partnership with a non-governmental organisation active in Africa.

At a forum on the future of Africa's agriculture here Thursday, Bank officials said they intended to work closely with Dr. Norman Borlaug, the head of the Sasakawa-Global 2000 Organisation and one of the pioneers of high-yielding varieties of basic food crops.

That technology, which has become widespread throughout Asia and Latin America, has largely bypassed Africa, primarily because of the lack of investment in irrigation, a major ingredient in Asia's Green Revolution, and because the supply of new, cultivable land was, until recently, relatively plentiful.

But, with population growing at three percent per year, land is quickly becoming exhausted in large parts of Africa, and the need to boost yields is greater, according to both the Bank and Borlaug.

Agriculture currently accounts for about 35 percent of Africa's gross domestic product (GDP), about 40 percent of its exports, and 70 percent of its employment.

Growth in food production, at about two percent per year, has lagged behind population growth, and has actually declined on a per capita basis in many sub-Saharan countries since 1965.

The result is increasing reliance by Africans on food imports and food aid from abroad -- a situation which undermines the continent's development prospects.

A 1989 World Bank study said much of the problem was due to poor policies by governments which discouraged agricultural production and favoured the urban populations at the expense of the farmers and rural poor.

The Bank recommended the adoption of polices that would have the reverse effect -- of encouraging agricultural growth and placing a higher priority on the rural poor who depend on agriculture for survival. It set a target of four percent annual growth in food production.

Most of the policies were designed to reduce the role of government in agriculture, improve extension services, supply new technologies and higher-yield crop varieties, strengthen private and cooperative enterprises, build rural infrastructure, provide farmers better access to credit, and address such issues as providing secure land tenure and empowering women.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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