Why Africa Should Embrace Land Markets to Resilience Climate Shocks and Crisis – Global Issues
HARARE, Oct 04 (IPS) – African policy makers, local leaders and the private sector have been called upon to create an enabling environment that will help African traders and farmers build reliable food security and resilience systems through local markets.
During the week-long 2024 Africa Agroecological Entrepreneurship and Seed Festival in Harare, Zimbabwe, experts noted that the ongoing crisis highlighted the importance of markets that live close to home that feed billions of people every day—in public markets and on the streets. retailers to cooperatives, from urban agriculture to online direct sales, and from food centers to community kitchens.
“For example, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, global food prices increased by 15 percent, forcing policymakers around the world to ask how they can reduce reliance on volatile global markets and strengthen food security,” said Dr. Million Belay, General Manager. in the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA).
“Furthermore, questions have been raised about how people are fed and by whom, which prompts us to ask: in this century of crisis, what types of food supply chains and markets can build resilience and help fulfill the right to food – to feed people around the world sustainably and equitably?” asked Bhele.
To answer this question, experts are looking for policies and a good working environment that will enable local markets that promote food diversity and affordable nutrition for all, allow producers and food workers to control their livelihoods, and produce flexible food. climate change shocks and emerging issues.
These markets are broadly defined as markets focused on small agroecological food producers and business owners who produce and sell a variety of goods, and which tend to meet the needs of the majority of farmers, traders and consumers.
Research has shown that these markets play an important role in making food affordable and accessible, especially for low-income people in the Global South, allowing for the purchase of small amounts of variable food, price negotiation, informal credit systems, and availability. in or near low-income areas.
A new study presented on the sidelines of the Harare event leading up to the fifth Biennial Africa Food Systems conference, however, shows that profit-oriented corporate chains are increasingly focused on African markets.
The report, titled ‘Food from Elsewhere,’ by the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES Food), finds that only seven grain traders control at least 50 percent of the world’s grain trade, with six large companies controlling 50 percent. 78 The agrochemical market, the eight leading cargo carriers account for more than 80 percent of the ocean cargo volume market and globally, one percent of the world’s largest farms control 70 percent of the farmland.
This, according to experts, is similar to the capture of African food systems companies.
The report therefore encourages a paradigm shift, urging governments to reinvest in domestic and regional food infrastructure, mobilize public procurement and develop food security strategies for a stronger and more equitable approach to food security.
“The problem of small farmers is not to be connected to the markets (the majority are already involved in the markets) but rather the conditions of their access and the rules and how the markets work—who determines the prices and in what ways, who controls the cost of production, who holds the market power, among other issues,” said Mamadou Goïta, IPES member and lead author.
A check at the Mbare Musika market in Harare found a wide variety of food imported from all eight regions of Zimbabwe, including some from neighboring countries, such as apples and other fruits from South Africa, fish and ginger from Mozambique, groundnuts from Malawi, millet from Botswana, and grapes from Egypt and tamarind of Tanzania, among others.
“This is a hub for small-scale farmers and traders, supporting more than seven million people from all over Zimbabwe and other parts of the continent,” said Charles Dhewa, Chief Executive Officer, Knowledge Transfer Africa (KTA), popularly known as Mkambo. eMarket) to create a virtual and web-based market for agriculture and rural development, combining the use of mobile phones and the Internet to create, adapt and share information.
Mbare Musika Market, located on the outskirts of Harare, is near a bus stop, where food is delivered using informal means such as passenger buses and vans from different parts of the country, in small and large quantities. and different varieties and qualities.
“The evidence is clear—local food systems are critical to feeding an increasingly hungry planet and preventing food insecurity and hunger,” said Shalmali Guttal, Executive Director of Focus on the Global South. “They provide nutritious, affordable food and are more adaptable to shocks and global disruptions than industrial chains,” he added.
Jennifer Clapp, professor and Canadian Research Chair in Global Food Security and Sustainability at the University of Waterloo, Canada, pointed out that at this time of increasing hunger and environmental vulnerability, global industrial food chains will have a serious case of collapsing under environmental stress. common problems.
“For us to have a chance to reach the global goal of zero hunger by 2030, we need to rethink our food systems, and we need to strengthen food markets that help the poor,” she said.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
