By Asrat Seyoum

Agricultural executives from countries in eastern Africa gathered here for a two-day brain storming session to discuss the growing dependency of the region on food aid and food imports that is claiming a chunk of its foreign exchange earning.

Heads of major agricultural firms and officials from agricultural authorities of Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda started their two-day deliberation focusing on the alarming growth of reliance on food import attributed to the lack of private investment in the sector. Opening the workshop, Mafa Chipeta, representative of FAO to Ethiopia, said that at the moment countries in eastern Africa bring in five to seven million tonnes of foodstuff either in the form of aid or commercial import annually.

He explained that the sub-region, accounting for less than four percent of the total global population, receives over 20 percent of the global food aid given to countries with chronic food shortage. However, Chipeta stressed that such condition should be viewed as a market opportunity for the member countries themselves to trade among each other. By doing so, he noted, the private domestic investment that the sub-region badly needs would kick-off.

In the course of the discussion the mix of agricultural professionals are expected to pinpoint the problems with regard to private domestic investment shortfalls in the agricultural sector. A draft paper outlining the direction of the two-day meeting states that food production, specifically cereal crop production, was not adequate to satisfy the consumption demand in the sub-region and shows that the food balance of the countries in eastern African has been deteriorating over the years. Further forecasted figures in the draft report shows that by the year 2020 the region would be a net importer of 12 million tonnes of food that is trice of the current level. Kenya, according to the report, is the worst country in terms of the self-sufficiency with 27 percent decline in the self-sufficiency ratio compared to what it was in the 1970s. Sudan and Burundi trail Kenya with their ratios above 20 percent for the period under assessment. In this regard Ethiopia was among the countries facing a moderate decline in food self–sufficiency figure compared to its own ratio in the 1970. On the other hand, the dependency in import since the 1970s had increased about sixfold showing the extent to which the economy is getting hooked to imports.

The paper also tried to examine the multi-faceted agricultural sector in the region with the small holder and commercial farming systems taking up the bigger proportion. However, the policy shift in the sub-region inspired by the Washington-based institutions, according to the paper, was based on the premise that increased foreign exchange earning from the export of the cash crops would cover the food import bill. Yet, the document noted that those were unrealistic assumptions and at the end of the day it worsened the food deficit in the sub-region. Both the paper and the speaker, mentioned above, say that a high import bill is indicative of the existence of market opportunities in the country and that this is a call for private domestic investment in the sector. Based on the survey conducted on various stockholders, the document outlined many problems that exist in the sector.

The workshop was organized by the sub-regional office of Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the Nairobi-based Eastern and Southern Africa Development Bank (PTA).

Source: Reporter