Moves to end hunger by 2020

African leaders have once again voiced concern over international trade barriers, which, they say, continue to block indigenous farmers from participating in the global economy.

At the opening of a three-day conference on food security in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Nigerian President Olusegun Obansanjo said that African farmers were unlikely to "attain the competitive edge", mainly because of the huge agricultural subsidies Western governments were providing their farmers with. He said agricultural subsidies in Western countries stood at around US $1 billion per day.

"We are all familiar with the cliché about Africans living on less than a [US] $1 per day, yet a cow in Europe is subsidised at over $2 per day," Obasanjo added.

The conference, organised by the Washington-based International Food Policy and Research Institute, has drawn some 450 delegates from 50 countries in a bid to develop ways of securing food for millions of Africans facing shortages on daily basis. The goal is to develop strategies towards ending hunger on the continent by 2020.

IFPRI Director Joachim von Braun stressed that over the last 30 years the number of food-insecure people in sub-Saharan Africa had more than doubled.

"Africa has experienced declining food production per capita, growing marginalisation within the global economy, serious degradation of its natural resources [and] epidemics of HIV/AIDS that have uprooted large populations in most subregions," von Braun said.

However, he cautioned that while protectionist trade policies were stunting the growth of African economies, "failure of governance" was also to blame for the current food insecurity. "Peace is essential to sustain food and nutrition security, and happily, no new conflict broke out in Africa in 2003," he added.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni acknowledged that conflict had exacerbated food insecurity on the continent, but noted an improvement in recent years. "The question of conflict must not be overplayed. Southern Africa is reasonably peaceful with the recently ended war in Angola. We must take advantage of this, and where there is peace we must encourage development," Museveni told journalists.

He emphasised that despite the formidable challenges facing the continent, there were many successes in agriculture in Africa.

Museveni argued that one of the main reasons why Africa remained marginalised by globalisation was the continent’s "over-reliance" on bulk exports of unprocessed agricultural commodities, such as cotton, coffee and cocoa.

Over the next three days the conference is expected to focus on increasing agricultural productivity and improving infrastructure, among other issues. Delegates will pay particular attention to the impact of HIV/AIDS on agricultural practices.

"We need strategies for food and nutrition security that can be implemented. If strategies cannot be implemented, they are not any good," Von Braun said.