The world descends on quiet Des Moines to discuss global food security

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


Des Moines is the capital of Iowa State, mid-west of the US. It is a quiet, beautiful town with a population of about 400,000.

But this quiet town is awake now, as the whole world is literally here to discuss how to secure the world’s future food production.

Global food prices are rising, and there is severe hunger and drought in the Horn of Africa. The situation in East Africa has attracted global attention, even though a little too late, efforts are being made to address the issue.

In Des Moines, pronounced ‘De Moine’, about 29 journalists from around the world have been nominated by the US Department of State Foreign Press Centre for the ‘Foreign Journalist Tour: Food Security’ reporting programme.

The World Food Prize is also organising the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium during which the Laureate Award Ceremony would be held. Ghana’s former President John Kufuor and Brazil’s Lula da Silva will be jointly honoured for their efforts to end hunger in their countries, while they were presidents .

Kufuor is being honoured for the prudent policies initiated by his government towards food sufficiency.

“His administration helped to initiate or continue improvements in farming, nutrition, education, healthcare, and infrastructure, leading to significant positive changes in Ghana during the first decade of the new millennium.

“Today, Ghana is regarded as one of the most successful countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It recently attained middle-income status and will likely achieve the first Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty in half before the target year of 2015,” a press statement from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) said in June.

“Under President Kufour’s leadership, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to cut in half the proportion of its people who suffer from hunger, and the proportion of people living on less than a dollar per day, on course to achieve UN Millenium Development Goal 1 before the 2015 deadline.

“Continuing Ghana’s tradition of stability, President Kufour prioritised national agricultural policies: Ghana saw a reduction in its poverty rate from 51.7 percent in 1991 to 26.5 percent in 2008, and hunger was reduced from 34 percent in 1990 down to 9 percent in 2004,” it said.

IFPRI also acknowledged that, “President Kufour’s economic reforms, including the Food and Agriculture Sector Development Policy, provided incentives and strengthened public investments in the agricultural and food sector — the backbone of Ghana’s economy — which grew at a rate of 5.5 percent between 2003 and 2008,” adding that”Growth in the agricultural sector drove expansion in the national economy, with GDP quadrupling to 8.4 percent by 2008.”

“Under President Kufour, the Agricultural Extension Service was reactivated and special attention paid to educating farmers on best practices. As a result, Ghana’s cocoa production doubled between 2002 and 2005, and food crops such as maize, cassava, yams and plantains increased significantly, as did livestock production,” it adds.

The organisers were also impressed with Kufuor’s essay published by IFPRI. The essay was titled ‘Ghana’s Transformation’, in which Ghana’s former President gives a first-person account of his years as president, describing some of his administration’s most successful projects, especially those related to agriculture.

In the essay, President Kufour, who is currently a Global Ambassador against Hunger for the United Nations World Food Programme says, “Food is the most basic of needs, it decides not just the health of individuals but also the health of communities.”

Kufuor who describes food security as the catalyst for improving an economy and instituting democracy, served two terms as President of the Republic of Ghana from 2001 to 2008.

Achievements by this year’s winners also demonstrate that committed leadership combined with evidence-based policies can eliminate hunger and reduce poverty, says IFPRI.

On Brazil’s former president as joint winner, the World Food Prize Foundation said “President Lula da Silva made reducing poverty and hunger a top priority when he assumed the presidency of Brazil in 2003.

“The country’s Zero Hunger network of programmes represents one of the world’s leading efforts to decrease hunger and improve nutrition, providing greater access to food and education, increasing rural incomes, and empowering the poor. Under his leadership, Brazil cut hunger in half, exceeding the first Millennium Development Goal,” it adds.

Chicago’s O’hare International Airport was full on a sunny day Monday October 10, 2011 as larger than normal number of airlines landed with passengers on transit to Iowa. As our flight took off, it was the fourth plane in line taking off from the tarmac at the same time, and the waiting area was crowded leaving most Chicagoans wondering what is attracting such large numbers of visitors to the sleepy Mid-West town of Des Moines.

On transit in Chicago, I had the pleasant and rare opportunity of running into Sir Dawda Jawara, the former President of The Gambia. Until that great opportunity came, the closest I had come to him was what I had read about him in primary school. I didn’t miss a photo opportunity with him!

The town is so small that people walking by you on the street will stop and say hello!

But before I arrived in Des Moines, I already had links with the town that I have suddenly fallen in love with. When I told my friend Joyce Maxwell who lives in Massachusetts that I was coming to Des Moines, she told me her mother-in-law was born there. And then there is Ghanaian doctoral candidate at the Iowa Universtiy, Etse Sikanku, who has been looking forward to meeting with me whenever he came to Ghana, but now we will have the chance of meeting in Des Moines.

Traffic moves very fast on the roads, and I am yet to hear a car honk!

As I understand, it is also the heart of agriculture and food production in America. I have already seen the signs of some agribusiness institutions already.

As the events continue and come to a climax by October 15, 2011, quiet sleepy Des Moines would have spent long hours being awake, that it would probably sleep for a long time trying to catch up on lost sleep.

Rise in world food prices has implications for Ghana

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi

I first wrote and published this article elsewhere in 2008 at the onset of the global financial and food crises.
 
As the world faces the emergence of another food crisis, I thought I should share with you, especially if you didn't get the chance to read it.

Ghana’s recent successes in the agriculture sector could suffer setbacks as a result of the rise in world food prices if the appropriate steps are not taken.

Ghana is still celebrating the positive mention it received in the recently launched World Development Report 2008 of the World Bank. In this Report, Ghana was extensively used as a case study, indeed as a success story in agricultural growth in sub-Sahara Africa, including halving poverty by Millineum Development Goal benchmarks.

Unfortunately, the rise in world food prices for grains, especially wheat, could possibly erode the gains made in agriculture in the country.

The world price of wheat has risen to $19.88 a bushel on the Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGE) according to the website, World Socialist, and that rise is 79% higher than a year ago. The site says that the surge was as a result of the announcement that Japan had purchased 190,000 tons of US wheat shortly after the Egyptian government bought 235,000 tons, and in anticipation of weather-related food disruptions in China.

The Financial Times (FT) reports that in Chicago wheat and rice prices for delivery in March 2008 have jumped to an all-time record, soyabean prices are at a 34-year high and corn prices at an 11-year peak.

In early trading on Monday according to the FT, the new benchmark price of wheat for March delivery rose 30 cents to $10.09½ a bushel, more than 7.5 per cent higher than the expiring December contract of $9.39 and first time it has traded over $10 a bushel. The December contract expired on Friday and the March 2008 contract became the market’s benchmark on Monday.

New benchmark prices for corn are also more than 5 per cent higher than previously. Corn for March 2008 rose to $4.43¼ a bushel, the highest level in 11 years for a front-month contract.

The benchmark prices for soyabeans delivered in January rose on Friday to a fresh 34-year high of $11.92¼ a bushel.

Rice, also for January, has jumped to an all-time high of $13.310 a hundredweight.

The FT report quotes Bill Lapp, analyst at US consultancy, Advanced Economic Solutions as saying “We’ve already seen food prices increase this year at their fastest pace since the early 1980s, but the full brunt of those increases will begin in earnest in 2008.”

The agricultural commodities price rises are the result of high demand, poor harvests and low stockpiles of food. Emerging economies, where rising incomes are boosting consumption of meat and dairy products, have added to pressures already generated by the biofuel industry.

Cereal supply was this season lower than expected as several countries suffered weather-related losses. Jean Bourlot, head of agriculture commodities at Morgan Stanley in London, said: “High cereals prices are here to stay.”

The US Department of Agriculture has predicted that global corn stocks will fall to a 33-year low of just 7.5 weeks of consumption, while global wheat stocks will plunge to their lowest level in at least 47 years at 9.3 weeks.

But the World Food Programme (WFP) has predicted that the price of wheat will remain high for atleast the next two years.

According to the group, Action Against Hunger, an NGO that is in the forefront of fighting hunger in the world, the cause of the rise in the world price of cereals was due to some factors including increased consumption of cereals both as food and for animal feed in China and Brazil.

The challenges facing food production in most parts of the world according to Action Against Hunger are, biofuel production, increase in fuel prices, and global warming.

Biofuel’s effect on food production is as a result of the use of productive land for the production of non-food crops.

The increase in fuel prices has affected agricultural production, because farmers have to pay more for less energy sources to produce.

The effects of global warming on the world is being felt in the loss of water sources. Most of the world’s water sources are drying up as a result, and this is affecting agricultural production.

There is also the challenge posed by deforestation, loss of soil fertility and land degradation which have resulted from other industrial activities.

Most developing countries now have to spend a lot more on food imports. It is estimated that developing countries spend between 70%-80% of their budget on food imports.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the global trade in foodstuffs has grown rapidly and changed radically over recent decades. Between 1970 and 2001, gross world food imports, measured in terms of calorie equivalents, rose by almost 60 percent.

But this growth differed markedly among both country and commodity groups.

The FAO reports that gross imports of food by developing countries grew by 115 percent over this period. Imports by developed countries, which already import a higher proportion of their food, grew by 45 percent.

A closer look at the data reveals that food imports by developing countries increased rapidly during the 1970s, grew more slowly during the 1980s and accelerated again over the 1990s. This pattern holds true both for the volume of food imports and for the ratio of food imports to availability for consumption per capita.

The expansion of food imports meant that the food trade surplus of US$1 billion of developing countries was transformed into a deficit of more than US$11 billion during this period. Moreover, this trend is expected to continue: according to FAO projections, by the year 2030, the net food trade deficit of developing countries is expected to swell to more than US$50 billion in constant 1997-99 US$.

These figures do not portend good for developing countries in the light of the challenges.

African countries in particular, like Sierra Leone and Liberia that depend so much on rice and Kenya which depends on corn are likely to be hard hit by the developments.

Ghana, which also imports a large amount of rice would likely face great constraints on the country’s budget.

According to the FAO, at an annual growth rate of 12.84 per cent, Ghana’s rice import grew from 121,000 metric tons in 1993 to 507,600 metric tons in 2002.

An environmental group, Environmental Rights Action, based in Nigeria, has put Ghana’s rice imports from the USA alone at 166.400 metric tons between 2004 and 2005.

The challenges that the rise in world food prices could pose to Ghana, is the diversion of funds for other sectors into food importation.

This could bring short term relief. But for a long term approach to the challenge, the Ghana government must go back to the drawing board and have a second look at agriculture in the country.

Particular attention should be given to developing irrigation systems.

Agriculture research institutions should also be given attention and the funding they require to develop new varieties of crop for farmers, especially pest and disease resistant varieties.

While Ghanaians are entitled to celebrate the achievements documented in the World Bank’s World Development Report 2008, the challenges posed by the rise in world food prices, should goad the country on to more pragmatic and goal oriented agricultural practices.

It is time to move away from lip service to the agriculture sector, it is time to put more money where it is needed most, and that is the agriculture sector, so that Ghanaians can be well fed, because well fed citizens always have the energy to build a better, stronger nation.

Scientist warns against global rush into biofuel cultivation

By Emmanuel K. Dogbevi


A US scientist, Thomas R. Sinclair has warned countries that are rushing into cultivating biofuels in their efforts to reduce dependence on fossil fuels to take into consideration the multiple limits to plant production on earth.

In an article titled “Taking Measure of Biofuel Limits” published in the “American Scientist,” the magazine of Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society, he said, “before nations pin big hopes on biofuels, they must face some stark realities, however. Crop physiology research has documented multiple limits to plant production on Earth. To ramp up biofuel crop production, growers must adapt to those limits or find ways around them.”

Professor Sinclair who is a visiting professor in agronomy at the University of Florida and an adjunct professor in crop science at North Carolina State University was also raised on a farm in Indiana.

He writes “in a justified rush to cut fossil fuel consumption, some nations are embracing biofuels as a petroleum alternative at the gas pump. Using sugarcane, Brazil already produces 24.5 billion liters of ethanol a year to fuel car and truck engines.”

“In the United States, annual ethanol production has reached 40 billion liters, or 10 billion gallons. The U.S. Energy Independence and Security Act calls for 144 billion liters of ethanol per year in the U.S. transportation fuel pool by 2022. That equals 25 percent of U.S. gasoline consumption today. No more than about 40 percent is to be produced with maize, an important food and export crop. Non-grain feedstock is supposed to supply the rest,” he added.

In Professor Sinclair’s view there are no means by which humans could bypass the limits of crop production, arguing that “such advances may not be as simple as some predict. Plants and their evolutionary ancestors had hundreds of millions of years to optimize their biological machinery. If further improvements were easy, they would probably already exist.”

He insists that no matter what techniques are developed to expand biofuel feedstock, some basic physical and physiological limitations will still apply.

“Plants cannot be grown without three crucial resource inputs: light, water and nitrogen. Each of those inputs will be needed in substantial quantities, yet their availability in the field is limited. As important, so far plants make use of those resources only at established rates,” he says.

He further states that no matter what techniques are developed to expand biofuel feedstock, plants cannot be grown without three crucial resource inputs: light, water and nitrogen. Each of those inputs will be needed in substantial quantities, yet their availability in the field is limited. As important, so far plants make use of those resources only at established rates. In fact, the close relationship between the available amounts of these resources and the amount of plant mass they can produce—not human demand—will determine how much biofuel the world can produce.

Citing the US as an example he writes, “light, water and nitrogen will be essential for growing biofuel feedstocks. The availability of these resources will be critical to achieving ethanol production goals set by the U.S. Energy and Security Act. Even if the current increase in maize yield can be sustained at 0.1 tonne per hectare per year, the equivalent of 40 percent of today’s U.S. maize crop will be required for ethanol production while other domestic and export demands for maize also must be met.”

Professor Sinclair is emphatic that identifying land area for cellulosic plant production will be even more challenging. Depending on the efficiency of ethanol production from cellulosic feedstock, somewhere between 25 and 50 million hectares of new land must be brought into high and sustainable agricultural production to achieve the required yields.

“Since this land-use conversion would need to take place roughly over a decade, it would be the most extensive and rapid land transformation in U.S. history,” he says.

To complicate matters, land used for cellulosic feedstock must be in regions with sufficient rainfall to achieve needed yields. The amount of water transpired by those crops could be large enough to influence the hydrologic balance of farming regions. An unanswered question is whether stream and aquifer flows from these areas would also remain adequate to meet all local freshwater needs, he writes.

Professor Sinclair’s arguments obviously are worth looking at by biofuel advocates. Besides, it also calls for a critical and objective look in view of the fact that biofuels are competing for scarce land for food cultivation in the face of a global food crisis.

Source: ghanabusinessnews.com