Open Letter

Farmer-Led Strategies, the Answer to World Food Shortages

Jack Wilkinson
President, International Federation of Agricultural Producers (IFAP)

We see big headlines about food shortages and riots spreading across urban centers in developing countries around the world and increasingly dire reports about famine on the horizon, but we have not seen any sense of urgency to address the fundamentals of this problem in any concrete way. Governments need to wake up and start feeding their nations.

World food stocks are at their lowest level since 1974, and again we are seeing food prices reach record. We know that all it would take is one more bad harvest to create a real food crisis, not just a temporary shortage. Meanwhile, governments are expecting and waiting for agribusiness to offer a solution on a silver platter.

Agribusiness is not the solution to the world’s food problems. It is IFAP’s contention that national governments, together with their farmers, with their researchers and other stakeholders, could solve the food shortage within one to two years.

IFAP is calling for farmers to work together with their governments to develop an integrated agriculture strategy to significantly increase production in developing countries over the next five years, and we’re calling on the World Bank, donors and other international organizations and bilateral agencies direct their funding towards these farmer-led strategies that will address the real problems that farmers face on a daily basis in production and marketing. This approach delves into the real issues that will create lasting, sustainable solutions.

If these strategies are not created, we will likely see falling production and a worsened food crisis, as inputs are rising with energy increases and pushing them out of the reach of farmers. Fertilizer prices have doubled in the last year alone. Transportation costs have risen 100 percent for each of the last three years. Seed prices have nearly doubled as well over the past few years. Where are the government programs to help farmers deal with radical increases in input costs? How are the credit needs of farmers being met so they can buy seeds?

An illustration of how inappropriately this food shortage is being dealt with is that some countries are even paying more to import grains than they are paying to their own farmers for local production. For example, India is paying twice as much for grain imports as they do to their own farmers. How does this support the domestic economy and the farmer to ensure food security?

Moreover, one of the most neglected dimensions of the world food shortage is post harvest losses. In quite a few countries, as much as 30 percent of the crop is being lost as a result of inadequate storage facilities, equipment and infrastructure. Simply buying a grain cleaner and making it available to farmers or building a grain elevator to keep out the rats will dramatically increase the availability and quality of food; a few basic measures by national governments will go along way to address current food shortages.

When the world’s farmers get together to meet for their biennial conference in Warsaw from May 30 – June 6 2008, they will be discussing action they can take to boost production and overcome food shortages. Most of all, they will be making proposals to work with their governments and demanding long overdue investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure.

We’ve got enough land and we’ve got enough farmers. We just don’t have enough good agricultural policy. It’s time to act instead of talk, it’s time to plant fields instead of having conferences, and it’s time for national governments – with their farmers’ organizations – to take their responsibilities seriously.