Neglecting Peasant Farmers

Farmers like Idris, the Ethiopian quoted earlier, need seeds and simple farming equipment. Food aid alone is of limited value. As the Chinese proverb says: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” Generally, African peasants are not helped to succeed as farmers, though there are exceptions in some African countries.

Since colonial times, Africa’s best land has been devoted to the production of cash crops for export. In addition, large farming projects have been developed to provide food for the more affluent cities. Thus peasant farmers have often been pushed off good land and forced to subsist on land that is less productive. Left to fend for themselves, Africa’s peasants have degraded fragile land by overcultivation and overgrazing, and by cutting down too many trees. Large portions of Africa are turning into desert.

It is no coincidence that African countries that suffer the most from famine are also involved in civil war. Though rains brought some relief to Ethiopia, Sudan, and Mozambique, civil war in those countries continues to disrupt food production, and millions are starving.