Brussels, 16 October 2008: In the 7th Brussels Development Briefing on rising food prices, Stineke Oenema representing the CONCORD European Food Security Working Group called for sufficient policy space of developing countries to make independent decisions on protecting their markets.
While there seems to be a general consensus that smallholder agriculture needs a boost to increase its resilience against food crises, and eradicate hunger and malnutrition, Ms. Oenema pointed out some challenges:
- Can a new green revolution be a solution? In her opinion, we have to learn from past lessons: Research needs to be based on local needs, and not only on export products.
- Trade policies?: Examples from Cameroon and Bolivia show that developing countries need some protection to strengthen their own production sectors. Countries need sufficient policy space to decide independently on their own food security strategies, independent from international advice. “Sufficient border protection is needed”, she said.
Besides these challenges, she also identified opportunities in the current food crisis.
- It brings people together and unifies forces to tackle the crisis.
- The current crisis opens a window of opprtunity to design a new food system, taking into account trade, nutrition and agriculture.
- The right to food states that “every man, woman, child has the right to adequate food”.
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Brussels, 16 October 2008: In the 7th Brussels Development Briefing on rising food prices, Renwick Rose from WINFA, the Caribbean, passionately underlined the need of a frank and serious dialogue with the farmers on the ground.
He highlighted that there have been very many food initiatives in the last decades, but why did they all fail? He provided a clear answer: Because farmers were not involved at any stage, from planning to implementation. In his view, there is a fundamental difference in how national governments and the EU are treating farmers’ and employers’ organisations. Nobody seems to believe that farmers are capable of understanding the underlying problems and coming up with effective solutions. But in fact, it is farmer organizations “who can best reach out to their members” to identify needs, and communicate strategies and measures.
Contrary to the general assumption that farmers are benefiting from high prices, He showed that there are two or three layers between the producers and the final consumers, such as traders and retailers, who mainly profit from the rising prices.
Farmer organizations do not claim to have all the solutions. What is needed is an intensive capacity building for farmers to enable them to effectively respond to the problems, and duly participate in the planning of initiatives.
Commenting on questions from the audience, he pointed out that ignoring the farmers “leaves out an important part of the equation” and will not be successful.
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The presentations and discussions in the 7th Brussels Briefing Briefing on 16 October 2008 were recorded and edited by Glasshouse. The following sequences are available:
Introductory remarks
Isolina Boto, CTA
Welcome remarks by organizers
Dr. Hansjörg Neun, CTA
Lluis Riera Figueras, EC - DG Development
Sir John Kaputin, ACP Secretariat
Jacques Diouf, Director-General, FAO (videomessage from Rome at the occasion of the World Food Day)
Panel 1: Rising food prices: trends and impacts
Introduction by H.E. Mr Kadré Désiré Ouedraogo
Steve Wiggins, ODI
Renwick Rose, WINFA,
Stineke Oenema, Concord
DEBATE
Panel 2: Food for all: achieving a long term resiliency
Introduction by Dr Hansjörg Neun
Philip Mikos, EC - DG Development
Cris Muyunda, COMESA
Dr Mike Bushell, Syngenta
DEBATE
Conclusions
Eric Tollens, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven
Luca Alinovi, FAO
Dr Hansjörg Neun, CTA
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Brussels, 16 October 2008: In the 7th Brussels Briefing on rising food prices, ODI’s Steve Wiggins gave a brief historical analysis of the food system, the production and market trends.
Observing the global cereal production, the world food system has functioned very well. Until the 1980s, cereal production yearly increased 2,8 %, which surpasses the rate of population growth. Since then, the growth in cereal production was only marginally lower than population growth.
In his view, the ‘triggers’ of the current food prices crisis include:
- harvest failures in Australia, Russia, Ukraine - a supply side failure
- changing demands, in particular, rising oil prices have stimulated increasing demand for biofuels which push up the prices, for example, of maize.
These together led to a degree of panic: export restrictions by producer countries, re-stocking (richer countries imported more than usual, just in case), and perhaps, speculation on commodity futures markets.
What needs to be done?
Arguing that the basic problem is a lack of resilience in the global food system, he called for the system to be “loosened up”, making space for us to better handle harvest variability. This is particularly critical as our climate begins to change. Part of a resilience strategy requires that we, over time, build up stocks and reserves to cover the bad years.
He also advocated greater efforts to increase the annual growth in agricultural production (of staple crops) - 2% growth per annum should be sufficient. Finally, the larger issue of hunger and malnutrition must be tackled.
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In the context of the World Food Day, CTA in partnership with the European Commission-DG Development and EuropeAid, the EU Presidency, the ACP Secretariat, Euforic and Concord (European platform of development NGOs) organized the 7th Brussels Development Briefing on 16th October 2008.
The briefing discussed the issue of “Rising food prices: an opportunity for change?”. The session addressed the causes and consequences of the rising food prices from a development perspective, and the needed actions to respond to urgent needs as well as the best policy options at medium and long term as to ensure food security for the most vulnerable households and market stability for ACP economies.
View the programme, presentations and video material, speaker information, video interviews, and selected documents available online (.pdf)
For more information please contact Isolina Boto (boto@cta.int) or Romano Purro (rp@euforic.org)
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What did participants at the July Briefing think of the discussions? We asked a few for their reactions.
Ambassador Brave Ndisale of Malawi chaired the second Panel of the briefing. She found the briefing very useful to provide clarity on policies and practices of new actors in development, especially China. She also underlined that Africa has a lot to learn from the experience of China and India. Further, she reminded us how coordination among donors can be fostered when the ownership of development processes stays at national level: her country represents a success story in this sense.
Lucy Hayes of Eurodad [see video] found the discussions on Africa and China particularly interesting. Moreover, the discussion on aid and agriculture is timely. It is time we made better use of the money now available, building from what is there and ensuring bottom-up solutions.
Amadou Diallo (NEPAD) stressed the relevance of the subjects covered in the discussions , these help us better understand the initiatives of different actors and the various drivers behind these processes. Further, he underlined the value of the Briefings in providing a platform for dialogue, exchange and debate for harmonisation and coordination of different development policies. He encouraged the organisers to continue this initiative in Brussels, perhaps also launching similar activities in Africa.
(interview in French)
Joseph Coompson [see video], Chief Agricultural Economist at the African Development Bank expained that the AfDB is coordinating a task force looking into the division of labour among donors to Africa’s agricultural sector.
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