Agriculture Subsidies & Rural Development

While Food Insecurity and Hunger are issues that still impact most of the world for this article we'd like to focus on a region that is disproportionately impacted by it. Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the few regions where a many of the countries are still struggling to deal with severe food insecurity.

Food Affordability Africa

Diet Cost by Percentage of Daily Income (2017 PPP)

Source: World Bank, UN FAO

Many governments in Africa are choosing to deal with this issue by increasing the funding for education for individuals. Their goals are relatively straightforward to improve educational outcomes in order to increase the number of possible skilled workers in the workforce. But how educational funding is distributed often leaves rural areas behind.

In 2003 members of the African Union pledged to allocate 10% of their annual budgets towards agriculture and rural development under the Marputo Declaration it has been more than two decades since then and the program has been had mixed success. Of the 55 member states only a few countries consistently achieved that target from 2000 to 2020.

In the recent history of the Marputo Declaration investments by countries have varied quite significantly. While many countries from the 2004 to 2008 had increased government spending by the time of the great recession investments into agriculture began to decrease.

Parts of Africa increased agricultural spending when they could while others fell into a slump. But by the COVID-19 Pandemic most countries felt the strain on their economies as money and financial options began to dry up.

Fairly recently under the Nairobi Declaration the African Union pledged to triple fertilizer production by 2034. While the declaration aimed at spreading awareness on the proper use of fertilize and had concrete goals such as reducing and restoring degraded land. There was relatively little on how countries would go about doing this.

With Africa projected to grow to 2.5 billion by 2050 and 4.3 billion in 2100. Now is a time more than ever for countries to recommit towards making the changes necessary to end issues like food insecurity and hunger. The Nairobi Declaration could be a way for countries to make that change. But for many countries the Nairobi Declaration was a cry for help as countries asked for more foreign aid.

Without concrete goals and metrics to help track progress for countries it can be hard to measure the impacts of programs. Issues may not be entirely visible at first glance. Take for example in Kenya where the increased usage of fertilizer led to an increase yields but came at a significant cost.

As of 2024, 63% of Kenya's arable land is now acidic. While fertilizer usage has increased throughout Kenya the amount yielded has remained the same. This is an especially problematic when you consider how much food countries are producing per year.

Per Capita Production of Grains has consistently decreased since the 1960s. Theres a lot of reasons behind this, the population of Kenya has and is continuing to grow. This is a trend seen in other high fertilizer using countries. While the amount of land being used for farming has increased because the yield has remained relatively unchanged.

Meaning that even though the amount of food being produced increased due to the amount of people being born there is less food per person. Increasing fertilizer usage alone isn't enough to increase the yields of crops.

On the same note increasing fertilizer production does not necessarily make fertilizer more affordable for small scale farmers. A key issue missing from the Nairobi Declaration was the distribution of fertilizer to small scale farmers and if it would happen at all.

More needs to be done to address these issues but countries are often unable to deal with them. In places like South Asia we see that food subsidy programs are very well recieved by a majority of people when aimed at large numbers of people. Public Distribution Systems like those seen in India and Bangladesh could help billions of people in Africa.

These programs however were proceeded by large investments into agriculture by South Asian countries. Heavy investments into fertilizers that made many South Asian countries into the largest producers staple crops such a rice and wheat. In Africa this is a problem that countries will likely need to solve at the same time.

Having a central government offer a stable market rate in which farmers can sell goods to can provide a stable and consistent source of income. Farmer's Co-ops and Unions could allow for collective bargaining with governments to ensure annual increases in food prices. Governments can in return offer deliver and pick up of goods and services needed. They can help procure fertilizer and ensure its delivery to farmers before the start of the farming season.

These are all issues and things that a Department of Agriculture could be responsible for. It would create more jobs to ensure the timely delivery and picking up of goods. Something that is often desperately needed but out of reach for small scale farmers is fertilizer. The distribution of fertilizer to seeds would reduce costs for small scale farmers. Governments can also set up departments with trained experts to help deal with these issues that often come with proper field management. Ensuring the proper rotation of crops to manage soil as needed.

Along with this, governments can start public works projects to create irrigation systems and ensure access to tools such as sprinklers and proper maintanence of fields. Systems like these were developed in South Asia throughout the 1900s. With both fertilizer and irrigation being large reasons behind the yield gaps seen in many African countries. In many ways many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa the geographic and ecological conditions are very similar to those seen in Southern Asia, though they do vary to some degree by country and region.

The issues to deal with water rights and distribution are a bit more complex while they are relatively few countries in South Asia in Sub-Saharan Africa many countries are dependent on water from mountains that may or may not be within their borders. Ethopia and Egypt is a case where this is an ongoing issue. In Central and Western Africa this plays a significant role in relationships and food security.

Groups like the African Union could be places where conversations for these issues could be held on making fair and equitable agreements between nations. With climate change looming and the growing population of Africa cooperation between countries is the key to prevent the worst from happening.

These policies could help reduce the growing gap between Rural and Urban areas, but the large investments required for this to happen make it unlikely for people such as politicians to be willing to implement these policies. As it stands most countries are struggling with a variety of issues from clean water to electricity. Where these resources goes tends to be towards urban centers.

There is a lot that could be done to improve the lives of the billions who live as subsistence farmers in Africa. Ideas like these would be popular with many of Africa's working poor. But what is excluded from this deal are individuals in heavily urbanized areas.