Africa's Unending Poverty challenges: A Case of Malawi

The reports about Malawi being a success story in agricultural production were very interesting and a challenge for many African countries. To date there is a feeling in many African countries that not enough money in the national budget is being allocated to agriculture. Malawi did this starting in 2004 by giving a subsidy to farmers and is reported that Malawi started harvesting maize in surpluses which enabled it to export to other countries. It is reported further that this was opposed by donors who say subsidies were against the principals of free markets. Donors withdrew their usual support for the government budget deficit and the Malawian economy crumbled. What is the problem? The problem is begging. If you rely on donations, when the rag is pulled away from you, you will definitely collapse.

I have argued and will again do so that African emergence from poverty lies on increasing production in and productivity of agriculture. The problem of not being able to produce more has dire consequences not only poverty but hunger. And to overcome hunger, donors must again be gracious enough to donate food to these poor Africans.

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Why MUBS will not become a University

In 2006, cabinet directed that MUBS be transformed into a university. 8 years down the line, nothing has happened. Since then, about 20 other universities have been established. In 2010, after a visitation ordered by the National Council for Higher Education, the NCHE recommended that MUBS should be made a degree awarding institute.  A degree awarding institute does everything a university does except call itself a university. UMI is one such in the public sector and the TEAM is the other in the private sector. When you go through the list of NCHE that classifies tertiary institutions, MUBS is listed with those institutions that do not have a single person with a PhD. In fact you take pains to look for where MUBS is.

When you write and complain (like I am complaining now) those concerned will say these people complain too much. In this world, you never get what you deserve, you get what you negotiate or fight for. Unfortunately, we have failed to identify the one single person that has made decisions about MUBS not to be implemented. When you go to seek assistance, since this country is an assistance seeking one, they will tell you that you are part of Makerere and yet Makerere cannot give you a single coin.

This story appearing in the vision of February 22, 2014, is that Belgium gives universities shs.5billion for research. It is a pity that we are still a public tertiary institution that is not expected to do any research and yet the research output from MUBS is phenomena. What bothers me is that MUBS is a public institution and a leading business institution in the region. MUBS has made tremendous contribution to the country’s business and management training. MUBS has tremendous opportunity to contribute to the economy in various ways. However somebody out there has locked out these opportunities for some selfish reasons.

MUBS annually looks for about USD 100,000 to participate in a Global Entrepreneurship Monitor Research. This research has been fundamental in understanding entrepreneurship in Uganda. Thanks to the few people who have funded the research over the past two years and thumbs down for those who continue to keep MUBS out of its rightful position. By the time MUBS is given its rightful position, it may be too late because universities in our neighboring universities have picked out the loose ends in the MUBS game and are doing what MUBS has been doing very well without limitation. MUBS has had its hand tied behind its back, it legs chained and told to run.

The struggle continues.

Poverty Series III

Poverty as you know is rampant in Uganda and indeed many other African countries. Numerous solutions are being proposed. In this article that follows, the UN Agricultural fund is focusing on promoting small holder farmers as a way of reducing poverty. 

Over the years, in dealing with these matters, i have read beautiful articles and listened to beautiful voices talking about how poverty can be addressed. Unfortunately, the years of this talk and proposals continue to produce nothing. Yes it is true, we must support the small holder farmer but a realistic view about what is happening is that there has been no significant change in the lives of these farmers. if anything they become poorer. Take a case of coffee farmers in the Busoga area and i look at my village where i hail from. Coffee has traditionally been grown by small holders throughout Uganda. There are a few plantations in Uganda. What has happened to the small holder farmers? The decline in prices made the coffee farmer abandon the production of coffee. Coffee grows over years and will continue to yield fruit even if it is not well tended.

The decline in prices offered by the farmer is a reason why it was abandoned and yet the demand for coffee worldwide continues to grow. Who rips from the coffee sales? It is the big multinational companies. I saw reports that German exports coffee worth USD 9billion a year and yet it does not grow coffee. it is re-exporting processed coffee. What is the solution to improving the lives of the coffee farmers? It is all about fair trade, giving value to the people who grow coffee. It is not about giving them aid, it is not about extending credit to them, as long as they do not get value from what they produce, they will never take coffee farming a very serious business.

If somebody else is making the profit, it means therefore that the actual farmer will continue to be poor. I have argued that increasing production is one step but you have ti increase production when there is a proper market. Increasing productivity is the other however efficiently you produce, as long as you do not earn the value from it, you will continue to be poor.

Those who are interested in improving small holder farmers lives, let us review this a year from now to see what improvements there are if any.

Small holder farmers are the solution to poverty — UN

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Supporting smallholder agriculture breaks the vicious cycle of poverty while preserving scarce natural resources

newvision

By Vision Reporter

The UN agricultural development fund has been asked to focus more on promoting small holder farmers to reduce poverty. The call was made during the 37th session of the Governing Counsel of IFAD in Rome. 

Fabrizio Saccomanni, the Italian minister for economy and finance, asserted that ensuring small holder family farmers have adequate access to credit and investment is of paramount importance for poverty reduction.

Speaking to international policy makers, farmer leaders and private sector representatives, Saccomanni said that while some progress had been made, much remains to be done to eliminate hunger and poverty.

“The challenges ahead require a radical increase in agricultural productivity, but this has to be pursued in a sustainable way,” he said.

“Supporting smallholder agriculture is the way-out, as evidence and research show; it breaks the vicious cycle of poverty while preserving scarce natural resources.”

IFAD is a specialised UN agency and international financial institution that provides investment funding aimed at creating a route out of poverty for rural people in developing countries, most of which are involved in Agriculture.

Uganda is one of the developing countries where 67% of the population is said to be vulnerable to poverty with about a third of that number living under poverty line. The 2012 expenditure review said that 92% of the poor live in rural areas and overall 89% of the country’s estimated 36m people are classified as rural.

The country’s mainstay is agriculture, but most of the farmers are subsistence farmers, whose livelihoods are threatened by the changing climate and lack of assistance to mitigate increasing loss of soil fertility and droughts.

In his statement, Abdullah Jummah Al-Shibli, Assistant Secretary-General for Economic Affairs of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) underscored that farming families are important for socio-economic development and stability.

Women have a particular role to play in food security and through their empowerment, poverty can be eradicated, he emphasized

IFAD President, Kanayo Nwanze, welcomed farmers’ representatives and delegates from IFAD’s 173 Member States, including its newest member, the Russian Federation, which announced its commitment to support the replenishment of IFAD’s resources.

In his speech, Nwanze stated that today agriculture has an unprecedented potential to drive economic development and inclusive growth.