International Policy

Market Policies Aiding African Farmers

Once dependent on donated food, farmers in a number of African countries are beginning to feed themselves thanks to new agricultural policies which allow them to sell crops on the open market instead of to government cooperatives or at controlled prices.

Perhaps nowhere is the change more pronounced than Ethiopia, where 85 percent of the population are farmers and the new policies have led to a 100 percent rise in the production of principal grains since 1990. Before the change to market policies, farmers were forced into cooperatives, denied security when returning from markets and forced to sell their crops to a government grain board -- sometimes at one-fifth what they could get on an open market .

The new market-oriented policies have reaped astonishing results in only a few years, on a continent were 65 percent of the population are engaged in farming.

  • Ghana doubled its corn production between 1986 and 1996.

  • Nigeria's corn output leaped by 50 percent between 1990 and 1996.

  • Mozambique -- emerging from nearly two decades of civil war -- has seen agricultural output grow by 50 percent.

  • Ugandan farmers have in the past decade doubled or tripled production of several major crops.

While farmers in many sub-Saharan countries are still dependent on government-provided credits, seeds and fertilizers, governments are reportedly no longer sabotaging their farmers' efforts.

Source Stephen Buckley, "Africa's Agricultural Rebirth, " Washington Post, May 25, 1998.

Home | Support Us | All Issues | Social Security | Debate Central | Contact Us

Dallas Headquarters: 12770 Coit Rd., Suite 800 - Dallas, TX 75251-1339 - 972/386-6272 - Fax 972/386-0924
Washington Office: 601 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Suite 900 South Building, Washington, DC 20004 - 202/220-3082 - Fax 202/220-3096
© 2001 NCPA