|
Transforming farming- video |
|
|
|
|
Written by Open Thread
|
|
Saturday, 09 August 2008 |
The tragedy of punitive surpluses in one part of a country, where harvests rot or are sold below cost price, on the one hand, and starvation in other parts of the same country is not too uncommon across Eastern Africa and the Sahel.
As a government and a people humiliates itself on the one hand
extending the begging bowl and asking humanitarian from the global
community, on the other farmers large and small take
massive financial hits as they lose their investment and an entire year of work.
This could also happen across time periods, one year's bounty followed
by periods of extreme hunger.
As the world enters into a period of global shortages, Eleni
Gabre-Madhin proposes in an oldish talk here means by which we may put off the Malthusian
nightmare. Speaking chiefly of her native Ethiopia, Gabre-Madhin who
was a senior economist at the World Bank laments the inefficiencies
that make much of African agriculture unprofitable and that allow even
highly productive lands to suffer continued poverty and want. This
jeremiad is hardly novel, poor access to markets, unpredictability of
prices, poor market information, poor standard regimes, low use of
agricultural technology, these have plagued African agriculture for
years.
Gabre-Madhin explains the solution she and her organisation are
working on for Ethiopia, a commodities exchange, which along with other
associated innovations is intended to inject enterprise into the farming culture and reduce price volatility by granting farmers such information and
support as would make farming a less onerous and much more profitable task.
Your editors are are looking to ask an interview off Gabre-Madhin.
Please post any questions you would have about the commodity exchange
or rural agriculture in Ethiopia here, and we will see if we can have
her sit with us, for you.
Trackback(0)
 |
|
Last Updated ( Saturday, 27 September 2008 )
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
