Africa is a fertile continent, possessing sufficient arable land to provide food for all of its inhabitants, with plenty left over for export. However, many African farmers persist with low-yield subsistence farming techniques, so that when droughts or floods occur there is insufficient food to go around, and urgent calls go out to the international community for famine relief. The whole cycle is predictable. Why do farmers not use more efficient techniques to grow more food?
The answer is the same as what motivates business people all around the world: market forces. If a farmer can grow and sell extra food at a profit, he or she will be motivated to do so. If, on the other hand, the costs of farming inputs such as fertilisers and labour, and the cost of transporting the crops to market, outweigh the price at which the crops can be sold, the farmer will be motivated to avoid producing excess food.
The Daily Monitor tells the story of potato farmers in Uganda. Transport infrastructure is so poor that transport and middlemen costs account for 70% of the sale price of the potatoes. This means there is a significant risk of the farmer losing money on each year’s crops. It is hoped that a new potato processing plant in the south west of the country will change the economics and make potato farming economically viable.