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Foreign Aid or Trap?
Fight against hunger by Bhuwan Thapaliya Global fight against hunger has received a hefty blow from the forces of globalization and liberalization. Bretton Woods Institutions have imposed various conditionalities on the borrowing nations to follow a pro-market and private sector led development under their so-called structural adjustment programme. Now another global institute, the World Trade Organization (WTO) has prescribed a number of measures for its Member Countries that will make food insecure people further insecure. A report of FAO titled, “The State of Food Insecurity in the World”, shows that there has been no improvement in the fight against hunger. The problem is not lack of food: there is enough to feed everyone. It is about the access to food, and some argue that a growing trend toward economic globalization- especially in agriculture- is to be blamed for a lack of progress in fighting global hunger. Furthermore, proponents of free trade in agriculture argue that complete liberalization of agricultural trade will improve global food security situation. As per them, when the entire productions of bigger agricultural producers like China and India find their ways into the global market, global food supply will rise and prices will stabilize and hence food security will be ensured for all. The South Asian Region is the single largest regional concentration of humankind on the planet. Though endowed with fertile soils, forests, natural resources, rivers, favorable climate and bio-diversity, South Asia is home to most undernourished population in absolute terms. Over 500 million South Asians, lives in absolute poverty and are unable to afford even two square meals a day. Agriculture is a way of life in most South Asian countries, where people are mainly dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The land holdings are, however, very small, unirrigated and dependent on the vagaries of nature. The agricultural practices are labour intensive with relatively low intensity of farm inputs. The South Asia region is at a crossroads. Neither have we been able to preserve our traditional farming system, not have we leap frogged to accept the new farming methods. Studies have indicated both positive as well as negative aspects of both the methods of technologies. New technologies are embodied in the culture of the developed countries and they have got the resources to make use of them. However, we neither have the culture nor the resources to accept new technologies. Green revolution of the 1970s, which used to be considered a “divine gift” earlier, is being criticized now as unsustainable and anti-poor farmers. Green revolution had indeed benefited the rich and commercial farmers, but pushed the poor farmers to the margin. Similarly it has caused high degree of soil erosions, caused our food to become unsafe (Due to chemical fertilizers), increased water logging and salinity. Drastic global food shortages and mass starvation are not imminent despite humanity's continued rapid growth, according to a recent report by the International Food Policy Research Institute. For at least the next 25 years, the main problem will not be scarcity but inequality. According to "The World Food Situation: Recent Developments, Emerging Issues and Long-Term Prospects," global food production will continue to grow faster than human numbers up to 2020. The belief that world hunger can be solved by increasing food production is an unsubstantiated myth. World hunger is extensive in spite of sufficient global food resources. Therefore increased food production is no solution. The problem is that many people are too poor to buy readily available food. As the market responds to money and not to actual need, it can only work to eliminate hunger when purchasing power is widely dispersed among the masses. As the rural poor are increasingly pushed from land, they are less and less able to demand for food on the market. Promoting free trade to alleviate hunger has proven to be a failure. In most developing countries exports have boomed while hunger has continued unabated. The world could feed itself if food policies were based on facts and not on myths as presently. The fact is that there is no scarcity of food. The real reason for the world hunger problem is poverty. This requires political and not agro technical solutions. References: World hunger is due to scarcity of food: Danielle Knight, Washington, Oct 16 1998. Food Security Situation in South Asia: Ratnakar Adhikari About the Author(s): Bhuwan Thapaliya is Editor of Mystic East Publishing, P.O. Box 2211, Sioux City IA 51104, USA. See under Our Contributors to find out about the Author(s) of this article. |
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