Page 12 - WEEKLYDIGEST 13042022

ECONOMY April 13-18 2022 Weekly Digest 12

African farmers need help

in the form of subsidies

TALENT N NDLOVU
through water harvesting and small irrigation pro-
here has been an increased at- farmers experience low productivity, low mate change – such as erratic rainfall, jects, and others have focused on research and
tention towards improving ag- incomes, and high levels of poverty and increased temperatures, increased fre- biotechnology in the development of improved
ricultural production in Africa food insecurity. quencies of droughts and floods, are seed, herbicides, and fertilizers, and others have

and other developing coun- The challenges are ongoing and get- making smallholder agricultural produc- focused on assisting farmers to create market
Ttries and this is likely to con- ting worse! tion increasingly challenging, unpredict- linkages and also, technological innovations that
tinue. Agriculture in developing coun- For decades, African smallholder farm- able, and unbeneficial. It goes without improve access to market information and access

tries, and Africa, is unique in that, while ers face daunting challenges, and these saying, that this sector of African agricul- to finances. However, the smallholder farmer does

farming remains the predominant source have not changed, and may in fact be ture needs help. not appear to be improving and moving from the
of food and livelihood for most rural becoming more severe. These farmers What has been done so far? status quo, with low productivity, incomes, and
households through smallholder farm- lack access to inputs, modern technol- To date, various interventions have poverty still prevailing. Given the limited impact of
ing, these farmers are the poorest, of- ogy, transport infrastructure, market in- been implemented to improve the per- these initiatives, the search for alternative and or

ten lacking the necessary resources that formation, credit, insurance, and mar- formance and profitability of African additional, complementary ways to uplift small-

are required for them to produce be- kets; constraints which lead to poor lev- smallholder farmers in di erent ways. holder agriculture leads to the current controver-
yond subsistence level and practice rain- els of production, incomes, and devel- Some interventions have focused on im- sial question, “Could agricultural subsidies be the
fed farming, which leaves them vulnera- opment, and consequently; high levels proving the soil fertility , for example us- missing link for smallholder farmers?”
ble to the detrimental impacts of climate of food insecurity and poverty. To make ing conservation farming, others have For agricultural subsidies!
change. Consequently, these smallholder things worse, the adverse impacts of cli- focused on improving water availability It is widely accepted that because agriculture,
arguably the most important part of any economy
as food producers, is also one of the most fragile
industries that is vulnerable to weather and price

fluctuations, hence, farmers need support or in-
centives to remain in and or stimulate increased
production.
In many countries, especially in developed
economies and in the world’s large agricultur-
al producers, governments provide support to
farmers in the form of agricultural subsidies, de-
spite the criticism that subsidies come at a cost to
these economies. Notwithstanding this cost criti-
cism, these countries’ experiences show that agri-
cultural subsidies have a positive impact on agri-
cultural production and food security of a nation.
For example, in the USA, which is amongst the
largest global producers and exporters of corn,
soybeans, sugarcane and potatoes, the govern-
ment uses subsidies such as price supports to
producers and landowners, and insurance pro-
grams to support its farmers. In the European Un-
ion, the government supports farmer incomes
through direct payments, and uses market meas-
ures and rural development measures to support
farmers.
In China, which is among the largest produc-
ers of rice, soyabeans, sorghum and wheat, the
government uses market price support to incen-
tivize production and support farmer incomes. In
India, which is amongst the largest producers of
wheat, pulses, milk, fruit, spices and rice the gov-
ernment uses input subsidies and direct pay-
ments to farmers. From these nations’ experienc-
es, it seems that, indeed agricultural subsidies can
play a significant role in raising agricultural output

and protecting farmers against price fluctuations,

hence keeping them in production for longer.
On the African continent, subsidies have previ-
ously been less popular but have started resur-
facing in recent years. In countries such as Mala-
wi, Zambia, Ghana, Tanzania, and Nigeria, govern-
ments are using subsidies to support their farm-
ers. The agricultural subsidies, mainly in the form
of input subsidies are often targeted at small-
holder farmers, the main food producers in these
economies.
The main justification for the input subsidies,

encompassing mainly seed and fertilizer subsi-
dies, is that, subsidies provide the resource-poor
smallholder farmers with some of the most im-
portant missing pieces that these farmers need
to produce optimally, hence, ensuring increased
agricultural production, and, household and na-
tional food security. It has been cited that these
subsidies produced positive results, though lim-
ited and of lower magnitude compared to devel-
oped countries, by improving fertilizer use, pro-
duction levels and household food security. The
next question would then be, how can African
countries ensure that subsidies yield greater re-
turns from smallholder farmers?
Given that the challenges facing small-holder
farmers are many and crosscutting, focusing only
on input subsidies is not enough. Increasing bene-
fits from agricultural subsidies in African countries

will require that agricultural subsidy programs be
adjusted more to suit the needs of the farmer, les-
sons which can be learnt from countries with suc-
cessful subsidy programs. If the subsidy program
could go beyond providing seed and fertilizer in-
puts and assist with modern mechanization, pow-
er, and irrigation water supply like the Indian sub-
sidy program, this would greatly increase the per-
formance of the farmers.
Mechanization is a key input in developed
countries” agriculture, making agriculture more
e cient and productive. Secondly, to ensure sus-

tainability, the program could also include a rural