The first examples of agriculture in Africa are believed to have begun in the heart of the Sahara Desert, but which in 5200 BC was far more moist and densely populated. Several native species were domesticated, most importantly pearl millet, sorghum and cowpeas which spread through West Africa and the Sahel. The Sahara at this time was like the Sahel today. Its wide open fields made cultivation easy, but the poor soil and limited rain made intensive farming impossible. The local crops were also not ideal and produced fewer calories than those of other regions. These factors limited surpluses and kept populations sparse and unurbanized.
Africa thus took a very different route from the southern regions. Climatically it is closely linked to the Middle East and the Fertile Crescent and the agricultural techniques of that region were adopted wholesale. This included a very different sets of crops, such as wheat, barley, and grapes. North Africa was also blessed by one of the richest agricultural regions in the world in the form of the Nile River valley. With the arrival of agriculture the Nile region quickly became one of the most densely populated in the world, and the Egyptians home to one of the first civilizations.
The drying of the Sahara created a formidable barrier between the northern and southern portions of the continent. Two important exceptions were Nubia that was linked to Egypt by the Nile and Ethiopia that could trade with the northern regions over the Red Sea. Powerful states grew up in these regions such as Kush in Nubia and Axum in Ethiopia. From these regions ideas and technologies from the Middle East and Europe could travel to Sub-Saharan Africa.
One of these was iron working that arrived, presumably from Sudan around 1200 BC and quickly spread to West Africa and reached South Africa by the fifth century AD. Some historians believe that iron working may have been developed independently in Africa. Unlike other continents Africa did not have a period of copper and bronze working before the Iron Age. Copper is quite rare in Africa while iron is quite common. In Nubia and Ethiopia iron, trade, and agricultural surpluses lead to the establishment of cities and civilizations.
In the still more sparsely settled rest of the continent this same period sees the expansion of the Bantu speaking peoples. The Bantu expansion almost certainly began in Southern Cameroon around 4000 years ago. Bantu languages are spoken there today and there is archaeological evidence for incoming Neolithic farmers in Northern Gabon ca. 3800 BP. It is known that their expansion was extremely rapid and massive, but its exact engine remains controversial.
This is too early for iron, which appears in the archaeological record by 2500 BP. One of the early expansions of Bantu was the migration of the Bubi to Fernando Po (Bioko) and they were still using stone technology at first European contact. The difficulties of cutting down the equatorial forest for farming have led to the suggestion that the primary expansion was along river valleys, a hypothesis supported by studies of fish names. Another factor may have been the arrival of SE Asian food crops, notably the AAB plantain, the cocoyam and the water-yam. Linguistic reconstructions suggest that the only livestock possessed by the proto-Bantu was the goat.
Over the centuries the entire southern half of Africa was covered, excluding only the Kalahari desert. This expansion only ended relatively recently. In the year 1000 Arab traders show that the Bantu had not reached as far as Mozambique, and European settlers observed the Bantu expansion into South Africa under the Zulu and others.
The importation Bantu pastoralism reshaped the continent's economy. Sometime in the first millennium and equally important change began as crops began to arrive from Southeast Asia. The Indian Ocean has always been far more open to trade than the turbulent Atlantic and Pacific. Traders could ride the monsoon winds west early in the year and return east on them later. It is guessed that these crops first arrived in Madagascar, which also adopted Southeast Asian languages, sometime between AD 300 and 800. From the island the crops crossed to East Africa. They included many crops, the most important being the banana.
The banana and other crops allowed for more intensive cultivation in the tropical regions of Africa, this was most notable in the Great Lakes region, and area with excellent soil, that saw many cities and states form, their populations being fed largely by bananas.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Economic History of Africa
Ancient Egypt was one of the world's most prosperous and advanced civilizations, which began around 3150 BC with the political unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the first pharaoh, and it developed over the next three millennia. The port of Alexandria, founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC, was a hub for Mediterranean trade for centuries. Well into the 19th century, Egypt remained one of the most developed regions in the world. Prosperity in the rest of Africa existed in nation states and kingdoms such as the Ghana Empire , Nubia, Ethiopia, and Mali, which had trade routes north to the Mediterranean world and Middle East.
Africans have historically built structures from stone mainly in the Nile Valley in cities like Meroe, Napata, Axum by former Nubian and Ethiopian kingdoms. Most other Sub Saharan African pre-colonial civilizations built mainly out of mud brick, leaving few lasting ruins except Great Zimbabwe. Finding no architectural monuments in most parts of the region, some European explorers and historians long concluded that pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa was devoid of civilization (see Sub-Saharan Africa critic of the term).
It must be noted that racism also blinded some of the European explorers and historians to conclude that pre-colonial Africa was devoid of civilization for example J. Theodore Bent, who researched the origins of Great Zimbabwe stated in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1891) that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders. Other European researcher favored a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem.[13] Other theories as to their origin abounded among white settlers and academics, with one racist element in common: they were probably not made by Africans.
Once a departure point for trans-Saharan caravans, the market of Douz, Tunisia is today popular with Western tourists.New technologies and increasing scales of production made trading easier. For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom had a prosperous trade empire on the eastern horn, where the modern states of Ethiopia and Eritrea lie. Axum had a powerful navy and traded as far as the Byzantine Empire, India, and possibly China. The introduction of the camel by North African Arab conquerors in the 10th century opened trade across the Sahara for the first time.
The profits from the gold and salt trades created powerful empires in the western Sahel including the Kingdom of Ghana and the Mali and Kanem-Bornu Empires, where travellers reported vast wealth. Arabs helped build a maritime trade along Africa's east coast, which prospered as Swahili traders exported ivory and slaves across the Indian Ocean.
Further south empires were less common, with the notable exception of Great Zimbabwe. In the Great Lakes region, states such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Buganda became strongly centralized, due to its high population and agricultural surplus.
In the 15th century, Portuguese traders circumvented the Saharan trade route and began to trade directly with Guinea. Other European traders followed, rapidly boosting prosperity in Western Africa. States flourished, including the Kingdom of Benin, Dahomey, and the Ashanti Confederacy. Loose federations of city states such as those of the Yoruba and Hausa were common. However, this wealth was principally based on the slave trade, which collapsed following the abolition of slavery and later European colonization.
Although Europeans were ostensibly committed to developing their colonies, colonial rulers employed a laissez-faire strategy during the first decades. It was hoped that European companies would prosper if given a secure operating environment. This only occurred in a few areas with rich resources; the colonial economies hardly grew from the 1890s through the 1920s. The colonies had to pay their own way, receiving little or no development money from Europe. Only in the 1930s, with the rise of Keynesian economics, did the colonial administrations seriously encourage development. However, new projects could not transpire until after the Great Depression and the Second World War.
African economies boomed during the 1950s as growth and international trade multiplied beyond their pre-war levels. The insatiable demand for raw materials in the rebuilding economies of Asia and Europe and the strong growth in North America inflated the price of raw materials. By the end of the colonial era in the 1960s, there was great hope for African self-sufficience and prosperity. However, sporadic growth continued as the newly independent nations borrowed heavily from abroad.
The world economic decline of the 1970s, rising oil prices, corruption, and political instability hit Africa hard. In subsequent decades Africa has steadily become poorer compared to the rest of the world; South America experienced solid growth, and East Asia spectacular growth, during that same period. According to the World Economic Forum, ten percent of the world's poor were African in 1970; by 2000, that figure had risen to 50 percent. Between 1974 and 2000 the average income declined by $200. Beginning in 1976, the Lomé Convention and Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and ACP countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa, have structured economic relations between the two regions.
Africans have historically built structures from stone mainly in the Nile Valley in cities like Meroe, Napata, Axum by former Nubian and Ethiopian kingdoms. Most other Sub Saharan African pre-colonial civilizations built mainly out of mud brick, leaving few lasting ruins except Great Zimbabwe. Finding no architectural monuments in most parts of the region, some European explorers and historians long concluded that pre-colonial sub-Saharan Africa was devoid of civilization (see Sub-Saharan Africa critic of the term).
It must be noted that racism also blinded some of the European explorers and historians to conclude that pre-colonial Africa was devoid of civilization for example J. Theodore Bent, who researched the origins of Great Zimbabwe stated in The Ruined Cities of Mashonaland (1891) that the ruins revealed either the Phoenicians or the Arabs as builders. Other European researcher favored a legend that the structures were built to replicate the palace of the Queen of Sheba in Jerusalem.[13] Other theories as to their origin abounded among white settlers and academics, with one racist element in common: they were probably not made by Africans.
Once a departure point for trans-Saharan caravans, the market of Douz, Tunisia is today popular with Western tourists.New technologies and increasing scales of production made trading easier. For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom had a prosperous trade empire on the eastern horn, where the modern states of Ethiopia and Eritrea lie. Axum had a powerful navy and traded as far as the Byzantine Empire, India, and possibly China. The introduction of the camel by North African Arab conquerors in the 10th century opened trade across the Sahara for the first time.
The profits from the gold and salt trades created powerful empires in the western Sahel including the Kingdom of Ghana and the Mali and Kanem-Bornu Empires, where travellers reported vast wealth. Arabs helped build a maritime trade along Africa's east coast, which prospered as Swahili traders exported ivory and slaves across the Indian Ocean.
Further south empires were less common, with the notable exception of Great Zimbabwe. In the Great Lakes region, states such as Rwanda, Burundi, and Buganda became strongly centralized, due to its high population and agricultural surplus.
In the 15th century, Portuguese traders circumvented the Saharan trade route and began to trade directly with Guinea. Other European traders followed, rapidly boosting prosperity in Western Africa. States flourished, including the Kingdom of Benin, Dahomey, and the Ashanti Confederacy. Loose federations of city states such as those of the Yoruba and Hausa were common. However, this wealth was principally based on the slave trade, which collapsed following the abolition of slavery and later European colonization.
Although Europeans were ostensibly committed to developing their colonies, colonial rulers employed a laissez-faire strategy during the first decades. It was hoped that European companies would prosper if given a secure operating environment. This only occurred in a few areas with rich resources; the colonial economies hardly grew from the 1890s through the 1920s. The colonies had to pay their own way, receiving little or no development money from Europe. Only in the 1930s, with the rise of Keynesian economics, did the colonial administrations seriously encourage development. However, new projects could not transpire until after the Great Depression and the Second World War.
African economies boomed during the 1950s as growth and international trade multiplied beyond their pre-war levels. The insatiable demand for raw materials in the rebuilding economies of Asia and Europe and the strong growth in North America inflated the price of raw materials. By the end of the colonial era in the 1960s, there was great hope for African self-sufficience and prosperity. However, sporadic growth continued as the newly independent nations borrowed heavily from abroad.
The world economic decline of the 1970s, rising oil prices, corruption, and political instability hit Africa hard. In subsequent decades Africa has steadily become poorer compared to the rest of the world; South America experienced solid growth, and East Asia spectacular growth, during that same period. According to the World Economic Forum, ten percent of the world's poor were African in 1970; by 2000, that figure had risen to 50 percent. Between 1974 and 2000 the average income declined by $200. Beginning in 1976, the Lomé Convention and Cotonou Agreement between the European Union and ACP countries, including Sub-Saharan Africa, have structured economic relations between the two regions.
Friday, February 26, 2010
Economy of Africa
The economy of Africa consists of the trade, industry, and resources of the people of Africa. As of 2006[update], approximately 922 million people[1] were living in 54 different countries. Africa is the world's poorest inhabited continent. Though parts of the continent have made significant gains over the last few years, of the 175 countries reviewed in the United Nations' Human Development Report 2003, 25 African nations ranked lowest amongst the nations of the world. This is partly due to its turbulent history. The decolonization of Africa was fraught with instability aggravated by cold war conflict. Since mid-20th century, the Cold War and increased corruption and despotism have also contributed to Africa's poor economy.
The biggest contrast in terms of development has been between Africa and the economy of Asia. The African Economic Outlook report specifically mentions that Africa’s trade with China has multiplied by 10 since 2001, reaching over USD 100 billion in 2008. The economies of China and India have grown rapidly, while Latin America has also experienced moderate growth, lifting millions above subsistence living. By contrast, much of Africa has stagnated and even regressed in terms of foreign trade, investment, per capita income, and other economic growth measures.
[2] Poverty has had widespread effects, including low life expectancy, violence, and instability, which in turn have perpetuated the continent's growth problems. Over the decades, there have been many unsuccessful attempts to improve the economies of individual African countries. However, recent data suggest some parts of the continent are experiencing faster growth. The World Bank reports the economy of Sub-Saharan African countries grew at rates that match global rates.[3][4] The economies of the fastest growing African nations experienced growth significantly above the global average rates. The top nations in 2007 include Mauritania with growth at 19.8%, Angola at 17.6%, Sudan at 9.6%, Mozambique at 7.9% and Malawi at 7.8%.[5] Many international agencies are gaining increasing interest in emerging modernizing African economies[6], especially as Africa continues to maintain high economic growth despite current global economic recession.[7]
The biggest contrast in terms of development has been between Africa and the economy of Asia. The African Economic Outlook report specifically mentions that Africa’s trade with China has multiplied by 10 since 2001, reaching over USD 100 billion in 2008. The economies of China and India have grown rapidly, while Latin America has also experienced moderate growth, lifting millions above subsistence living. By contrast, much of Africa has stagnated and even regressed in terms of foreign trade, investment, per capita income, and other economic growth measures.
[2] Poverty has had widespread effects, including low life expectancy, violence, and instability, which in turn have perpetuated the continent's growth problems. Over the decades, there have been many unsuccessful attempts to improve the economies of individual African countries. However, recent data suggest some parts of the continent are experiencing faster growth. The World Bank reports the economy of Sub-Saharan African countries grew at rates that match global rates.[3][4] The economies of the fastest growing African nations experienced growth significantly above the global average rates. The top nations in 2007 include Mauritania with growth at 19.8%, Angola at 17.6%, Sudan at 9.6%, Mozambique at 7.9% and Malawi at 7.8%.[5] Many international agencies are gaining increasing interest in emerging modernizing African economies[6], especially as Africa continues to maintain high economic growth despite current global economic recession.[7]
Friday, February 19, 2010
Africa Trade
The Water Africa Exhibition will be staged in Lagos, Nigeria. This will be the first time that Sub-Saharan Africa's premier water and wastewater engineering event has visited the West African country. Participation in the long-standing and well-respected Water Africa exhibition will ensure that exhibitors reach the key decision makers from federal and state water ministries, as well as contractors and consultants working in the sector.
Venue: Abuja International Conference Center, Abuja, Abuja Capital Territory, Nigeria
Venue: Abuja International Conference Center, Abuja, Abuja Capital Territory, Nigeria
Monday, January 11, 2010
Trade
While some trade had always occurred, the rise of cities and empires made trade far more central to the African economy. North Africa was central to the trade of the entire Mediterranean region. Other than Egypt this trade was mostly controlled by the Phoenicians who came to dominate North Africa, with Carthage becoming their most important city. The Greeks controlled much of the eastern trade, including that along the Red Sea with Ethiopia. In this region a number of Greek trading cities were established that acted as a conduit for their civilization and learning.
The Egyptian (and later, Roman) city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC) was one of the hubs for Mediterranean trade for many centuries. Well into the nineteenth century Egypt remained one of the most developed parts of the world outside Europe.
For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom in Ethiopia and Eritrea had a powerful navy and trading links reaching as far as the Byzantine Empire and India. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the Ajuuraan State centered in modern-day Somalia practiced hydraulic engineering and developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century.
In Southeast Africa, Swahili Kingdoms had created a prosperous trade empire, where today we can find the states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Swahili cities were important trading ports for trade with the Middle East and Far East.[1]
For the interior of Africa, trade was far more limited. Low population densities made profitable commerce difficult. The massive barrier of the Congo rainforests were more imposing than the Sahara blocking trade through the center of the continent.
It was the arrival of the Islamic armies that transformed the economies of much of Africa. Islam had comparatively little impact on North Africa where large cities, literacy, and centralized states had been the norm. The Arabs were far more effective a penetrating the Sahara than the Christians ever were, largely due to the camel, which had carried the Arab expansion and would soon carry large amounts of trade across the desert.
Thus a series of states developed in the Sahel on the southern edge of the Sahara that made immense profits from trading across the desert. The first of these was the Kingdom of Ghana, reaching it peak in the twelfth century. Soon others such as the Mali Empire and Kanem-Bornu also arose in this region. The main trade of these states was gold that was plentiful in Guinea. Also important was the trans-Saharan slave trade that shipped large numbers of slaves to North Africa.
An equally important trade was developing on the east coast of the continent as Swahili traders linked the region into an Indian Ocean trading network that brought imports of Chinese pottery and Indian fabrics in exchange for gold, ivory, and slaves.
The Egyptian (and later, Roman) city of Alexandria (founded by Alexander the Great in 334 BC) was one of the hubs for Mediterranean trade for many centuries. Well into the nineteenth century Egypt remained one of the most developed parts of the world outside Europe.
For most of the first millennium AD, the Axumite Kingdom in Ethiopia and Eritrea had a powerful navy and trading links reaching as far as the Byzantine Empire and India. Between the 14th and 17th centuries, the Ajuuraan State centered in modern-day Somalia practiced hydraulic engineering and developed new systems for agriculture and taxation, which continued to be used in parts of the Horn of Africa as late as the 19th century.
In Southeast Africa, Swahili Kingdoms had created a prosperous trade empire, where today we can find the states of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. Swahili cities were important trading ports for trade with the Middle East and Far East.[1]
For the interior of Africa, trade was far more limited. Low population densities made profitable commerce difficult. The massive barrier of the Congo rainforests were more imposing than the Sahara blocking trade through the center of the continent.
It was the arrival of the Islamic armies that transformed the economies of much of Africa. Islam had comparatively little impact on North Africa where large cities, literacy, and centralized states had been the norm. The Arabs were far more effective a penetrating the Sahara than the Christians ever were, largely due to the camel, which had carried the Arab expansion and would soon carry large amounts of trade across the desert.
Thus a series of states developed in the Sahel on the southern edge of the Sahara that made immense profits from trading across the desert. The first of these was the Kingdom of Ghana, reaching it peak in the twelfth century. Soon others such as the Mali Empire and Kanem-Bornu also arose in this region. The main trade of these states was gold that was plentiful in Guinea. Also important was the trans-Saharan slave trade that shipped large numbers of slaves to North Africa.
An equally important trade was developing on the east coast of the continent as Swahili traders linked the region into an Indian Ocean trading network that brought imports of Chinese pottery and Indian fabrics in exchange for gold, ivory, and slaves.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Mining and Mineral Extraction (Non-Oil)
There are tremendous opportunities in this sector also, and government has invested heavily in the generation of vital information on minerals? Outstanding among these are coal, gypsum, barytes, kaolin and talc. Nigeria has one of the best quality coal deposits in the world with the lowest sulphur content. The names, location, quantity and possible industrial exploitation of some solid minerals are as follows:-
(i) Barytes : 41,000 and 70,000 tonnes of which are found in Benue and Plateau State respectively, are used as inert volume and weight filler in drilling mud, rubber, glass, paper, etc. or as extender in the plant industry, and as chemicals in the manufacture of glass, heavy printing paper and plastics;
(ii) Coal : 82.2 million tonnes, 189 million tonnes and 32 million tonnes of which are found in Enugu, Benue and Plateau States, respectively. It is used as fuel and in industrial production of tar, gas and non edible oils;
(iii) Diatomite: 200,000 tonnes of which are found in Borno State; is used in making insect control powder, bond for furnace brick walls and mineral fillers and filters;
(iv) Lignite: 71million tonnes of which are found in Delta State; is used in industrial production of tar, gas, oils and (nitrate) fertilizer;
(v) Columbite: 14,223 tonnes of which are found in Plateau State; is used in forming alloys that are useful in nuclear, aerospace and gas turbine engineering;
(vi) Iron Ore: 30.48 million tonnes, 182.5 million tonnes and 45.72 million tonnes of which are found in Agbaja in Plateau State, Okene in Kogi State and Enugu State, respectively, is used for making steel, transformer and motor cars, ferrous sulphate from waster liqueur of the steel picking process or by the direct reaction, metals for electrical shielding, electro-magnetic devices, electric bells, electric fan cage, equipment rack, instrument body, engineering works, hydrated salt, iron oxide pigments,various salts of iron and ferrites and chemicals;
(vii) Tin: 10,546 tonnes of which are found in Plateau State; is employed in plating, production of tin oxide used in paint, paper and ink industries, production of tin oxide resistors, electric lead wires.
Export Manufacture
In recent studies by the Federal Ministry of Industry, activities identified in respect of export market potential include:
(a) Agricultural produce processing, food and beverages;
(b) Textiles: yarn /textiles, apparel, leather and products of leather (including footwear of rubber and plastics);
(c) Wood: furniture;
(d) Paper, paper products;
(e) Iron and steel, non-ferrous metals;
(f) Fabricated metal products, and
(g) Consumer durables.
It is recommended that industries in Nigeria should specialize in these sectors in which it is found that Nigeria has comparative advantage relative to the operation of such industries in other countries.
(i) Barytes : 41,000 and 70,000 tonnes of which are found in Benue and Plateau State respectively, are used as inert volume and weight filler in drilling mud, rubber, glass, paper, etc. or as extender in the plant industry, and as chemicals in the manufacture of glass, heavy printing paper and plastics;
(ii) Coal : 82.2 million tonnes, 189 million tonnes and 32 million tonnes of which are found in Enugu, Benue and Plateau States, respectively. It is used as fuel and in industrial production of tar, gas and non edible oils;
(iii) Diatomite: 200,000 tonnes of which are found in Borno State; is used in making insect control powder, bond for furnace brick walls and mineral fillers and filters;
(iv) Lignite: 71million tonnes of which are found in Delta State; is used in industrial production of tar, gas, oils and (nitrate) fertilizer;
(v) Columbite: 14,223 tonnes of which are found in Plateau State; is used in forming alloys that are useful in nuclear, aerospace and gas turbine engineering;
(vi) Iron Ore: 30.48 million tonnes, 182.5 million tonnes and 45.72 million tonnes of which are found in Agbaja in Plateau State, Okene in Kogi State and Enugu State, respectively, is used for making steel, transformer and motor cars, ferrous sulphate from waster liqueur of the steel picking process or by the direct reaction, metals for electrical shielding, electro-magnetic devices, electric bells, electric fan cage, equipment rack, instrument body, engineering works, hydrated salt, iron oxide pigments,various salts of iron and ferrites and chemicals;
(vii) Tin: 10,546 tonnes of which are found in Plateau State; is employed in plating, production of tin oxide used in paint, paper and ink industries, production of tin oxide resistors, electric lead wires.
Export Manufacture
In recent studies by the Federal Ministry of Industry, activities identified in respect of export market potential include:
(a) Agricultural produce processing, food and beverages;
(b) Textiles: yarn /textiles, apparel, leather and products of leather (including footwear of rubber and plastics);
(c) Wood: furniture;
(d) Paper, paper products;
(e) Iron and steel, non-ferrous metals;
(f) Fabricated metal products, and
(g) Consumer durables.
It is recommended that industries in Nigeria should specialize in these sectors in which it is found that Nigeria has comparative advantage relative to the operation of such industries in other countries.
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Agriculture in Africa
Around 60 percent of African workers are employed by the agricultural sector, with about three-fifths of African farmers being subsistence farmers. Subsistence farms provide a source of food and a relatively small income for the family, but generally fail to produce enough to make re-investment possible. Larger farms tend to grow cash crops such as coffee, cotton, cocoa, and rubber. These farms, normally operated by large corporations, cover tens of square kilometres and employ large numbers of labourers.
The situation whereby African nations export crops to the West while millions on the continent starve has been blamed on developed countries including Japan, the European Union and the United States. These countries protect their own agricultural sectors with high import tariffs and offer subsidies to their farmers, which many contend leads the overproduction of such commodities as grain, cotton and milk. The result of this is that the global price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to compete, except for cash crops that do not grow easily in a northern climate.[14]
Because of these market forces, in Africa excess capacity is devoted to growing crops for export. Thus, when civil unrest or a bad harvest occurs, there is often very little food saved and many starve. Ironically, excess foodstuffs grown in developed nations are regularly destroyed, as it is not economically viable to transport it across the oceans to a market poor in capital. Although cash crops can expand a nation's wealth, there is often a risk that focusing on them rather than staples will lead to food shortages and hunger.
In modern years countries such as Brazil, which has experienced great progress in agricultural production, have agreed to share technology with Africa to greatly increase agricultural production in Africa to make it a more viable trade partner.[15] Increased investment in African agricultural technology in general has the potential to greatly decrease poverty in Africa.[16] The demand market for African cocoa is currently experiencing an enjoyable price boom.[17] The South African[18] and Ugandan governments have targeted policies to take advantage of the increased demand for certain agricultural products[19] and plan to stimulate agricultural sectors.[20] The African Union has plans to heavily invest in African agriculture [21] and the situation is closely monitored by the UN.[22]
The situation whereby African nations export crops to the West while millions on the continent starve has been blamed on developed countries including Japan, the European Union and the United States. These countries protect their own agricultural sectors with high import tariffs and offer subsidies to their farmers, which many contend leads the overproduction of such commodities as grain, cotton and milk. The result of this is that the global price of such products is continually reduced until Africans are unable to compete, except for cash crops that do not grow easily in a northern climate.[14]
Because of these market forces, in Africa excess capacity is devoted to growing crops for export. Thus, when civil unrest or a bad harvest occurs, there is often very little food saved and many starve. Ironically, excess foodstuffs grown in developed nations are regularly destroyed, as it is not economically viable to transport it across the oceans to a market poor in capital. Although cash crops can expand a nation's wealth, there is often a risk that focusing on them rather than staples will lead to food shortages and hunger.
In modern years countries such as Brazil, which has experienced great progress in agricultural production, have agreed to share technology with Africa to greatly increase agricultural production in Africa to make it a more viable trade partner.[15] Increased investment in African agricultural technology in general has the potential to greatly decrease poverty in Africa.[16] The demand market for African cocoa is currently experiencing an enjoyable price boom.[17] The South African[18] and Ugandan governments have targeted policies to take advantage of the increased demand for certain agricultural products[19] and plan to stimulate agricultural sectors.[20] The African Union has plans to heavily invest in African agriculture [21] and the situation is closely monitored by the UN.[22]
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