FEATURE
How Africa can become the breadbasket of the world countries. If I want to buy a tractor in Germany today, it is 30% cheaper than in Africa. Then I can finance this tractor for 0.5-1.5% interest. If I should not have enough securities for a project, a state guarantee bank helps me to secure my financing. Why is this not possible in Africa. Because of mismanagement and corruption and a missing and chaotic support system nobody believes in these countries. The farmers of Africa have to suffer. What is needed: Previous programs have always covered only one aspect of a farmer and therefore could only fail! There are 3 areas that interfere with sustainable development. 1. Is the state framework 2. Professional agricultural frames 3. Financial framework 1.
By: Rainer TĂśgel
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f course, it is not possible to make sweeping judgements about Africa, both in terms of its tertiary extension and its cultural differences, this make it difficult to find individual causes for the current situation. Surely someone from East Africa will say that the situation I have described does not apply to him and someone from West Africa will say that it is quite different for him. But one thing most countries in Sub Saharan Africa have in common, they are not self-sufficient in food and up to 95% of the processed food as pasta or canned food that has to be imported. All this despite the fact that Africa has the greatest potential for future agricultural land, with only 3% of it being used for agricultural purposes.
Germany is used for agriculture, the population density is higher than in China. The German agricultural industry has exported agricultural products worth 70 billion â‚Ź last year. African agriculture is often very onesided: If you only have a really marketable product like cocoa or rubber you are extremely dependent on the international market. When you have only one product for the market, the risk of losing everything is extremely high. This not only in agriculture. Competitive disadvantages of African agriculture: There is a competitive disadvantage for my African colleague caused by the African
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Agriculture needs clear ownership, secure tax and customs regulations and financial support in the form of an agricultural guarantee bank. It would be important to have a young farmer program that provides each graduate of an agricultural education with a farm with buildings and machines. Not as a gift but as a long-term financing over 40 years. This program has managed to give 100,000 farmers in Germany new farms after the Second World War. Being a farmer has something to do with mentality. That means to pursue a long-term strategy that can be followed over several generations. My family has been farming without interruption for 400 years. This is the main reason for success besides a good education. This can only be achieved through role models. With a state guarantee of â‚Ź100 million
The hard truth is: I learned in my first semester of agricultural economics that an economy can only develop in a stable way if the agricultural sector is functioning and the supply of the population from their own resources is ensured. Only then is a country stable enough for sustained foreign investment and capacity for its own development is released. The leading industrial nations are always in the position to supply themselves and to gain profits from the surplus through export. Germany is a small country; it is the 4 largest industrial nation in the world. Africa is 86 times larger than Germany and if you calculate the actual agricultural area, the ratio is 1 to 100. Only 30% of the area in
November - December 2020 | 33
