Food Security Problem in Burkina Faso - Assignment Example

Food Security Problem in Burkina Faso Name: Course: Lecturer: Date: Introduction Food security occurs when there is an assurance to all human beings within any geographical region that they have physical and economical access to all basics of food without risk of losing such access (Thomson, Metz & Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1997, p. 4). At the national level, food security can be described as a reasonable balance between food demand and supply at rational prices. In other words, a country is said to be food secure when the whole of its population has access to food. The opposite of that brings about the problem of food security. This discussion focuses on the nature of the problem of food insecurity in Burkina Faso. As suggested by various written sources, several factors have contributed to the problem, some of which are disclosed here. In addition, some of the responses of Burkina Faso to the problem of food security have been highlighted including evaluations on their effectiveness. But before engaging into the main discussion, it will be prudent to give a brief history of Burkina Faso, in relation to the stated problem. Burkina Faso is a land locked country located in West Africa. It is located within the southern fringes of the Sahel region. The entire northern part of the country lies under the Sahara Desert. Most of central parts of the country lie on a savannah plateau that ranges between 650 – 1000m above sea level. The savannah plateau has characteristics of tropical climate, with scattered trees, bushes and glass land. The largest part of the southern region of this country is green. This country is comparatively dry country with an average annual rainfall of about 1100 mm in the south and 500 mm in the north. The dry season in the country increases in length from 6-7 months a year from south to north (Thomson, Metz & Food and Agriculture Organisation, 1997, p. 4). Due to this unfavourable climate, farmers in the country are unable to practice agriculture successively. Being one of the poorest countries, this has magnified the impact of the persistent drought on this country’s population. Recently, the famine situation in the country has worsened due to prolonged dry climate, leading to severe droughts especially in the north (Cavendish, 2001, p. 51). This explains the reason why Burkina Faso has not so far succeeded in the fight against the problem of food security. Some of the causal factors According to Wood and Ryden (1992, p. 67), Burkina Faso, like other countries in Sahel region, has a highly rising population with considerable demographic momentum. This has been evident both in rural and urban areas over the past few decades. The rate of job creation has not kept up with the highly increasing population growth rates. This has led to an increase in involvement of the residents with informal sector. One of the problems associated with the informal sector is that it places a heavy burden on natural resources. Stretching of the natural resources beyond limit has led to environmental degradation and an eventual increase in poverty levels in this country. Secondly, farmers in this country lack good access to agricultural inputs. Ukaga and Afoaku (2005, p. 198), found out that, agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, improved seeds and other necessities have not been available at the right time and in the right package to the farmers. In addition, credit necessary for adequate investment in agricultural inputs has not been available to farmers. Consequently, the farmers have ended up using low quality seeds, archaic methods of farming and rudimentary equipment - all of which have led to low productivity and also reduced profits. Consequently, the produce from the agricultural sector has been low and not enough for consumption by the whole population. In short, the supply of food recourses in the country is low compared to demand. Ukaga and Afoaku (2005, p. 197) also observe that national income in Burkina Faso is not distributed equally among all segments of its population. Only a small section of the country’s population has been enjoying growth. This has so far resulted into two class societies, a small one which is food secure, and bigger part of society that suffers from food insecurity. Ukaga and Afoaku (2005, p. 197) also indicate that lack of adequate infrastructure for production, storage, processing marketing and distribution has been a major problem for agriculture in this Burkina Faso. Poor transportation systems and bad roads make it difficult for farmers to transport inputs into and farm produce out of their farms. This leads to wastage of up to 40 percent of farm produce when there are people facing food shortages just a few hundred miles within the country. In addition, in those areas, returns from agricultural produce have been low relative to areas with adequate infrastructural facilities. In particular, there is lack of economic and social infrastructure to enhance sustainable agriculture and also maintain positive economic growth. Melito, T., (2009 p. 5) explains that, farmers in Burkina Faso have been lacking of capital to establish processing facilities In addition, most of them are not well versed with ways on how to market their products. This forces the farmers to sell their produce when “green” thus receiving minimal returns. It has been seen that, during times of harvest, the prices of those products are usually low and the buyers determine prices in the market. In the end, farmers lose motivation and produce less in the subsequent seasons. This has resulted into minimal produce with time. Like many other developing countries, Burkina Faso has been depending on imports to augment domestic production so as to feed its residents. This means that any increase in prices of imports forces a decline in imports making, the problem of food security to deteriorate (Ukaga & Afoaku, 2005, p. 199). Further examination indicates that the rich and developed countries tend to protect their domestic markets from agricultural products that African countries can offer at competitive prices while they seek more foreign markets where they operate as they choose. These industrialized countries use tariffs and other non-tariff barriers to protect their markets from foreign goods while they and the international institutions that they control force the less powerful countries to remove market barriers to global trade. Such unfair market conditions have been unfair to farmers in Burkina Faso and other countries, since they jeopardise their incomes from their farm outputs. Consequently, the ability of farmers to invest in agriculture is reduced. A reduction in cultivation automatically poses a threat to food security (Ukaga & Afoaku, 2005, p. 199). Responses and their effectiveness Reacting to the increasing food prices in Burkina Faso, the government has come up with policy measures that have both long-term and short-term impact. The first policy response is producer-oriented and is intended to support farmers to raise production levels (FAO, 2009, p. 5). To attain this, there have been strategies to support investments through encouragement of savings and credit schemes to rural farmers. Apart from that, farmers have been encouraged to adopt integrated approaches, i.e., combining of livestock breeding, growing of crops and forestry development. There have been improvements and modification of land tenure system through permission of private ownership of land which is communally owned and creation of effective local management institutions. In addition, the government has been supporting the farmers with subsidized fertilizers, tractors, pumps for irrigation as well as free seeds. It has also been invested in research to come up drought resistant crops. Assessment of the ways in which the traditional production systems can be modified to apply to the modern agriculture so as to encourage participation by all farmers in grassroots has been underway (FAO, 2009, p. 5). The second policy measure that has been laid by the government of Burkina Faso is the consumer-oriented policy response. This includes direct support to consumers and vulnerable groups through various ways. One of these ways is through introduction of cash transfer programmes for the most vulnerable, landless and poor in the rural areas. Also, there has been development and expansion of urban social net programmes using imported food aid where food supplies are insufficient (Dry Lands Programme, 1998, p.2). Another way that has been undertaken by the government is through development of post-harvest handling initiatives so as to protect quality of produce for a longer time. While addressing immediate food crises, the government has considered relocation of funds from development projects to increase food importation. In addition, domestic production has been augmented with importation and also through seeking of foreign aid humanitarian assistance from donors. Finally is the trade-oriented policy response. In this case, the government has used policy instruments such as reducing tariffs and restricting exports to reduce prices and increase domestic supply. There have been efforts such as consolidation of market information services in the country and linking market information and market intelligence to support food security mapping and trade both domestically and regionally (Dry Lands Programme, 1998, p. 2). Wiebe (2003, p. 280) notes that apart from government efforts, farmers in Burkina Faso have proved to respond to the food security problem. They have been nurturing trees in their fields using more inputs such as manure and constructing soil erosion barriers. This has helped to conserve soil and maintain its quality in their farms. Due to uncertain rainfall, farmers have been forced to adopt sequential decision method in order to control the risks associated with dry seasons. This approach involves the survey of season cycles and coming up with decisions on production strategies which are dynamic to reduce chances of loss. In reality, the farmers in Burkina Faso have now come up come up with decisions on sowing, re-sowing and timing of weeding including cultivating variety of crops - all which have helped to diversify risks. Nonetheless, some of these efforts have been unsuccessful. As indicated by Wiebe (2003, p 283), this is mainly because the projects have been structured along certain sectors. More emphasis has been put on large-scale production. The government may have overestimated the benefit associated with large-scale production and underestimated the negative consequences. At the same time, people in the grassroots have not been very supportive of the implementation of these projects. Another reason for the poor performance is managerial weaknesses of existing institutions (Wiebe, 2003, p. 283). Even with adoption of soil conservation practices the prime objective of increasing agricultural output has not been met. This is because other than soil conservation, other factors which affect output and profitability in the farm have not been looked at. Such factors include a) the nature, rate and severity of soil damage; b) the consequent effects on productivity; c) the extent to which fertilizers and manures can substitute for soil damage; d) the relative riskiness of production with or without conservation; and e) the degree of interference of conservation measures to the cultivation practices. The way to achieve progress in this area is through extending educating to the farmers (Wiebe, 2003, p. 283). It has also been found out that institutions and individuals that advise the country and other African governments assume that western approaches of farming are better than African traditional ways (Wood & Rydén, 1992, p. 67). This is a costly mistake and may not be better. For example, the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) persuaded farmers in Burkina Faso and other Sahel regions to grow potatoes. Unfortunately, this crop was not popular among the people and thus lacked market. As a result, the whole produce was left to rot. Reliance on foreign aid has been quite unpredictable and unreliable. The main weakness with this assistance is that it is largely dependent on the donor’s perception. This means that high profile and politically interesting emergencies may be funded while others may be ignored. In addition, it has been suggested that the reliance on foreign aid and availability of cheaper food in the international market has a negative impact on levels of investment and support to agriculture in the country. Conclusion In summation, there is a clear and strong link between climate change and food security. Burkina Faso is one of the developing countries, and a great area of its land falls under the Sahel region of Africa. Consequently, a great part of the country experiences desert climate which poses the danger of food insecurity. Apart from that, some of the other factors that have influenced food security problem are poor distribution of country’s wealth, over-reliance on imports, poor infrastructure, high population growth rate and poor storage and processing facilities among others. As a result, the government of Burkina Faso has to come up with policy measures to address the optimal ways for dealing with the factors leading to the food security problem both in the short run and in the long run. These policy measures are trade, consumer and producer oriented. Farmers have also devised their own ways to cope with the challenge. However, the country faces a lot of challenges in an attempt to deal with the factors that lead to the problem of food insecurity. Weak management systems of existing institutions, lack of adequate education concerning agricultural practices such as soil conservation, unreliability and unpredictability of foreign aid assistance and selective support of large scale sectors among others. As it has been discussed, the government is incapable of tackling the problem of food security alone. It has to encourage participation of the people that benefit from the efforts. This implies that the people expected to reap from the efforts have to be involved in the formulation and of development policies. References Carvedish, M. (2001) Peoples of Africa: Burkina Faso-Comoros, Marshall Cavendish, N.Y. Dry Lands Programme (1998) Issue paper, No. 75, IIED, London. UK. Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) (2009) Country responses to the to the food security crises, Government of Spain. International Monetary Fund (2007) Burkina Faso: Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, International Monetary Fund print, Washington DC, USA. Melito, T. (2009) International Food Assistance, Diane Publishing, Washington DC, USA. Thomson, A. M., Metz, M. & Food and Agriculture Organisation (1997), Implications of Economic Policy for Food Security: A Training Manual (vol. 40), Food & Agriculture Organisation, Rome-Italy. Ukaga, O. & Afoaku, O. G. (2005) Sustainable development in Africa: a multifaceted challenge, Africa World Press, Asmara, Eritrea. Wiebe, K. D. (2003), Land quality, agricultural productivity, and food security: biophysical processes and economic choices at local, regional, and global levels, Edward Elgar Publishing, Massachusetts, USA. Wood A. P. & Rydén, P. (1992) The IUCN Sahel Studies 1991, IUCN Publisher, Cambridge, UK. Read More