Page 6 - DIVA_1_2012
P. 6
Q: For a long time agriculture development, dropped heavily, from Q: If I understand you correct-
has been a neglected area in de- 20 % in 1980 to 4 % in 2004. ly, farmers are the losers, while
velopment policies, especially multinational companies are
in Africa. In your opinion what A further important consequence the winners?
are the reasons for this? of the liberalization of the markets
around the world was an impor- Yes. I think the big winners in glo-
Yes, indeed! I explain in my book tant decrease in agricultural prices. balization are the big groups -- the
that since the 1980s, a large num- The price the producers receive has transnational and multinational cor-
ber of developing countries were in followed a downward trend for de- porations who had the opportunity
debt. They needed loans from the cades, with the exception of the 1974 to invest in agricultural structures,
International Monetary Fund (IMF) food crisis. Between 1980 and 2004 or in the areas from which the States
and the World Bank. They received prices for agricultural products that had been requested to withdraw.
them but they were asked to "put the producers receive have dropped And when you open up the markets
their houses in order" through the by 60%. The result is that these pay- for imports, somebody has to handle
so-called "structural adjustment pro- ments are below production costs. this business. National small and
grammes". In other words, medium enterprises were
it was explained to them not capable of doing that,
that their economy would be and therefore it was the
better off if it were driven by multinationals who took
market forces, and if States over. These large groups
and governments withdrew have obviously greatly
from all economic activities, benefitted from these de-
including agriculture. velopments and have be-
come extremely powerful.
The consequences were,
first, that governments Q: In your book you
were invited to withdraw also talk about Western
from all economic activi- hypocrisy regarding
ties. Second, governments the export of agri-
were requested to suppress cultural products to
subsidies and agricultural African markets.
support measures, whether
this concerned the purchase It is extremely difficult for
of seed, fertilizers, support me to understand -- and
for maintaining prices, land I speak as a convinced Eu-
reforms, etc. Thirdly, and ropean. At the beginning
above all, the IMF and the of the European integra-
World Bank told these go- tion we set up a common
vernments: "you should fo- agricultural policy. Our
cus on agricultural products founding fathers said with
for which you have a compe- clarity: "We do not want to
titive advantage, especially depend on food imports.
for export, such as coffee, We are not going to be
tea, bananas, cotton, palm dependent on others. We
oil, etc... With regard to want to produce our own
food production, you should food ourselves." That's the
favour imports so that your reason why we have imple-
consumers can have access mented the Common Agri-
to cheap food. To that effect cultural Policy, of which
you should open your bor- one of the pillars is the so-
ders and lower your tariffs." called Community Prefe-
This was the approach that was re- If you get a payment below your rence. We still apply tariffs between
commended and which prevailed production cost, you have no 50 and 85% for our most sensitive
for several decades, with the obvious incentive to produce more and you products, such as meat, dairy pro-
result that food production was not will even become discouraged and ducts and grains.
considered important. may decide to give up. This is what
has happened. A major change oc- At the same time, through the World
The consequences were dramatic! curred with the 2008 world food crisis: Bank and the IMF, we recommended
The expertise that existed in the food prices have exploded and, more a policy to the developing countries
Ministries of Agriculture went el- recently, another problem has arisen which is very different. We were
sewhere, often to the private sec- and that is a heavy price volatility saying: "Staple food agriculture is not
tor. Another result was that the seriously affecting hundreds of mil- important for you." On the contrary:
part of development aid, which lions of poor consumers. "Open your borders and import".
was always reserved for agricultural (The Europeans might also have had
14 International
