Food crisis forces Africa farm aid rethink

TUNIS (Reuters) - Foreign donors should do more tostimulate private investment to improve Africa's ailing farmsector and address a worsening food crisis, delegates at afarming conference said on Friday.

Africa is struggling to feed a growing population due toyears of neglect of agriculture and a shift by many countriesto export crops that increased reliance on food imports.

Africa's wheat consumption in 2005 grew 3 times quickerthan output, according to the Japan International CooperationAgency.

A doubling of commodity prices in the last two years hastriggered riots in several countries.

The African Development Bank (AfDB), the only multilateraldevelopment body devoted only to Africa, had boosted itsagricultural loans by $1 billion (502 million pounds) to $4.8billion since May 3.

But the food crisis is also forcing international lendersto rethink their approach, according to delegates at themeeting of African agriculture officials and developmentpartners in Tunis.

AfDB officials said many donors had failed to make creditavailable to African farmers and that aid to Africanagriculture had declined in the past few years.

"There's a realisation that we cannot just continue withbusiness as usual," AfDB Vice President Zeinab El Bakri toldReuters. "There's a consciousness that donors must worktogether... It also means enhancing private sectorpartnership."

She said there had to be a focus on certain staple foods.

"Rice is one and we are working on that to improve this newrice for Africa."

The benefits of reform are potentially huge -- UnitedNations experts say Africa could triple or quadruple cropoutput over two seasons through simple changes to farmingtechniques.

REGIONAL SELF-HELP

Even with current farm yields, more Africans could get thefood they need if countries in the same region worked togetherto assess their needs and improved market access, the AfDBsaid.

Western African countries such as Liberia, Guinea and IvoryCoast are particularly exposed to the global food crisis asthey are heavily dependent on food imports.

Ivory Coast produces about 600,000 tonnes of rice but needs1.5 million tonnes to feed its population, according toofficial figures presented at the Tunis conference. World riceprices have doubled to $760 per tonne this year.

"There is will and political commitment to address the foodcrisis challenge," said Ali Abu-Sabaa, agriculture departmentdirector at AfDB. "But what we really need is to coordinate."

Adama Coulibaly, technical advisor at Mali's agricultureministry called for better use of technologies to boost output.

One of the world's poorest countries and hostage torecurring droughts, Mali aims to harvest 10 million tonnes ofwheat per year in the next 4 years, up from 3.8 million in2007.

"We think this target is reachable by reinforcing farmingresearch and modernising information systems to find the bestways to boost productivity and competitiveness," Coulibalysaid.

Farmers in many African states face an uphill struggle toincrease production because they are suffering from highercosts of seeds, fertilisers and fuel.

Some international lenders who normally advocate freemarkets have begun advocating temporary state subsidies.

"The conventional wisdom is subsidies are a no-no," Bakrisaid. "But Malawi has shown it can do it in a smart way...Ithas achieved bumper crops by subsidising seeds and fertilisersand gone from a situation of receiving food aid to a foodsurplus."

(Reporting by Sonia Ounissi; Writing by Tom Pfeiffer)