What will higher global food prices mean for poor consumers and small farmers in southern Africa?

Rising food prices present a very real threat to ongoing efforts to combat poverty and hunger in southern Africa. However, this brief produced by the Regional Hunger & Vulnerability Programme (RHVP), argues that this is not necessarily the full picture. If the immediate threat of escalating prices can be effectively addressed, the authors assert, the higher prices themselves could promise longer term benefits to small farmers as well as poor consumers. <br /><br />The authors argue that the underlying causes of higher prices are largely structural: rising crude oil prices, growing demand for livestock feed and bio-fuels, and declining food stocks. No country is immune and while many &ldquo;quick fix&rdquo; remedial measures may provide temporary relief, they do not address the underlying causes. <br /><br />The brief concludes that the impact of increasing food prices on the poor will depend on how governments in southern Africa weigh up the more short-term threat against the less evident longer term opportunity they present. If governments can see beyond the short-term threat and opt to implement measures that facilitate and promote domestic production, internal marketing and regional trade, then rising food prices could provide an opportunity to address chronic hunger and poverty in a sustainable way. <br /><br />In reality, it is argued, individual governments in southern Africa should recognise that they need to work with rather than against the rising tide of global food prices,&nbsp; so as to turn it to their best advantage. <br />Six key recommendations are put forward which suggest that governments can do this by: using comprehensive social transfers to increase purchasing power using cash instead of food in emergency situations wherever possible improving small farmer access to credit, inputs and markets facilitating and enabling domestic marketing and regional trade continuing efforts to ensure that global trade becomes more equal reviewing global bio-fuel policy on the utilisation of carbohydrate sources until the introduction of cellulose conversion technology The authors state that by adopting such measures, Africa could turn its current adversity into its future advantage. <br /><br /><br /><br />