How deregulation destroyed African agriculture

And changed Africa into a food importer

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com while the diversion of corn from food to biofuel feedstock has been a factor in the meteoric rise in food prices, the more basic problem has been the conversion of economies that are largely food-self-sufficient into chronic food importers. Here the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) figure as much more important villains African agriculture is a case study of how doctrinaire economics serving corporate interests can destroy a whole continent’s productive base. in the 1960s, Africa was not just self-sufficient in food but was actually a net food exporter Today almost every country a net food importer the explanation was the phasing out of government controls to which most African countries were subjected as the price for getting IMF and World Bank assistance reality refused to conform to the doctrinal expectation that the withdrawal of the state would pave the way for the market and private sector to dynamize agriculture