[ 2012-07-22 ]

Ghana's Economic Future In The Palm Of Its Hands
As Ghana's finest athletes head for London to
compete in the Olympic
Games, British Prime Minister David Cameron is
preparing to host a 'Hunger
Summit' during the Games to discuss how private
sector investment can help
improve global access to food and nutrition.
Earlier this year, at both
the G8 Summit in the United States and the Rio+20
Summit for Sustainable
Development in Brazil, world leaders committed to
improve food production
in the developing world while emphasizing the need
for poverty
alleviation.

Valuable lessons can be learned about increasing
food productivity and
achieving prosperity by studying the experiences
of oil palm small
farmers. Countries like Malaysia have witnessed
rising living standards
and wealth creation among hundreds of thousands of
small farmers by
focusing on palm oil production. Over time,
Malaysia's Federal Land
Development Authority (FELDA) has helped lift
these farmers out of
poverty, as have other small farmer schemes in the
country.

Ghana should follow the legacy of former President
John Kufuor and look to
emulate Malaysia's achievements in order to tackle
rural poverty. In our
country alone - where 80 percent of land under oil
palms is cultivated by
private small scale farmers - demand for vegetable
oil outstrips supply
and we face a yearly deficit of some 35,000 tonnes
of palm oil. Palm
cultivation must rise to meet this demand and as a
result deliver rising
incomes to Ghanaian small farmers.

Minister for Food and Agriculture, Mr Kwesi Ahwoi,
recently announced that
Ghana would support two new oil palm out-grower
schemes in 2013. The
Government launched an Oil Palm Development Master
Plan on July 11, which
outlines how the nation can boost its
competitiveness in the global
vegetable oil markets over the next 15 years. The
plan details the
development of 50,000 hectares, 40,000 of which
will be committed to an
outgrower scheme. These are steps in the right
direction.

And our Liberian neighbours have also sought to
harness the potential of
palm oil to lift many out of poverty by committing
to develop palm oil
plantations across the country and working with
private sector partners
from Malaysia to set up a 44,000 hectares scheme
which will provide jobs
and other community benefits.

However, in recent years, new barriers have been
erected, blocking this
path to prosperity. These barriers seriously
endanger the growth and
development potential of Africa's palm oil sector.
For instance, an
unscrupulous and coordinated campaign is being
waged in Europe to bar palm
oil from markets in that continent. Sadly, these
campaigns are being
advanced to protect domestic European industrial
interests, but they
undermine the aims of Rio+20 to secure global food
security and poverty
reduction.

France is an instructive example. Retailers and
manufacturers there have
reduced their use of palm oil, replacing it with
more expensive, less
sustainable, and less healthy alternatives. Some
French industry players
are going further: using expensive national
advertising campaigns to
propagate misinformation about palm oil's
environmental or health impact.
The reality is that palm oil is the
highest-yielding vegetable oil on the
planet, and therefore carries the lowest land
footprint of any oilseed
crop. Similarly, a substantial body of scientific
research has found that
palm oil is as healthy as olive oil and fortified
with nutrients,
including vitamins A and E, thereby providing an
important food staple for
poor Ghanaian families and affluent French
consumers alike.

By refusing to source palm oil, French retailers
and manufacturers are
undermining the livelihoods of Ghanaian palm oil
farmers, at the expense
of poverty alleviation and food security. Rather
than refusing to source
palm oil, companies like Casino, Systeme U and
Lesieur would be
well-served to follow the example of their French
counterpart Carrefour
who has recently committed to buying palm oil
produced by small,
sustainable Indonesian and Malaysian farmers. Such
a commitment would
reflect support for recent remarks made by the
President of the UN's
International Fund for Agricultural Development,
Kanayo Nwanze, who
highlighted the need to support smallholder
farmers at the Rio+20
Conference. Committing to sourcing palm oil is
also in the interest of
French consumers who will benefit from a superior
edible oil for their
nutritional needs.

Fortunately, many other parts of French society
continue to support and
endorse the benefits of palm oil. The Agence
Francaise de Developpement
(AFD), the French development agency, has agreed
to provide financing to
the Ghanaian government to implement its outgrower
scheme for 2012, which
is expected to help 750 farmers cultivate 3,000
hectares of oil palm. This
project will be launched in August and is part of
the Government's plan to
harness what Mr. Baidoo-Williams has described as
the tremendous potential
of the oil palm industry, 'to create jobs, reduce
poverty and contribute
to the development of the economy'.

The French Government now has the opportunity to
demonstrate greater
support for Ghana's development. By urging French
companies to support
Africa's palm oil farmers and begin using palm oil
once again, France will
be showing leadership in supporting wealth
creation and global food
security, and firmly demonstrate France's
commitment to global welfare and
prosperity. French consumers will even get a
better, cheaper product in
the bargain.

*Franklin Cudjoe is the President of Ghana's IMANI
Center for Policy and
Education.*

--
Respectfully yours,

Franklin Cudjoe

Source - Franklin Cudjoe

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