Title:
Study Documents Effects of Market Policy Changes on
Three West African Countries
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Agriculture Report.
See text below
Text:
Today we continue telling about
a report by three geography
experts from American colleges. They studied food
security
in Gambia, Ivory Coast and
Mali over thirty years.
In the nineteen eighties, governments and lenders
like the World Bank and the International Monetary
Fund
changed market policies.
They launched free markets designed to improve
agriculture. The report, however, suggests that the
changes caused loss of important support systems for
farmers.
Private investment in agriculture largely replaced
government help. In some places, roads and mills
built to help farmers fell
into ruin. Protectionist import taxes and farm
supports were cut.
Farmers planted more of their best crops, or cash
crops, for export. They planted fewer food crops for
local use. Less costly rice came into the ports of
Gambia and
Ivory Coast. Many city people in those countries
liked the cheap rice more than rice grown locally.
Researcher Judith Carney works at the University of
California at
Los Angeles. She said buying the cheaper imported
rice worked well until the worldwide food crisis of
two thousand eight. Then, many people could not pay
for an important part of their diet.
Researcher Laurence Becker of
Oregon State University said some local farmers
stopped farming. Food production fell and
unemployment rose. The researchers said people in
Mali were able to deal better with the food crisis.
Malis farmers supplied more of their nations rice
needs than
the other two countries studied. And the poorest
people in Malian cities ate sorghum instead of rice.
William Moseley of Macalester College in Minnesota
led the report. Professor Moseley said Malian
farmers had planted more sorghum because the price
of their cotton,
a cash crop, had dropped.
Unlike Ivory Coast and Gambia,
Mali has no seaports. He said this is often seen as
a problem for Mali. But it caused them to depend
less on imported rice. Based on their research, the
experts suggest that farmers plant a variety of
crops and not just depend on rice. They also say
governments could place some trade barriers. And,
they urge
that mills and roads be built
or rebuilt to process and
carry grains to market.
And thats the VOA Special English Agriculture
Report. For more agriculture news or to comment on
our reports, go to our Web site,
voaspecialenglish.com.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
