food

End Food Dependency in Africa! Progress In Ethiopia Agriculture

Lawrence , , , , , , , ,

July 14, 2025

African nations have been plagued in the decades following successful liberation from colonialism, by having to spend billions of dollars to import food to feed their people. In recent years Africa nations have imported over $40 billion of food annually. A criminal waste of their precious foreign exchange. There is no objective reason today that African nations cannot produce enough food to feed their people.

Many African nations had achieved or were approaching food self-sufficiency; the ability to grow enough food to feed their population, in the 1960s and 1970s. Due to neo-liberal economic policies of the West, such as the ill-fated Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs), along with unfair terms of trade, African nations became poorer, and less able to feed their own people, even though they possess plentiful water and abundant fertile soil.

Ethiopia, along with other nations on the African continent is making important strides to reverse this destructive decades long practice. With all the challenges Ethiopia is facing, it has demonstrated a real commitment to upgrade its agricultural sector and end the importation of food. This became obvious to me, during my two weeks visit to Ethiopia (May 12 -25), when I was able to meet with Minister of Agriculture, Dr Girma Amente Nono, and visited several farms in Oromia region, North Shewa Zone, Kimbibit area.

Food insecurity, along with the absence of electricity, and shortage of manufacturing jobs, is the primary causes of instability in African nations. Ethiopia’s determination to end food dependency is not only important for its own people but could provide an exemplar for other nations.

Ethiopia already achieved self-sufficiency in wheat in 2023. It expects to produce thirty million metric tons (mt) of wheat in 2025, and be able to sell wheat to the market, garnering precious foreign exchange. The government is also working on boosting rice production with the expectation that like wheat, Ethiopia will be self-sufficient in rice.

Ethiopia ends heat imports in 2023

Agriculture is responsible for 32% of Ethiopia’s total GDP, over 65% of its  population depends on farming for their existence. Its agriculture sector is responsible for 79.46% of Ethiopia’s exports. Unfortunately , like many underdeveloped nations in Africa, due to lack of storage and a paucity of infrastructure, 30-40% of some grains like teff, sorghum, and maze rot before they are consumed.

Subsistence farms of 1- 2 hectares comprise 95% of the nation’s agriculture production. Ethiopia has transformed this small scale inefficient farming through the innovation of “cluster farms.” 

There are essentially four elements of Ethiopia’s policy to produce more food for its citizens and become self-sufficient: enlarging the hectares of land under cultivation, increasing the application of irrigation, expanding cluster farming, and intensifying mechanization.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be officially inaugurated in September

Overview of Ethiopia

With 130 million people, Ethiopia has the second largest population in Africa and is the most populated landlocked nation on the continent.

Land area is 1.3 million kilometers square (kms) or 113 hectares. The estimated potential cultivatable land is seventy-four million hectares. Presently thirty million hectares are under cultivation, with the utilization of irrigation, a total of forty million hectares could be cultivated. Ethiopia is not lacking water with its twelve major river basins.

Ethiopia has the largest livestock in Africa with over seventy million head of cattle and over ninety-five million sheep, and goats.

Ethiopia has the third largest economy in sub-Saharan Africa, the largest economy in East Africa, and is considered to have one of the fastest growing economies on the continent. With the completion of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Ethiopia will have the capacity to generate 9,630 megawatts of electricity, second to South Africa among the sub-Saharan nations, and the sixth largest generation of electricity on the continent.

Below are some highlights of Ethiopia’s progress in the agricultural sector, which is projected to grow 6.% in the next fiscal year.

Ethiopian coffee earned $2.65 billion in fiscal year 2024/25

Coffee Still #1

Ethiopia is the historic home of coffee and the number three exporter in the world. It is Ethiopia’s number one export. In 2024/5 fiscal year, Ethiopia exported 469,000 mt) for $2.65 billion, and coffee was 70% of Ethiopia’s agricultural exports.

Under the direction of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, more than two billion coffee seedlings are to be planted in 2025, as part of the country’s Green-Legacy Initiative. Ethiopians have already planted forty billion trees, a sizable portion of their goal of planting fifty billion seedlings across the nation by then of 2026.

Author examining wheat field with Dr. Legese, Min for Gov’t Communications, (left) and Dr. Birhanu, Former State Min Irrigation Development,(right)

Irrigation Drives Wheat Production

Wheat production is the flagship success story for Ethiopia, which can be emulated by other nations.

Ethiopia used to spend 1.0 billion USD importing wheat. In 2020, Ethiopia launched their five year self-sufficiency wheat initiative. At that time, they produced five million tons of wheat on 1.75 million hectares at a yield of 2.7 mt per hectare, only rain nurtured. Irrigation was the game-changer.

In 2024, Ethiopia planted wheat on 3.6 million hectares, watered by the two rainy seasons, and an additional 3 million hectares utilizing irrigation, for a total of 6.6 million hectares for growing wheat. This yielded a total of twenty-three million mt of wheat. In 2024-2025, wheat production yielded 3.6 mt per hectare, only slightly below the world average for irrigated wheat at 3.8 mt per hectare, relying primarily on oxen to plow their fields. To encourage mechanization the government lifted taxes on all items deployed in farming, for five years.

Dr. Birhanu releasing water to irrigate wheat

According to figures from the Ethiopian Ministry of Agriculture, wheat production has steadily risen over the last six years. It appears that Ethiopia is on target to reach its goal of thirty mt of wheat in 2025 by increasing the area under wheat to 7.7 million hectares in both seasons. Ethiopia ceased importing wheat in 2023. As a result. Ethiopia’s development partners have started buying Ethiopia’s surplus wheat, and more wheat is expected to e sold on the international markets this year, as wheat production is increased.

This level of progress is essential for a nation to develop. As of 2023, Ethiopia was the ninth largest wheat producer of wheat in the world. Not surprisingly, Ethiopia is the top wheat producer in Africa, almost three times the size of Egypt, the next largest producer of wheat on the continent.

Ethiopia is still functioning at modest yields per hectare, ranking forty-sixth on world in productivity. With improvements in yield per hectare, Ethiopia will be able to reach new record levels of wheat production in the years ahead. Attaining food sovereignty is a critical element for Ethiopia to achieve higher levels of economic growth and raising the living standards of its people.

Mechanization of wheat harvesting improves productivity

Cluster Farming

The innovation of cluster farming has dramatically changed the landscape of Ethiopia’s agricultural sector, which is primarily composed of subsistence farmers. Cluster farming can involve as many as two thousand farmers and up to twenty thousand hectares. By combining their farms and working together, subsistence farmers can produce one crop more economically through their collaboration. Collectively they prepare the land, seed it, plough it, and harvest it. This has allowed more efficient application of mechanization, because with a larger area of land being cultivated, the farmers can pool their resources to rent agricultural machinery. There are fifteen million former subsistence farmers participating in farming 11.8 million hectares. Cluster farming has increased productivity by 29%, profitability by 16%, and comprises 70% of wheat production.

Cluster farming and expansion of irrigation have been transformative in Ethiopia’s wheat production.

Wonji Shoa Sugar Factory

During my visit to Ethiopia I had the pleasure of visiting the Wonji Shoa Sugar Factory in the Oromiya region, near the city of Adama. The Wonji is the oldest sugar factory in Ethiopia, beginning production of sugar in 1954. The Shoa Sugar factory, the second oldest, began production eight years later in 1962. Both were shut down and redesigned in 2013, and in July 2014, reopened as the consolidated Wonji Shoa Sugar factory, which is still refining sugar cane today.

The Wonji Shoa Sugar Factory in Ethiopia has a daily crushing capacity of 6,250 tons of sugarcane, producing around 174,946 tons of crushed sugar. The factory has plans to further expand its capacity, potentially reaching a crushing capacity of 12,500 mt of cane per day and producing 220,700 mt of sugar annually. The Wonji Shoa Sugar Factory comprises 16,000 hectares, with 7,000 hectares owned by out-grower farmer associations, and 9,000 hectares owned by the Ethiopian Industry Sugar Group (ESIG). The factory also provides essential social infrastructure like schools, health stations, and potable water centers.

Woji Shoa uses several above ground center pivot irrigation systems, which rotate in a circular motion around a fixed point, sprinkling a swath of crops with water as it moves. It is identical to the systems irrigating America’s farmland.

Author on top of center pivot sprinkler for irrigation

Woji Shoa also generates thirty-one MW of electricity from bagasse (a byproduct of sugarcane processing) consuming eleven MW for self-sufficiency. 

The Wonji Shoa Sugar plant is in the Awash River Basin. The Awash River uniquely remains completely inside Ethiopia. This 1,200 kms river is responsible for the Awash Valley Basin. Emperor Haile Selassie in 1962, recognizing the potential of the Awash Valley for agricultural and industrial development, designed a public autonomous authority, the Awash Valley Authority (AVA). Probably, with the success of U.S. President Roosevelt’s Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) in mind, the emperor gave the AVA the responsibility of administering and legally overseeing all projects within the Awash Valley.

The AVA was the first river basin organization in Ethiopia to be given such comprehensive authority for planning and development of water and other resources. As part of this government led project, like Roosevelt’s TVA, the AVA built schools and a hospital for the people working there. Ethiopia currently has eight operating sugar refineries and an additional five in various stages of operation. Ethiopia’s production of sugar peaked in 2017 to 450,000 mt of crushed sugar. In subsequent years production declined to less than 400,000 mt, and is projected to produce 360,000 mt for 2024-2025. However, domestic demand for sugar is approximately 650,000 mt. The ESIG has plans to increase sugar production to 1.3 million mt in the next five years, which would allow Ethiopia to become self-sufficient in sugar, and produce a surplus for export.

Similar to the progress in wheat production, Ethiopia’s application of large-scale irrigation is expected to increase productivity.

­͏Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, consultant on Africa, and an analyst of global strategic relations. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, also publishes on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World, and on X @lkfreemansafrica  

America’s Self-Interest is to Generously Assist in Development of Africa

Lawrence , , , , , ,
This interview was conducted on November 7, 2024, by Anton Chaitkin, antonchaitkin@substack.com author of Who-We-Are

November 12, 2024

The African continent with its projected population of 2.4 billion in the next twenty-five years, will be the center of commerce on the planet. It is in America’s interest to help African nations achieve substantially higher rates of economic growth.

The root cause of virtually all the conflicts ongoing in Africa are the result of  underdevelopment, despite having different circumstances and triggers. The continued expansion of poverty on the African continent, especially among the sub-Saharan nations, is the primary cause of unrest. Desperate, hungry, impoverished people fighting for scraps to merely survive leads to instability and conflict. The U.S., since the death of John Kennedy, has failed to join African nations in advancing their economies by investing massively in infrastructure. If the trillions of dollars spent on USAID and countered terrorism, was turned into long term-low interest loans or outright grants for infrastructure African nations would be more peaceful and prosperous.

The African continent is the least industrialized and has the largest deficit in density of infrastructure per land area and per capita. Africa today produces 1.9 percent of the world’s manufactured goods. This pitiful amount of manufacturing activity contributes to its unmatched levels of poverty. Africa’s vast uncultivated land can feed Africa and other parts of the world, if sufficient expansion in electricity, railroads, roads, and irrigation were undertaken.

China has already proven that poverty can be eliminated. If the U.S. radically altered its foreign-economic policy towards Africa and collaborated with China, it is possible to eradicate poverty and hunger on the African continent within one generation.

Read below my earlier posts:

U.S. Elections Approach: America is Better Than This Spectacle

Hard Infrastructure in Africa: Essential for Economic Growth. Development is a Human Right!

China Eliminated Poverty With Science and Infrastructure. It Can Be Done in Africa Too!

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for 35 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. Mr. Freeman strongly believes that economic development is an essential human right. He is the creator of the blog:   lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com, and also publishing on: lawrencefreeman.substack.com, “Freeman’s Africa and the World.”

Lift Grain & Fertilizer Sanctions vs Russia-Grow Food to End Starvation in Africa & the World

Lawrence , , , , , , , , , , ,

Black Sea Grain Initiative Exposed

July 31, 2023

Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center
During the period of the Initiative, 75% of Ukraine’s grain exports went to Europe, China, and Türkiye, while very poor countries got between 2.5% and 3%.

In this article: Black Sea Grain Initiative Exposed, excerpted below, EIR magazine usefully exposes the false narrative attacking Russia for the food global shortage.

The following concepts should be clear to all those truly concerned about eradicating hunger in Africa and other parts of the world.   
 
First of all, Russia is not causing the world food shortage by ending the Black Sea Grain Initiaive. As indicated by EIR, only a tiny fraction of Ukraine’s wheat has been exported to poor nations whose populations are suffering from severe food insecurity. Second of all, Russia is the leading exporter of wheat and fertilizer components in the world. Sanctions against Russia has harmed all food importing nations. Lifting sanctions against Russia would help to alleviate food shortages immediately. The West never honored their part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative agreement that stipulated that there would be an easing of Russia’s export of wheat and fertilizers.  
 
Most important of all, there is no objective reason for food insecurity among any people of any nation on this planet! This brings us to the heart of the issue regarding food insecurity. Does the West really care about global food deficiencies, or has it become another weapon in the U.S. led proxy war against Russia?
 
Hunger on our planet could have been eliminated decades ago. For over 12,000 years, humankind has known how to grow food. When advances in technology, irrigation, mechanization, and fertilizers have been applied to farming, yields per hectare have massively increased.  I have personally witnessed this in my travels through the agricultural regions  of the United States.
 
For 30 years I have traveled throughout many sub-Saharan African nations, which are endowed with fertile soil, and large amounts of arable, but uncultivated land, creating a huge potential for the expansion of food production. If African nations in particular had been assisted in developing a modern agricultural sector coupled with an expanding manufacturing sector, hunger would cease to exist, and  the African continent would be a net food exporter.
 
The failure by Western nations and financial institutions, over the last six decades, to collaborate in creating vibrant agro-manufacturing economies in Africa, is the cause of food insecurity on the continent today.
 
A new paradigm of global relations, encompassing  a new financial architecture, dedicated to promoting economic development, would create the potential for leading food and fertilizer producing nations to begin the process of doubling world agricultural output. Progress would be visible immediately, and in the near future, no human being would have to suffer from want of food, anywhere on our planet.  

EIR excerpts:

Narrative #1: The outrageous lie that Ukraine was a major provider of grain to poor countries, and Russia was starving people by its special military operation. Fact check: Ukraine has been, since the 1990s, a major source of grain on the commercial market for developed countries, e.g. Spain, Japan, The Netherlands, China and others—for livestock feed and food needs.

These importers account for over 90% of Ukraine’s exports, and this kind of “world sourcing,” was imposed on Ukraine beginning in the 1990s, by the multi-national cartels which came to dominate land use, processing, shipping and export destinations. It was these cartels which Ambassador Polyansky named as having profited from the year-long Black Sea Grain Initiative.

In brief, the breakdown of Ukraine’s exports of 32–33 million metric tons of grain during the period of the Initiative: 32.9 million tons total, of which 40% went to European countries (Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, others), 25% to China; 10% to Türkiye. The very poorest countries got between 2.5% and 3% of the Ukraine grain exports over the period of the Initiative. This is illustrated by an infographic from the Black Sea Grain Initiative Joint Coordination Center. (Emphasis added)

Narrative #2: Promoted in Fall 2022 to replace the discredited “Ukraine supplies poor countries” version. It states that preventing Ukraine Black Sea food exports raises the prices on the world grain markets, and that is what harms poor, grain-import dependent nations. There is a grain of truth to this, but with a big exception. The West is doing less than nothing to increase grain production where possible, to supply emergency relief, and to put an end to the underlying causes of hunger to begin with.
The relevant figures of global underproduction of food can be seen in the volume of annual output of total grains, listed in order of volume: corn/maize, wheat, rice, barley, sorghum, oats, rye, etc. With over 8 billion people in the world, at the rough metric of half a ton of grain production per person, we should be producing some 4 billion tons a year (for direct consumption, and indirect consumption through the animal protein chain). But the annual global harvest is actually running at below 3 billion tons. Total grains output for the current and past two years is hovering in the same range: 2.799 billion metric tons in 2021/22, 2.745 bmt in 2022/23, and 2.831 bmt projected for 2023/24).

Read my earlier post:
Africa Threatened With Starvation: No Objective Reason

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is a teacher, writer, public speaker, and consultant on Africa. He is also the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

Why Has Fighting in Ukraine Led to Food Emergencies in Africa?

Lawrence , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
A Somalian girl carries her sibling along land left dry by persistent drought.
A Somalian girl carries her sibling along land left dry by persistent drought.
Getty Image, News24

Lawrence Freeman

May 17, 2022

In recent months there have been an abundance of reports on how the conflict in Ukraine is exacerbating food scarcity in Africa. The argument is that Ukraine, ordinarily a large exporter of wheat, is not shipping food to the rest of the world. This includes African nations, some of which are large importers of Ukrainian wheat, resulting in shortages of food, and higher prices, contributing to Africa’s food insecurity.

Food Crisis Staggering in Africa

According to Global Report on Food Crisis 2022, eight of the countries facing the most severe food shortages are in Africa, affecting over 81 million Africans. The breakdown is:

DRC 25.9 million people, Afghanistan 22.8 million, Nigeria 19.5 million, Yemen 19 million, Ethiopia between 14-15 million, South Sudan 7.7 million, Somalia 6 million, Sudan 6 million, Pakistan 4.7 million, Haiti 4.5 million, Niger 4.4 million and, lastly, Kenya 3.4 million, as reported by News24

These nations have been given an Integrated Phase Classification 3 (IPC3), which is defined as households that have either:

Food consumption gaps that are reflected by high or above-usual acute malnutrition; OR  Are marginally able to meet minimum food needs but only by depleting essential livelihood assets or through crisis-coping strategies. 

News24 also reports that according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, in 2020, “approximately 323.3 million people in Africa or 29.5% of the population ran out of food or went without eating that year.”

The United Nations-(UN News) reports that “276 million people around the globe were already facing hunger at the beginning of the year. That number could rise by 47 million if the war continues according to the WFP (World Food Pogramme), with the steepest rise in Sub-Saharan Africa.” (emphasis added)

Industrialization to End Hunger

With abundant hect-acres of fertile soil and arable land, coupled with many water systems, African nations should have already achieved food self-sufficiency. Ironically, sadly, most nations are farther away from being able to feed their populations through their own production of food than they were during the 1960 and 1970s.

African nations are undermining their own economies by importing large amounts of food. According to President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, “Africa’s annual food import bill of $35 billion, estimated to rise to $110 billion by 2025, weakens African economies, decimates its agriculture and exports jobs from the continent.”  

In reality, Africa’s huge import bill is hindering nations from developing the capacity to eliminate poverty and hunger. Nations using their precious foreign exchange to buy food that they can grow themselves is more than counter-productive. What is needed to end food insecurity is for Africa nations to build their own robust agricultural and manufacturing sectors. There are oligarchical financial interests, steeped in the colonial mind-set, who do not want Africa nations to develop, to become industrialized. There are others, even well-meaning, who believe that African nations should remain agrarian societies. As an expert in physical economics, I can assure you that this approach will fail, and will only lead to more poverty and death.

President George Washington’s brilliant Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton, fortunately won the battle against Thomas Jefferson and the slaved based agrarian South, to create a manufacturing industry in the newly established United states. Africa must do the same

With sixty percent of the world’s arable land that remains uncultivated, it is obvious that Africa can significantly increase food production in the short term. However, this does not obviate the need for rapid expansion of industry, beyond those businesses devoted only to the extraction of resources. Instead of spending tens of billions of dollars for imported wheat and rice that can be grown indigenously, that money should be investmented in infrastructure, and on valued-added production.

David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, visiting Sanaa, Yemen, September 2018, where the world’s worst hunger crisis continues to unfold. (courtesy WFP/Marco Frattini, September 2018)

Aid is Insufficient

David Beasley, Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee Wednesday, May 11, that $5 billion is needed to avoid famine and migration due to COVID-19 and the loss of food from Ukraine. He told the Senators, “ If you do not respond now, we will see destabilization, mass starvation, and migration on an unprecedented scale, and at a far greater cost. A massive influx of refugees to Western countries could soon become a reality.”

Morally we are compelled to acquiesce to Beasley’s legitimate request, although it is doubtful that the nations of the advanced sector will actually come up with the money.

How many hundreds of billions of dollars have been expended on providing aid to countries in need? What would be the results if an equivalent amount of money were spent on development. Emergency aid is required to prevent our fellow human beings from perishing. However, emergency aid does not contribute to creating durable economic transformation that would eliminate the conditions that are the cause for food deprivation. Aid does not increase the productive powers of labor; it does not increase the productivity of the economy. While we can do no less than be the Good-Samaritan, what is the tangible long term effect of exclusively delivering aid?

Share of population access to electricity in Africa

Infrastructure Crucial

Deficits in critical categories of hard infrastructure, especially roads, railroads, and electricity, is depriving nations of precisely those elements of physical economy required to increase the production of real wealth. Why don’t the G7 and European donor nations “grant” an equivalent amount of “aid money” for investment in infrastructure and building nascent industries? Disbursing money either through outright endowments or long-term low interest loans for development has the potential to change the dynamics of poverty and hunger plaguing African nations.

For example, consider irrigation. Bringing water to farmland would substantially increase food production. Most African nations irrigate 5% or less of their land. Worse, many nations still depend on backward modes of subsistence farming. What would be required to double or triple irrigation? Primarily, energy to pump the water is essential, but African nations are energy starved. Pipes to transport the water. Advanced machinery would be required to harvest the increased yields. Roads and railroads would be needed to transport the crops to markets.

Given Africa’s untapped agricultural potential, with investments in these basic classifications of infrastructure; hunger could be eliminated.

In October 2020, in response to an earlier food crisis, I delineated the following necessary actions (below) that should have been taken. These measures are still valid today, and should be implemented now, without delay.

Emergency Action Required

  1. We must urgently deliver food to starving people. One single human being dying from starvation is intolerable. Every creative soul that perishes is a loss to the human race.
  2. Nations producing food surpluses must allocate food shipments to feed starving people.
  3. Logistics for delivery will have to done in a military fashion or directly by qualified military personnel supported by governments.
  4. Roads, railways, and bridges constructed for emergency food delivery can serve as an initial platform for expansion to a higher plateau of infrastructure required for economic growth.
  5. Debts must be suspended to enable nations to direct money away from onerous payments of debt service to growing and distributing food.
  6. A new financial architecture-a New Bretton Woods must be established with a facility to issue credit to finance critical categories of infrastructure necessary for economic growth and food production.

Read my earlier posts:

Famine in Africa: More Than Humanitarian Aid Required

COVID-19 Tragedy Compels Revamping Globalization and Food Production 

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Africa’s Primary Need–Case Study of Eastern Congo

Lawrence , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
INFRASTRUCTURE : AFRICA`S PRIMARY NEED
Case Study of Eastern Congo

Interview with Dr David Muhindo Biryage from AfricanAgenda.net

“Congo is sitting in the centre of Africa and when you have got no infrastructure in DRC, you are hindering the whole process of trade among the other countries of Africa.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo is roughly 2.5 million km2. That is slightly greater than the combined land surfaces of Spain, Germany, France, Sweden and Norway. The DR Congo is Africa`s second largest country. The largest being Algeria.

The capital of DR Congo is Kinshasa which is located in the west, on the border with the neighbouring Republic of Congo or Congo Brazzaville , as it is sometimes called. Bukavu is the provincial capital of South Kivu which is in the east, near the borders of Rwanda and Burundi. The distance between the 2 cities of Kinshasa and Bukavu is 2,494km which is slightly less than the distance between London and Moscow.

Congo is ranked among the 3 worst cases of national infrastructure deficits in the world. The other 2 cases being Yemen and the Central African Republic which is considered to have the highest level of extreme poverty globally.

It is not possible to traverse the DR Congo by road or railway. There is no infrastructure connecting Kinshasa with the eastern regions. It is not possible to travel from Bukavu to Kinshasa by road or rail. It is not possible to travel by road or rail from Goma, the provincial capital of North Kivu to Bukavu, the provincial capital of South Kivu. Nor is it possible to travel south from Goma or Bukavu to Bunia, the provincial capital of Ituri.

A road is defined by its composition which is tarmac. People in the eastern Congo travel on `tracks` which turn to mud and become impassable. The only other means of transport is by air which is unaffordable for 99% of the population.

Infrastructure and energy deficit causes poverty

Despite the natural resources in Congo, which are more diverse and plentiful than in any other country on Earth, the Congolese live with some of the highest levels of abject poverty globally to which we can also add alarmingly high and increasing malnutrition and food insecurity.

“The really basic need for the people in Congo, and the east of Congo, particularly, is infrastructure. That basic need , besides insecurity, because we know that trade is not possible when there is no peace, but we need urgently, the people, as a nation need infrastructure.If you have no roads, you cannot have an agriculture sector developed. If you have no railway how can you carry goods from one corner of the province to another, or one province to another?”
“The whole cost of living and the poverty that Congolese are subjected to, is related to lack of infrastructure.”
“How can you establish a manufacturing sector when you don`t have electricity? And this has really been a tremendously big issue for trying to resolve the problem of food shortage in DRC because when you don`t have electricity how do you process agricultural goods!”

Building infrastructure is the most important humanitarian assistance

“Talking of DRC, I really appreciate the aid ngo`s working on the ground and helping people and the funding supplied to them, but personally I think what we need is not humanitarian aid. We need infrastructure. Because humanitarian aid will make you depend on the giver. But if you have infrastructure, you are able to build your future, you are able to do something to earn a living, not for one day or two weeks or a month but for a year for years. So I think the basic need we have is for infrastructure. We need roads, we need railways, we need electricity in the country.”

Food shortage and child malnutrition are caused by lack of infrastructure

“If we have roads, the malnutrition, the food shortages cannot be had in DRC. People will be able to transport their goods, the maize, the cassava, the potatoes from one region to another. It is a very fertile country where anything can grow. The cost of transporting by air ,which is the only option for most regions, makes the cost of the food, potatoes for instance, too expensive to be affordable.The whole issue of food shortage, of malnutrition in DRC is related to lack of infrastructure, lack of roads, lack of railways, lack of electricity.”

AfCFTA : a chain is as strong as the weakest link

“Congo is sitting in the centre of Africa and when you have got no infrastructure in DRC, you are hindering the whole process of trade among the other countries of Africa. For example: when you look at this map, where you see Tanzania, you cannot ship goods from Tanzania to Congo Brazzaville because in order for you to do that, you have to go through DRC! Unless you can do it by boat but if you want to use roads, you cannot because there is no infrastructure in DRC. And this has been hindering the whole process of development for the region itself and the continent as a whole. The lack of infrastructure in DRC is affecting the whole region and the whole continent.”

End insecurity by building infrastructure

“The issue of wars and insecurity in Congo is mainly not the issue of Congolese people themselves. It is an issue of the multi nationals who desire to control the minerals. For us to have the end of the war in DRC, the multi national companies have got a role to play. But also we have to acknowledge that the people on the ground are the ones executing this mission in order of controlling the minerals in DRC. And the fact that they are not working, that they have no jobs, they have no other way to earn a living, they always become a potential target for the multi national companies to use them, because they have nothing else to do to earn a living. So when you build roads in Congo, in east of Congo, Goma, Bukavu, Ituri and other provinces; when you build railways, when you set up manufacturing systems in DRC it is obvious these infrastructures are going to create jobs for the people. And these young men are going to find themselves working, having another way of earning a living.Therefore they cannot be recruited easily to go and fight or create war in the country.

So I really believe that the physical economy, the infrastructure development, it is also a key element we need to implement in DRC if we want to end the war in DRC. Because if those multi national companies come and want to create a war in an area because they want to control minerals , and they have no back-up on the ground, it is going to be difficult for them to do it. So building the physical economy is key to bringing stability in Congo and in the region.”

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

Lawrence Freeman Discusses Key Principles For Developing Africa

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Watch the 8 minute video above, where I outlined succinctly the essential policies necessary for the development of Africa. I participated in a July Fourth celebration webinar sponsored by “Watch Democracy Grow.”

In the longer video below I discuss a range of topics regarding Africa’s development. After visiting Nigeria (Kaduna and Abuja) for two weeks and Ethiopia for one week, I became more convinced than ever, that peace and stability will come only when the basic necessities of life, such as food, water, electricity, land, and railroads are provided by industrialized African nations.

Lawrence Freeman: Stories from Africa – East to West

LAWRENCE FREEMAN, POLITICAL-ECONOMIC ANALYST FOR AFRICA…
He is a highly respected researcher, writer, and speaker on a variety of topics concerning Africa, who has visited African nations 30 times.. An outspoken critic of neo colonialism and the ICC. Insisting that Africa no longer be forced to live in a dark age, he has consistently brought African governments a roadmap for transformative infrastructure projects. As the author of dozens of articles and reports on Africa. Freeman served as a member of AFRICOM’s Advisory Committee under U.S. General Kip Ward. Most recently, he was appointed Vice Chairman of the Lake Chad Basin Scientific Committee and is currently working on a project to replenish the shrinking Lake Chad. Presently, he is teaching courses on the history of Africa, utilizing his decades of experience and knowledge. In this video he takes us through a journey in Africa where he has just returned from visiting both Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com. Mr. Freeman’s stated personal mission is; to eliminate poverty and hunger in Africa by applying the scientific economic principles of Alexander Hamilton

‘Green Energy’ Means More Economic Misery for Africa

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March 19, 2021

Gyude Moore, former Liberian Minister of Public Works, has published an superbly perceptive article on what the “green-decarbonization” of energy means for Africa: Economic growth in Africa will not be achieved by a ban on fossil fuels. (See excerpts below)

Many years ago, I reached the same conclusions as Mr. Moore; without abundant affordable energy, Africa will not develop, it will not eliminate poverty.  African nations need energy, lots of energy, at least 1,000 gigawatts more energy to advance their agricultural sector and industrialize their economies.  Shutting down existing fossil fueled energy or limiting future energy production to “green energy” will not only retard economic growth; it will increase poverty and kill Africans. If I may be granted a poetic license, I would say, a green energy policy for Africa will lead to a black death.

Let me interpolate my perspective on so called green energy, which  goes beyond Mr. Moore’s excellent analysis.  I find no convincing evidence that human activity is causing climate change. Rather, it is geological and astronomical cycles pertaining to our Sun and our solar system that is the primary cause of changes in our climate. Just ask yourself, how many ice ages and warming periods has our planet experienced over the last one million years before anthropomorphic activity emerged?

Unfortunately, our culture has adopted a false belief system about the nature of human beings that was revived in the 1960s under the slogan of “limits to growth.” This belief structure advocates the necessity of limiting the number of human beings and reducing human activity, guided by a false conviction that the planet is running out of resources.

This is a warmed over version of the population reduction theory espoused by the wicked Parson Thomas Malthus (1766-1834). Even though the Malthusian dogma proclaims that human population growth will exceed the resources of the planet, has been proven wrong, again, and again, Malthusianism never seems to die.

There are two principal  fallacies of this view. First, there are no fixed resources. As humankind discovers new scientific principles of the physical universe, new resources of energy are discovered, such as coal, gas, oil, nuclear, and of course electricity itself.  Second, the physical universe, which is a growing organism, is well-ordered to respond to the creative mental powers of the human mind. In scientific terms, both the universe, and the human creative mind, intrinsically cooperate in anti-entropic growth, i.e., continual expanding development. As the great philosopher, Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz wrote, there is a pre-established harmony of causality between the mind and physical substance. When we humans exercise our creative potential, we are in harmony with universe, not antithetical  to its environment.   

Sadly, for civilization, western culture, has adopted a prejudicial view of the human race itself, viewing it as an inherently evil monster wantonly destroying the environment. The folly of the “New Green Deal” as it is called, will hurt the United States, Europe, and the entirety of the advanced sector. However, for African nations  and other developing nations, it will have deadly effects sooner.

 

Nuclear energy for Africa: Fulfilling Eisenhower’s dream
Nuclear energy for Africa: Fulfilling Eisenhower’s dream.  Atoms for Peace. (Courtesy of cfact.org)

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) is needed to come into operation post-haste for Africa to progress. The GERD has the capacity to generate over 6,000 megawatts of electricity, which could be added to the East African grid in the coming two to three years . There are other hydro-electric dams being constructed in Africa. There should be no holding back on constructing as many new power plants of all types, as quickly as possible to expand African’s access to electricity. Over 600 million Africans have no access to their nation’s electrical grid. Plus, for African nations to build their manufacturing sectors, industrial consumption of electricity will have to dramatically increase. Nuclear energy, presently fission, and in the future fusion, is the most efficient source of power for Africa. Almost one third of the continent’s nations are presently involved in various stages of acquiring nuclear energy plants. African nations should give the highest priority to securing production of nuclear energy.

(See link below for presentation of nuclear solution)

Excerpts from Gyude Moore:

“Africa has many of the poorest people in the world. For most African countries, the priority is economic growth — first in agriculture, where much of the population still works, and then in industry and services. Worries of an increased carbon footprint generated from economic growth are second to worries that growth may not happen at all…

“But people in poverty don’t just need to power a single lightbulb at home; they need abundant, affordable energy at work too. Energy is essential to creating productive agriculture systems, as well as to the expansion of economic opportunity in cities, factories, and modern industries. African countries need energy to grow, and to eliminate poverty — and they can’t do it with small-scale green power projects alone.

“Africa’s first priority is to grow more food. Composting and recycling can only go so far — farmers need synthetic fertilizer to raise yields, and natural gas is the most efficient energy source for fertilizer production… 

“Poor farmers in Africa need much better access to irrigation… Large scale, energy-intensive water control projects that rely on fossil fuels must be in the mix — just as they are in wealthy countries.

Domestic food supply chains provide the vast majority of food across Sub-Saharan Africa, but they’re hampered by poor roads and the unreliable fuel supplies. Construction of much-needed roads requires energy and the transportation sector as a whole remains almost entirely dependent on oil and gas.

“Beyond agriculture, a continuous supply of power from the grid is critical for expanding factory production. Countries like Ethiopia, which have ambitions to become manufacturing powerhouses, are increasingly looking to China for the construction and operation of large-scale power projects that will provide reliable electricity. Off-grid technologies are useful for extending basic energy services but cannot power the industrial activity needed to create millions of jobs and drive economic diversification. There is no world in which Africa can meet its energy needs with carbon-neutral power plants and off-grid solutions…

“The continent’s needs are too great to be met solely with current energy technologies…” (all emphasis is added)

Read: Economic growth in Africa will not be achieved by a ban on fossil fuels.

Biden’s Climate Plan Has a Nuclear Solution

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in economic development policies for Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa to Djibouti Railway: A Model for the Role of Infrastructure in Fighting Hunger

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Below is a useful article from EIR magazine that correctly emphasizes the role of infrastructure in providing food for Africa. The authors highlight Ethiopia, an East African nation that has aggressively pursed the expansion of infrastructure to advance their economy.

November 16, 2020

Click to access 19-25_4745.pdf

World Food Program Awarded Nobel Peace Prize. WFP Dir, Beasley Responds With “Call to Action” to Stop Starvation

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David Beasley, the head of the World Food Program, visiting Sanaa, Yemen, September 2018, where the world’s worst hunger crisis continues to unfold. (courtesy WFP/Marco Frattini, September 2018)

October 19, 2020

I whole heartedly congratulate the World Food Program (WFP) for receiving the 2020 Noble Peace Prize “for its efforts to combat hunger.” I also full support WFP Executive Director, David Beasley’s call for action to prevent starvation. Speaking in Niger on October 9, Beasley said: “Just in the last three years, the number of people on the brink of starvation had risen before COVID, from 80 million to 135 million. And now, with COVID, the number of people—and I’m not talking about people going to bed hungry—on the brink of starvation is now up to 270 million people…we are on the brink of disaster.” Earlier this year, Beasley reported that Beasley warned that from 150,000 to 300,000 people could die a day from starvation.

Fifteen African nations account for half of that 270 million. The WFP has identified the following nations as being in dire need of food: Burkina Faso (4.8); Cameroon (5.2); C.A.R. (3.1); D.R.C. (21.8); Ethiopia (18.0); Liberia (0.84); Mali (3.5); Mozambique (3.3); Niger (5.9); Nigeria (23.8); Sierra Leone (2.9); Somalia (6.3); South Sudan (10.2); Sudan (17.7); Zimbabwe (6.3); totaling 133.64 million people.

David Beasley alerted the world, that 7 million people have already died of hunger this year and that figure could increase by“3, 4, 5 times or more.” The WPF calculates that it needs $6.8 billion to prevent famine. With $1.6 billion received so far, $5 billion more is urgently needed. “The $5 billion that we’re talking about is additional money, because we feed 100 million people. It literally is—the starvation rate is spiraling because of COVID and economic deterioration,” he said. “And quite frankly, with the billionaires making hundreds of billions of dollars with COVID, we’re facing the worst humanitarian crises since World War II. They need to step up. We need an extra $5 billion to save millions of lives around the world….This is a call to action. With all the wealth in the world today, no one should be dying from hunger, not a single person.”

Referring to the most severe cases, the Beasley warned: “There are literally about a dozen or two dozen places around the world that, if we don’t get the support that they need, three things are going to happen. One, you are going to have famine, I mean, literally of biblical proportions. Number two, you’re going to have destabilization. And, number three, you’re going to have mass migration. And we can solve all that. We have a cure against starvation, and it is called food.” (all emphasis added)

South African activist, Phillip Tsokolibane has called for a “military mobilization” to provide logistics to stop the spread of hunger in Africa. He said last week from South Africa:

“While various charitable and other organizations have sounded alarm bells and have appealed for money, the issue we face, if we want to save lives, is securing massive amounts of food, as soon as possible, to hungry and starving people. Given the state of infrastructure on the continent and the fact that much of this starvation is occurring in isolated, rural areas, the distribution that must take place is well beyond the means of individual governments and those of relief agencies.

“I believe we must mobilize the logistical capacities of the world’s most capable military forces and design a strategy to bring food supplies from such food-producing nations as the United States and Canada, and bring them directly to those who need them. Let allies and adversaries alike, join forces, in this greatest of all humanitarian efforts.”

Emergency Action Required

  1. We must urgently deliver food to starving people. One single human being dying from starvation is intolerable. Every creative soul that perishes is a loss to the human race.
  2. Nations producing food surpluses must allocate food shipments to feed starving people in Africa.
  3. Logistics for delivery will have to done in a military fashion or directly by qualified military personnel supported by governments.
  4. Roads, railways, and bridges constructed for emergency food delivery can serve as an initial platform for expansion to a higher plateau of infrastructure required for economic growth
  5. Debts must be suspended to enable nations to direct money away from onerous payments of debt service to growing and distributing food.
  6. A new financial architecture-a New Bretton Woods must be established with a facility to issue credit to finance critical categories of infrastructure necessary for economic growth and food production.

Read my earlier posts:

COVID-19 Tragedy Compels Revamping Globalization and Food Production 

Famine in Africa: More Than Humanitarian Aid Required

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in the economic development policy of Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com

Africa Threatened With Starvation: No Objective Reason

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Millions ‘on the edge’ in DR Congo now in even greater danger of tipping over. WFP food distribution to Internally Displaced People in Kikuku, North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. WFP/Ben Anguandia

There is no objective reason for hunger in Africa. African nations have abundant fertile land and many water systems that should enable them to be not only food self sufficient, but produce a surplus. With proper investment in infrastructure and planning, stockpiles of food would be available to feed the population during difficulty periods like the present COVID-19 pandemic. With manufacturing and agricultural processing sectors, people would have more job security, then living hand to mouth in the so called informal economy. 

WFP Chief warns of grave dangers of economic impact of Coronavirus as millions are pushed further into hunger

Transcript as delivered of remarks by UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley to today’s virtual session of the UN Security Council, September 17, 2020.

“Five months ago, I warned the Council the world stood on the brink of a hunger pandemic. A toxic combination of conflict, climate change and COVID-19, threatened to push 270 million people to the brink of starvation. Famine was real. It’s a terrifying possibility in up to three dozen countries if we don’t continue to act like we’ve been acting…

“As COVID-19 pushed countries everywhere to lock down, the equivalent of 400 million full-time jobs have been destroyed, and remittances have collapsed. The impact has been felt hardest by the 2 billion people who work in the informal economy around the world – mainly in middle and low-income countries. Already only one day’s work away from going hungry, in other words living hand to mouth…

“Let me turn to the countries on today’s agenda. In the DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO, conflict and instability had already forced 15.5 million people into crisis levels of food insecurity. These are people on the brink of starvation. The latest assessment indicates that the upsurge in violence, coupled with COVID-19, has sent this total sky-rocketing to nearly 22 million people, an increase of 6.5 million people. And I should warn you these numbers assume WFP is able to maintain current levels of food assistance. If we are forced to scale back operations, the outlook is even worse

“NIGERIA: COVID-19 is also forcing more people into food insecurity. Analysis shows measures imposed to contain the virus reduced incomes in 80 percent of households. You can imagine the devastation with that alone.

“In the northeast of the country, 4.3 million people are food insecure, up by 600,000 largely due to COVID-19. While in the large urban area of Kano, the number of food insecure people during that lockdown period from March to June went from 568,000 to 1.5 million people – an increase of 1 million people. Very troubling.

“SOUTH SUDAN: The outlook there is similarly worrying, where even before the pandemic, 6.5 million people were expected to face severe food insecurity at the height of the lean season, made worse by the violence in Jonglei State in recent months. This has resulted in the displacement of tens of thousands of civilians, a large number of abducted women and children, and widespread loss of livestock and livelihoods. In addition, virus outbreaks in urban areas such as Juba could put as many as another 1.6 million people at risk of starvation.

Finally, even though it is not on today’s agenda, I also want to highlight the disaster unfolding in Burkina Faso, driven by the upsurge in violence. The number of people facing crisis levels of hunger has tripled to 3.3 million people, as COVID compounds the situation…displacement, security and access problems. For 11,000 of these people living in the northern provinces, famine is knocking on the door as we speak.

Read: WFP Warns Grave Economic Dangers From COVID-19

Food Is Now Up to 250 Percent More Expensive Across Africa

‘With crop reduction comes food scarcity, and prices go up with demand. The Famine Early Warning Systems Network found that Ethiopia, Kenya, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda, Zimbabwe, DRC, Mauritania, Nigeria, Guatemala and Haiti are the countries that have been most affected by the drop in crop production.

‘In the Republic of Congo, the average price of a basic food basket has increased by 15 percent, while a similar pattern has emerged in Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia, with an above-average increase in the price of staple foods.

‘Then there’s the rising cost of sorghum – a drought resistant cereal grain that’s popular across the continent. In July, sorghum prices exceeded the five-year average by 150 to 250 percent in Sudan, 50 to 240 percent in South Sudan, 85 percent in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and 20 to 55 percent in Southern Somalia

Read: Food Up To 250% More Expensve in Africa

Lawrence Freeman is a Political-Economic Analyst for Africa, who has been involved in the economic development policy of Africa for over 30 years. He is the creator of the blog: lawrencefreemanafricaandtheworld.com