Africa is capable of feeding itself and the rest of the world if it maximizes its food potential, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika told Boston University students on Friday.
President Mutharika outlined his five-year African food security proposal, “The African Food Basket,” to about 160 people in BU’s Trustee Ballroom in the School of Management while five other universities, including two in Ghana and Tanzania, joined via videoconference.
Mutharika is the chairman of the African Union and came to BU after formally presenting his plan to the United Nations Assembly in New York last Wednesday.
“This is a mega investment project that will involve all African countries…in five years, Africa must be able to feed itself,” he said. “I also propose that after that period, no child in Africa should die of hunger or starvation or malnourishment.”
Mutharika said his plan is based on the successes he has seen in Malawi, such as building factories in rural areas in order to allow people to stay in those areas while adding value to the food export.
He said one of his main initiatives for African food security would include fertilizer subsidies similar to the ones he implemented in Malawi.
“And I will say, in sub-Saharan Africa, much of agriculture is done by small people, mainly women, a woman with a baby on her back,” he said.
Mutharika acknowledged that subsidies are often controversial in Western countries.
“Washington says they should not have subsidies,” he said. “But industrialized countries… I understand sometimes… even [have] air-conditioned tractors with stereo music. And the Washington consensus says those should have subsidies, but my poor African women should not. And I say that is where we part ways.”
Mutharika said that in just five years, Malawi has been transformed from a “very hungry” country to one that is now exporting food.
Brandeis University graduate student and Malawi citizen Tiwonge Mhango said her family directly benefited from the fertilizer subsidies.
When Mhango’s father died, her urban-dwelling mother had to begin farming land in order to feed her family, she said.
“At that point, I was just finishing college, so things were pretty hard,” she said. “What has happened is that over the last couple of years, airports and roads have moved to the area so all the people who need fertilizer, they can get it and so they make 20 bags of maize a year even 35, 45. That was enough to feed everyone.”
Mutharika also spoke about building communication and transportation infrastructure and processing plants in rural areas. According to Mutharika, Africans lose 40 percent of their crops after harvest, compared to less than a 1 percent loss in North America.
“If this amount of food that we are losing now were to be saved, the food situation in Africa would significantly improve, even without growing one more inch of plant,” he said.
The Internet will also play a key role in food security, according to Mutharika. Africans need information technology to research the specificities of regions and move excess food into the global economy.
“I don’t know what is not “e’ now…Through information and communication technology, we are looking at food security not on a national level only, but at an African level,” he said.
“But beyond that we want to look at food security at a global level, because Africa cannot be happy if other parts of the world are suffering,” Murtharika added.
Mutharika said food security will help address problems of disease, conflict, poverty and environmental conditions.
“Africa’s war on these conditions is on, and it is being won,” he said.
College of Arts and Science freshman Yayra Sumah said she was interested in Mutharika’s speech because, as someone born in Ghana, she feels a sense of unity with Africans.
But she said the continent also captivates outsiders.
“From the non-African point of view, I think it’s something more interesting because there is such a huge disparity, difference in lifestyles and economy,” Sumah said. “I think it fascinates people. I think they want to keep track of how this continent is developing. I think people are also really attracted to African culture in general. The color, music, food, it’s very vibrant.”
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