kickAAS: Grinding down the poor with agriculture subsidies

April 25, 2004

Grinding down the poor with agriculture subsidies

The good news is that global poverty has been cut in half during the past 20 years (mainly because of fantastic progress in Asia). The bad news is that Africa has been passed by. The World Bank reckons that by 2015, half of the world's poorest people - those living on less than $1 a day - will live in Africa compared with 10% in the early 1980s.

What's the solution? The Bank says we need economic growth assisted by low trade barriers and aid. It reminds us that 70% of the poor in developing countries subsist on agriculture. In other words it is not really a case of the solution being economic growth "assisted by" low trade barriers. Abolition of agriculture subsidies would itself be a primary engine of growth for Africa. And it would not only cost rich countries nothing, they would gain substantially from not having to shell out $300bn a year bribing farmers to grow crops that can more profitably be grown elsewhere.

April 25, 2004 | Permalink

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April 25, 2004

Grinding down the poor with agriculture subsidies

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