Kerry Howley

Robert Paarlberg, I am increasingly convinced, is to agricultural science what Lant Pritchett is to immigration. He is committed to pushing a profoundly unpopular, hugely important solution to poverty, and his discussion of our current strategies is pretty damning. Here he is on barriers to African trade:

The poverty of African farmers cannot be explained by international market forces, since farmers in other developing countries who use the same markets are far less poor. International agricultural markets are undeniably distorted by the tariffs and subsidies of rich countries, yet the external barriers facing exports from African today are actually lower than those that faced the currently wealthy East Asian countries when they began their own period of high growth forty years ago. Even if all the world’s remaining market distortions were somehow eliminated–as they should be–the net gains for sub-Saharan Africa would be quite modest, probably equaling only about 1 percent of GDP.

So what would help? Paarlberg is looking for a sort of African green revolution. He wants publicly funded scientists working on drought-resistant maize and disease-resistant millet, both of which would help release African farmers–2/3 of Africa’s population–from mercurial weather patterns. That means using seeds that have been genetically modified to prevent crop loss, which are everywhere in the United States but not yet legal in most of Africa due to the influence of European NGOs. It means helping farmers to be more productive, not less productive. But that’s not what the NGOs seem to be promoting:

 Some NGOs even like to promote European style organic farming in Africa as though it were somehow authentically African. A German organization named Networking for Ecofarming in Africa has established partner groups in thirteen African countries to warm them that “Western agriculture” cannot provide solutions in Africa where “indigenous farmer’s knowledge” should instead be the key. Yet when conducting its training workshops in Africa, this organization likes to teach the chemical-free farming principles developed in Austria by Rudolf Steiner, the mystic and originator of biodynamic farming. German training participants…took the time to introduce local participants to the importance of light rhythms from the planets and to instruct them in developing manure preparations that included essential bits of stinging nettle, chamomile, and cow horn. Such knowledge is neither farmer-derived nor indigenous to Africa, nor is it even knowledge.

I’ll have an interview with Paarlberg up at reason on Friday.