'Enough is enough. I am not going to get on my knees to beg for food. Let us grow it ourselves'. Malawi's President Bingu wa Mutharika had had enough of his country being told how to produce crops after having pioneered the techniques now used in the developed world.

Constantly facing natural disasters, Malawi has often had to succumb to pressures to liberalise its market and end farmer subsidies in return for IMF loans in order to rebuild. Private, trademarked seeds and the only fertilisers that would work with them were offered in the name of foreign intervention. Food production would decrease and food expenditure for locals double. This is because the economy was weakened by decreasing food exports whilst its currency remained artificially pegged up during the 1970s and 80s according to the conditions set by the institution, a technique which can be likened to the 'shock doctrine' of capitalism as conceived by the journalist writer Naomi Klein.

Having recently decided to turn down further IMF loans and revert to subsidising farmers for seeds and fertiliser under a new voucher system, Malawi has experienced a crop surplus for four years in a row and even began exporting maize in 2007. Instead of producing the feed for cattle in the West who's meat it must then import, the country has instead decided to grow its own diet itself. Meanwhile, UN reports signal news of European soil quality and biodiversity worsening, all for short-sighted economic gain for the few.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/apr/24/europe-biodiversity-loss

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/21/un-biodiversity-economic-report

Intensive farming has only led to the destruction of the soil underpinning it altogether, as shall be dealt with in my next blog. When African and other countries seek 'development', they should think of how they want their versions to be different to the mistakes of the current system of world trade.