[decimon]

The problem is not free trade within Africa but subsidized agriculture elsewhere. That, they can't compete with.

[GeronL]

Free trade is not the problem, your right. Foreign food aid that puts local farmers out of the market is part of the problem too.

[the_Watchman]

It would be interesting to see how they view Zimbabwe where a self-sufficient agricultural system has been ruined by the actions of the government expropriating farms.

Somehow the description in this article would be used by Marxists to explain why the newly enfranchised farmers were unable to compete. Is that what this article is about, providing cover for Mugabe and friends?

[dangus]

Burning your food crops for fuel does a pretty nasty job of distorting the global food market.

[hinckley buzzard]

Bottom line, Africans mostly do not have the cultural infrastructure necessary to support a viable macro-economy. These include a system of recording ownership of property, so a domestic credit system has capital with which to function, and the systematic rule of laws regarding contracts.

Without these, any economy is floating in the thin air, with no reliable tether to reality.

[dr_who]

That and maybe just possibly kleptocrats who are driving farmers off their land and terrorizing anyone who’s honest including farmers.

[narses]

The problem in Africa is corrupt government.

[hellbender]

Put yourself in the place of an African farmer. You do the best you can, but you cannot compete with an operation funded by Western billionaires who seek the cheapest labor anywhere, then apply their capital and technical expertise to crush independent competitors.

It's sad to see that so many people here can recognize how crony capitalism has crushed manufacturing here in the U.S., without seeing how it is doing the same in places like Africa.

[dangus]

It’s hard to argue that economic freedom is the cause of hunger, when none of the most hungry countries have economic freedom

African nations with the most rapidly increasing hunger (increasing Global Hunger Index, 1990-2009):

Zimbabwe (2nd least free economy in the world, after North Korea)
Eritrea (4th least free economy in the world, after Cuba)
Democratic Republic of Congo (8th)
Congo (11th)
Guniea-Biseau (13th)
Comoros (15th)
Liberia (17th)
Burundi (20th)
Chad (21st)
Siera Leone (23rd)
Swaziland (77th)
Zambia (79th out of 179)

Rankings according to Heritage Foundation’s Economic Freedom Index. Of these, all but Zambia had decreasing economic freedom. Zambia has the 11th worst score on the Global Competitiveness Index.

[SunkenCiv]

The problem isn't free trade in Africa, because there isn't any. National gov'ts buy up all production and sell it in export markets, to bring in foreign exchange, which permits them to play at being developed countries by building more offices for patronage jobs, but using foreign companies to build everything. Thanks decimon.

• Black Farmers Rally For Discrimination Settlement