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Text Date:
September 9 2003
Text Date:
September 9 2003
Article Text:
Harrison Amukoyi's farm is perched on a hillside in western Kenya. On less than 2 acres of land, he raises several crops and a dairy cow. To sell milk, Harrison and his neighbours must compete with industrialised countries that dump their subsidised milk on local markets, depressing prices for Kenyan farmers. This unfair contest appears in countless guises throughout the developing world, intensifying conditions of poverty.
- Total support to agriculture in OECD countries was US$311 billion in 2001 - far more than the amount given in development assistance.
- Protectionism and subsidies by industrialised nations cost developing countries about US$24 billion annually in lost agricultural and agro-industrial income.
- Trade-distorting measures displace more than US$40 billion of net agricultural exports per year from developing countries.
- Latin America and the Caribbean lose about US$8.3 billion in annual income from agriculture.
- Developing countries in Asia lose US$6.6 billion.
- Sub-Saharan Africa loses nearly US$2 billion.
- Elimination of protectionism and subsidies of the industrialised world's agriculture would triple developing countries' net agricultural trade.