A
recent video done by an uper on bilibili (a Chinese youtube-like platform)
talked about the international aid from China to Africa. In discussing the
positive and negative effects of international aid, the uper raised one
interesting book written by Dambisa Moyo: Dead aid (Wang
2022). In this book, she argues that direct foreign aid such as those food
aid is actually leading to food shortage as it could destruct the will of
African farmers to plant by themselves and lead to lower the price of crops.
Therefore, the aid disturbs the normal operation of the irrigation systems and
agricultural production of African countries (Moyo
2009).
Meanwhile, those indirect aids from the Western World
that aim to increase the agricultural productivity of African countries by
improving irrigation systems could negatively impact local development as well
such as the Bakolori Dam in Nigeria. This dam reduced the magnitude of local
floods and led to a decrease in fishing activities and the growth of
low-value millet and sorghum crops instead of rice (Adams
1985).
But here I am not arguing that all foreign aid to
agriculture in Africa should be denied. For instance, the AGRA helps to expand
agricultural production in Rwanda by providing better seeds and assisting the
farmers to sell them. As an institution mainly funded by the west, it clearly
would strengthen Rwanda's reliance on the west, but as it could bring actual
benefit to the people, it seems not proper to deny the value of this project (AGRA
2020). As Yash Tandon (2008)
argued in the book Ending Aid Dependence, the most accessible way
to control the effects of these development projects to solve the food shortage
might be to integrate foreign aid into the development framework decided by
Africa itself. In other words, privilege African voice.
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