March 28, 2006
Dear Friends,
Joseph is generally portrayed as a hero in his role of Pharaoh’s
personally appointed governor. Did God not bestow him with the
foresight about upcoming years of drought, and the wisdom to stock
up supplies throughout the period of abundance so that Egypt became
the region’s food basket in times of shortages? Read in
light of experiences of subsistence farmers in northern Cameroon,
the continuing story of Genesis 41:46-49 and 47:13-20 may give
us a rather different perspective on Joseph’s politics.
The outbreaks of famine in the Saharan region appear acute once
they make the headlines in the international media, but there
are underlying causes, which tend to go undetected or ignored
by emergency aid programs. Under rising criticism for their untimely
and ineffective responses, international aid organizations have
come to acknowledge that food distribution campaigns should be
accompanied by development programs.
As the desert encroaches on Cameroon, subsistence farmers in
the north struggle to secure their family’s supply of sorghum,
the staple food. Insufficient rainfall and locust invasions make
for the recurrence of poor harvests. At the same time, high poverty
levels increase the people’s vulnerability to speculators
and usurers. At harvest time, the farmers sell some of their crops
to ensure educational and other pressing needs of their family.
With prices low, businessmen go back and forth between the villages
to buy up their food supplies and create shortages later in the
year. Once food becomes scarce, the speculators put their stocks
back on the market. As the families run out of their own supplies,
they are forced to sell livestock or borrow money to purchase
grain. By this time, prices are soaring for sorghum and plummeting
for livestock. The people’s living standards and their food
security spiral downward.
PC(USA)’s Joining Hands partner network in Cameroon, RELUFA,
recognized the exploitative speculation mechanisms on the food
markets as a systemic root cause of hunger and poverty in northern
Cameroon. A community grain banking system was identified as the
most appropriate response: it allows for self-governance of food
supplies by the farmers themselves. In January 2006, the network
launched its Food Sovereignty Program. A task force selected 18
villages to host the first grain banks. Community workers held
campaigns to help the villagers understand the grain banking system.
They helped them organize into groups and obtain legal status.
Each group made a storage room available to serve as its granary
and elected a management committee of six. This committee receives
ongoing training by the community workers in the operations, management,
and supervision of their grain bank.
Since the start of the dry sorghum harvest season in February,
RELUFA’s team has bought sorghum from small farmers and
stocked the granaries of the participating communities. During
the food shortages, between July and September, sorghum is sold
to group members for an agreed upon price or on credit. Surpluses
are sold outside the community at the market price. At the next
harvest time, the money earned on these sales serves as working
capital for the grain bank. It allows the community to buy up
sorghum from group members themselves to reconstitute and increase
the stock in their granary. Families that borrowed food from the
bank pay back in kind from their newly harvested crops. The management
committee awaits the next period of shortages before opening the
granary’s doors again. One bag of sorghum feeds a family
of six for about a month.
RELUFA’s strategy fights hunger, poverty, and economic
injustice at the same time.
- Hunger—The permanent supplies in the
village ensure the community’s own food needs. During
food shortages, the price for members can be less than a third
of the market price.
- Poverty—A village granary allows the
community to save one to two thousand dollars on 100 bags of
sorghum. Rather than using savings, selling livestock, or taking
out loans, all resources remain in the community. Furthermore,
the sale of any surpluses provides additional capital, increasing
the living standards of the community at large.
- Economic Injustice—The fact that subsistence
farmers have to buy back the produce of their own labor at more
than triple the price or go hungry is unfair. By creating community
grain banks, which purchase stocks from its affiliated farmers
ahead of the businessmen, the network curbs the exploitation
by speculators and usurers.
RELUFA’s
Web page on the program contains links to other related pages,
reports, and a series of photos I took during the 2006 yellow
sorghum harvest season.
The Food Sovereignty Program has been financed by Presbyterian
Disaster Assistance (PDA), the Presbyterian Hunger Program (PHP),
and the United Methodist Committee On Relief. Since PDA and PHP
are direct recipients of the One Great Hour of Sharing Offering
(OGHS), you have helped establish the community grain banks through
your 2005 contribution to OGHS. As this offering is held again
this Easter, please remember that your gift may enable RELUFA
to continue its program. Thank you!
Christi Boyd
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p. 315 |
