KENYA/UK: Changing economic partnership agreements with the West and growing environmental concerns threaten the livelihoods of African farmers

Changing economic partnership agreements with the West and growing environmental concerns threaten the livelihoods of African farmers. Douglas Ruhiu owns a farm 40 kilometres outside of the Kenyan capital Nairobi. He is a horticultural farmer growing butternuts, green peppers and melons for sale locally. He makes a profit of about 600 US dollars annually. But Ruhiu believes his farm is under threat. Like many activists around the world, Ruhiu says a contentious new trade deal with the European Union known as the Economic partnership agreement or EPA will destroy his livelihood. Kenya currently exports goods to European countries duty free. Under the deal, the country will have to open up its own market to EU goods and services. 80% of the imports will have to be duty free. European farmers enjoy government subsidies that end up lowering the cost of their goods. Douglas is afraid that he won't keep up with the competition and may even have to lay off some of his workers. According to activists here, 300,000 Kenyans will immediately lose their jobs if the EPA's are implemented. "I don't get any subsidies here I depend on my own and then without the subsidies the EU is getting I am now being told through EPAs that we will go to the same market with an EU farmer. My production expenses is very high compared to an EU farmer so he will be able to sell his produce cheaper than me and yet we will be on the same market, we cant do it," says Ruhiu. Many Kenyan farmers haven't even heard about the EPA's, let alone how they will affect them. It's the reason Douglas calls regular meetings to create awareness. "Douglas came to our house and told us there is something happening, something that is going to oppress us and would in turn make us go back to begging for aid while we were starting to uplift ourselves. It seems we are going to take a step backwards again," said Virginia Nugari Mbuthia, a farmer. The EPAs and western agricultural subsidies are not the only problems that African farmers are currently grappling with. Kenya, for instance, is also the continent's biggest horticulture exporter. However once African products get onto European shelves, they face the carbon miles challenge. According to environmentalists, carbon emissions released during transportation of agricultural produce from Africa to Europe are a major cause of pollution. The longer a commodity has travelled, the more carbon is released in the air. Retailers like supermarket chain Tesco in the United Kingdom are putting carbon labels on up to 30 products at the moment. They encourage customers to look at how far commodities have travelled before they buy them. "Well I would definitely buy home grown in this country rather than fetching it from Africa, or any other country abroad," said Irene Barlow, a shopper at Tesco Supermarket. Trevor Datson, Tesco Supermarket's Environmental Spokesman said it was the supermarket's responsibility to give customers information about products on the shelves. "It's important as a company we reduce our carbon emissions as much as we can, but also what our customers tell us is that they need the information to make greener choices and after all we've got something like 20 million customers going through the tills each week, if each one of those is making a greener choice in consumption you are really getting somewhere, but in order to do that you need the information," said Datson. Toby Webb works for an organisation that advises Britain's Conservative political Party on environmental policies. He is concerned about how the United Kingdom is handling the carbon miles issue. "Labelling is by no means a panacea and I think in many ways if it's not done very, very carefully and with great care then actually it will just confuse consumers, not cut carbon emissions and end up possibly disadvantaging poor farmers in Africa. So if it's not done well and thought through everybody loses," said Webb. These issues will have to be addressed quickly. The European Union is also negotiating Economic Partnership agreement's with other countries in the Caribbean and Pacific regions. Though talks are ongoing, Kenya has to sign the deal by the end of the year or face European import tariffs of up to 25%. African countries must now find a way to ensure that the global market they fought so hard to compete in, doesn't end up as the very system that works against them.

ITN Source | November 23, 2007

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