As farmers protest across Europe, blockading cities, smashing through police barricades, and dumping manure, European politicians are falling over themselves to promise increased trade barriers against African food and agriculture imports.
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When the European Union launched its Green Deal climate action plan in 2019, with the noble aim of reducing the emissions driving climate change, it threw in an extra green target of phasing out the use of pesticides.
It seemed a sweet political move for the European Commission at the time, following countless distorted campaigns from environmentalists.
But, as the pest losses mounted, European producers began protesting against ‘unfair’ competition from imports still allowed to use pest protection, very often from Africa.
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Africans cannot survive if maize is left for the Fall Armyworm that destroys up to 70 per cent of crops, or cocoa is given up to mirids that also damage over 70 percent, wheat to complete destruction from leaf rust, and coffee to coffee berry borer.
African governments are juggling between limiting their export collapse – to maintain import funds without which all development slows – and ensuring food production and food security at home.
