FEATURE-Mali blames U.S. farm subsidies for cotton woes
14 Feb 2007 18:03:50 GMT Source: Reuters
By Daniel Flynn DAMAN, Mali, Feb 14 (Reuters) - Lying in the shade of an acacia tree, Malik Kulubali recalls a distant time when lions prowled the villages of southern Mali and the capital Bamako was little more than a village. "I'm more than 130 years old ...and I've always lived in this village," said the wrinkled old man in his white Muslim kufi, a doyen of a traditional society rapidly disappearing from Africa as millions of people flock to the cities. Exacerbating the rural exodus in Mali is a tumble in the price of cotton -- the West African country's staple crop -- that has left many farmers in penury. The government blames U.S. domestic farm subsidies for the slump. As trade officials gather in Geneva to resume the Doha round of talks on cutting tariffs, Mali -- the leading cotton producer in West and Central Africa -- is leading calls for rich nations to end subsidies, which it says harm 15 million people across the region. During Kulibali's 50 years as village chief of Daman, the settlement of some 2,000 people has been transformed. All but one of Kulubali's 14 children have left for the city. Fields of cotton plants stretch out from Daman, 65 kilometres (40 miles) southeast of Bamako, their stems parched and bare as the dry season bites. "More than half the land hasn't been planted because many people can't get loans to buy the materials," said El Hadj Kulubali, 78, in line to become chief when his father dies. The meagre 150 CFA francs (30 cents) per kilogram he receives for his cotton is barely enough to cover his costs. "People are worried that at the end of the season they will have little money and debt hanging over them." "NO WORK" Life among the mud huts is hard. The dusty harmattan wind from the Sahara whips along the narrow streets and youths complain of the endless diet of "to," glutinous millet patties. Every year in the dry season youths from villages like this across landlocked Mali drift to Bamako in search of work, and many do not return. Bamako's population has boomed from 160,000 in 1960 to an estimated 1.2 million. "In my village, there was no work so I left to come to Bamako alone. Now I support my family," said Abdoulaye Sidibe, 28, a tourist guide in the capital. "I am the eldest, and I have seven brothers and one sister to look after." With rural depopulation galloping faster than anywhere in the world, the United Nations estimates over half Africa's 700 million people will live in towns by 2030. President Amadou Toumani Toure has told U.S. lawmakers that low agricultural prices are fuelling rural depopulation and urban unrest and even creating "breeding grounds for terrorism". Representatives of the United States' 10,000 cotton growers -- the world's largest exporters -- say rising output from new sources like India and Brazil is to blame. But trade campaigners say U.S. subsidies have cut cotton prices by 12 percent. Agriculture employs four-fifths of Mali's workforce. But farmers are finding themselves caught in a vice between low international prices and mounting World Bank pressure on the government to remove its own subsidies. The state cotton company Compagnie Malienne pour le Developpement des Textiles (CMDT), which used to fund rural development schemes, is due to be privatised next year. "Since the beginning of 2005 there has been a drop of around 20 percent in prices received by cotton farmers in Mali," said Sally Baden, cotton project manager for Oxfam in West Africa. Many poor farmers have been forced to sell livestock and equipment to pay debts, lowering their productivity, she said. "In cotton growing areas, there seems to have been quite a significant outflux of people, especially young adult males involved in farming," said Baden. "Other countries are being allowed to support their cotton farmers -- but not Mali!" SPONTANEOUS NEIGHBOURHOODS With a stable democratic government in place since 1991, Mali has fared better than many neighbouring countries in economic terms. Thanks to strong gold prices and a healthy tourist sector, the economy grew by 5 percent last year. The streets of Bamako appear clean and orderly compared to other regional capitals. But hawkers still throng the downtown area and sprawling, rubbish-strewn shanties ring the cities' outskirts, with no electricity, running water or sewers. Mali has been among the first countries in West Africa to attempt decentralisation, placing more power in the hands of regional governments and local communes. But that has failed to stem the tide. "In Bamako, we now have slums -- spontaneous neighbourhoods, we call them -- with problems of insecurity, prostitution and disease," said Bibi Diawara of Mali's National Census Office. With few options, many young Malians risk their lives in a perilous trek across the Sahara to the Mediterranean or in ramshackle boats to Spain's Canary Islands in the hope of an easier life in Europe. Abdoulaye Sidibe rents a room in a bare concrete house in one poor Bamako neighbourhood. There is no running water and groups of young men sit around on street corners. "People who grow up in the cities do not have they same manners as villagers," said Sidibe, a strict Muslim married to a 15-year-old wife. "They get drunk. They chase women."
