PRESS RELEASE
Development Minister Gerd Müller Promotes High-Productivity ‘Green Revolution’ for Africa
April 1, 2016 (EIRNS)—Concluding his visit to Kenya with trips to agricultural development projects funded by his ministry, German Development Minister Gerd Müller said yesterday that one of the most important things that should be done is a "new Green Revolution," a strategy to improve the productivity of farming in Africa. The output of African agriculture has to be doubled at least, he said, to relieve 200 million Africans from hunger noting that in many areas, as well as in Kenya, African farming still operates as German farmers did in the 1950s.
The German minister noted that although dairy farming in Africa cannot jump instantly to the productivity levels of German dairy farmers, a lot can and will be done by his ministry to achieve rapid progress in African countries. Müller actually comes from a family in the dairy-producing sector of Germany.
The ministry is presently funding agricultural cooperatives with €140 million annually. That certainly is not sufficient, Müller conceded, criticizing the fact that Germany seems to be the only Western country attempting to address the problem. He said he wished he could take all European leaders and many others to the huge Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya which he just visited, so they could see what the real situation of these refugees is, and what it will become if the Western countries don’t act in time.
Education, good professional training in the crafts but also in industrial jobs and investments are crucial, and they must be made available soon, Müller warned, because 50% of the young Africans are jobless, which is a time-bomb if the young generation of Africa has no other option than escaping as refugees to Europe. "Europe needs a totally new Africa policy," he said, "Europe has to see Africa as its neighboring continent, it has to take care," Müller said.
