Authors : Mamadou Saliou Ly and Xuecheng Dou
Affiliated organization : International Journal of Economics and Finance
Type of publication : Article
Date of publication : October 10, 2020
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Economic Situation
Ginea’s economy relies heavily on agriculture as well as other rural activities and besides that, it is richly endowed with minerals whereby the country has both gold and bauxite reserves. The country’s gross domestic product stands at $10.91 billion as per the 2018 report of the World Bank. The country has potential agricultural production, but its domestic production has not sufficed the market demand, and that is why the country is currently importing more than 25% of its staple food requirements.
Despite the market monitoring activity, which is handled by various organizations, both private and government entities, there is still the issue of limited information flows and coordination. The results here are the poor analysis of the performance of products in the market as well as lack of continuous and complete price data series. Despite being rich in terms of natural resources, the nation of Guinea still faces a significant amount of socio-economic challenges, with the most notable one being its poverty index. The nation has roughly 21.8% of households living under a food-insecure state with malnutrition being high. The most vulnerable part of this country that is affected by food deficiency and food insecurity is the rural populations who are reported to be 71.1%, subsistence farmers.
Food Security Regarding Supply and Demand
Proper use of fertilizers will help in boosting the productivity of the farms hence making it possible for the farmers to increase their input effort into the country food cycle. The main entities in the course of training farmers on the use of fertilizers include timing adjustments, type, and placement of fertilizers. It, therefore, means that the farmers will not be incurring losses through ignorance, such as using the wrong type of fertilizers of using them during the wrong time. The continuous rise in the population also means that there will be food insecurity due to inadequate food supply.
The nation has roughly 21.8% of households living under a food-insecure state with malnutrition being high
The demand for food will rise with the rise in the population, which implies that there will be a need to increase food production to curb this situation. There is a need for the government to also curb the population increase through educations such as family planning and controlled population. Those living in rural areas are still naïve with such things, and as such, they give birth to more children than they can feed. High population means that there will be high food demands, which will consequently lead to an increase in the possibility of food insecurity. The government, through relevant ministries, should plan on how it can create equilibrium in this situation by putting in place mechanisms that will help in increasing food supply.
Import and Distribution
Farmers in Guinea have been suffering because of the high level of imported foods and foodstuffs. The irony part of this case is that the products being imported are the same products that can be grown in the country. If these importations continue, the farmers will end up ditching farming and farming activities, and that is how the food insecurity will hit. The nation will now suffer because the farmers will no longer be willing to produce foods due to inflated prices.
Once the food demands go high, the smugglers and other food importers will raise the prices of these commodities hence making it hard for the consumers to purchase them. Among the most notable ways of improving food production is land consolidation. This means that the government should start consolidating lands and moving people out of densely populated areas, which are rich agricultural lands to urban areas with the least agricultural value.
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