TORONTO — The Conservative government’s 2008 decision to divorce its international food aid contributions from domestic food sources has made Canadian aid efforts more effective, says a University of Manitoba researcher.
Ryan Cardwell, an associate professor in the department of agribusiness and agricultural economics, said Canadian aid to support millions of hungry and displaced refugees in Africa’s Sahel region this year stretches much farther because of the change in policy.
“Untying our aid from domestic supply was the biggest and most effective and positive change in Canadian food aid policy in a very long time,” he said.
Read Also
Canola council cuts field agronomy team
The Canola Council of Canada is cutting its agronomy team as part of a “refreshed strategic framework.”
“Clearly the amount of aid we can provide is greater, it gets there faster and at less cost.”
Led by former international co-operation minister Bev Oda, the government decided four years ago to end the requirement that at least 50 percent of food aid destined for overseas recipients be bought in Canada.
The domestic sourcing requirement had previously been 90 percent in an era when international food aid was considered in large part a support policy for Canadian farmers and food producers with surplus to sell.
Since 2008, Canadian aid is provided as money that is used to buy food from farmers in the affected region when possible and then moved to the food-deficient area. This reduces the time it takes to get aid to the region and the cost of the food while supporting local farmers in the stricken region.
“It was a very important policy shift,” said Cardwell.
In an earlier presentation to a Canadian Agricultural Trade Policy and Competitiveness Research Network meeting in Toronto, Cardwell said the ability to source most food aid in the affected region from countries with food surpluses has helped soften the impact that high commodity prices have on the amount of food aid available in crises or lingering food deficiency situations.
His research has shown a clear connection between higher commodity prices and reduced volumes of food aid available as aid agencies with limited budgets struggle to do more with less.
The 2008 decision also freed Canada’s food aid program from the requirement to buy grain from the then-monopoly CWB, which charged premium prices and often supplied higher-protein grain than was necessary for the food aid program, he said.
“It was a very inefficient way to subsidize Canadian grain farmers, but it put more money into the pool,” he said. “Aid agencies had no option but to buy from the board.”
Cardwell said the United States remains the last major aid player to require that its donations be sourced from U.S. stocks.
