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25th Anniversary of Sasakawa Africa Association [2011/11/28]
 On the way to the SAA Reception (From right to left; President Soglo of Benin, Yohei Sasakawa, former President Obasanjo of Nigeria, President Touré of Mali, Agriculture Minister Alhassane of Mali) 25th Anniversary of Sasakawa Africa Association Anniversary Ceremony held in Mali The 25th anniversary of Sasakawa Africa Association was celebrated in Bamako, the capital of the Republic of Mali. It was a very successful ceremony with a large attendance including President Touré of Mali, former President Obasanjo of Nigeria, and former President Soglo of Benin as well as ministers of agriculture from different countries. It was also a great honor for me to have had the presence of the three Presidents at the memorial tree-planting of a baby Baobab. As I recall, it was in 1984 that Ryoichi Sasakawa ordered me to think of a good relief action for Ethiopia when he learned, watching a television program, of the serious famine that was devouring the country. I immediately called on our friend of many years, Dr. Norman Borlaug who is a world renowned agronomist and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate for his success in the Green Revolution in India and Pakistan, and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter. Our talks and negotiations resulted in the establishment of the Global 2000, a project to increase food production for the poor small scale farmers of Africa. To make a long story short, the SG 2000 had received much criticism from various groups during the years of its operation. The World Bank pressured us by saying that our project is contrary to their structural adjustment policy, environmental NGOs in Europe reproached us for polluting the African Continent with chemical fertilizers when the amount we used was less than one-tenth of what was being used in Europe. “ENOUGH: Why the world’s poorest starves in an age of plenty” written by Roger Thorow and Scott Kilman and translated into Japanese by Masaru Iwanaga has been published recently from Yushokan (\3,200 + tax). The two authors are journalists of The Wall Street Journal who have scrupulously collected data in Africa. They accuse the advanced countries as being responsible for their negligence, ignorance and opportunism bringing about a man-made disaster and a starving Africa. Many agricultural aid projects found difficulties in Africa with the World Bank structural adjustment policy and disinterested political leaders, and have been abandoned as projects that were not giving concrete results. It can well be said that we are the only private organization on the African Continent that have won through the fight for 25 years while being subjected to visible and invisible pressure from the advanced nations all the time. We have fought through with a slogan “Never Give Up”. Finally the world community is realizing that the structural adjustment policy of the World Bank was a mistake, and changes are being made to the obstinate policy that African food aid must only depend on the American agricultural products. There are more African government leaders who think that more than anything that is required of independent nations is self-sufficiency in food. Today, the Sasakawa Africa Association is able to receive financial support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) and the Nigerian government. The extension workers who coach and guide the farmers that we have educated through our Sasakawa Africa Scholarship at 11 universities numbers to over 3000 and many of the university graduates are working with the farmers in the field. The Sasakawa Africa Association has grown up into a big family of approximately 1000 people including drivers, cleaners and security guards. Dr. Ruth Oniang’o who is the leader of the Sasakawa Africa Association came to me looking very serious and saying, “Mr. Sasakawa! Ryoichi Sasakawa and Dr. Norman Borlaug are no longer with us today and I hear that President Carter is getting on in years and in failing health. Mr. Sasakawa!! The burden you have on your shoulders is very heavy, you know!” I countered her words saying “You know Ruth, I used to climb mountains in my younger days so I get more energetic and in better shape when the load is heavier.” If I am to receive any credit, it is only that I have consistently shown my will to continue, never drawing in my horns. All has been accomplished under the leadership of Executive Director Masaaki Miyamoto of the Association and Chris Doswell who is the favorite disciple of Dr. Borlaug, with the Borlaug spirit of “Never Give Up” and the concerted understanding that “no child must go to bed hungry” among all the people concerned, and the strong bond that binds them. 70-80% of the population of the African Continent is poor farmers. There is no escape from poverty without increased food production. I am certain that within 10 to 20 years, the synonym for African agriculture would be the “SASAKAWA” method. This 25th anniversary ceremony and the commemorative symposium made me renew the necessity to put in further effort so that indeed the “SASAKAWA” method shall reign. *Structural Adjustment is a plan to reform economic structure or economic policy that IMF and the World Bank impose on the governments of developing countries, and a new conditionality of abolishing all subsidies for a loan has been set up for agricultural aid. Therefore, despite the fact that the United States, Europe, Japan and many other countries have subsidy policy, aid for the agriculture sector has been eliminated. Even the Sasakawa Africa Fund for Extension Education which is the human resource development program of the Sasakawa Africa Association had been criticized, at a point in time, as a type of subsidy. |