World Bank and IMF hurt poor farmers, says Oxfam

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are making farmers in southern Africa poorer and more vulnerable by removing all of their subsidies, Oxfam said yesterday.

Calling on delegates at the Earth Summit in Johannesburg to address the region's food needs urgently, the report called Death on the Doorstep of the Summit said a combination of climate, bad governance, Aids and debt had left 6 million people in southern Africa facing critical food shortages. Oxfam rebuked the World Bank and the IMF for abandoning all subsidies on maize and fertiliser in Mozambique, Zambia and Malawi.

"For 15 years ... little attention has been given to the likely impact on the poorest farmers in remote areas," the environment conference in South Africa was told. The bank's farm loans had dropped by a third, the report said.