Is Africa Becoming China’s Bread Basket?
Martin McCauley writes: China has traditionally been a hungry country. Floods and famine were scourges which haunted the Middle Kingdom’s rulers for centuries. Social unrest flared when there was not enough to eat. One of the achievements of the People’s Republic has been to solve the age old problem of producing enough food to feed the growing population. The one child policy, adopted in 1979, was used to prevent population increase. Beijing claims that it has prevented the birth of almost 300 million children since then. Now only about 20 million are added to the total every year.The one child policy has its downside. One is that families prefer male children. They are pampered (and called ‘little emperors’) and can behave irresponsibly. One family I know has been devastated by their only son. The parents have even moved out of the family flat in order to live a more peaceful life. Another downside is that there is a severe shortage of girls building up. Tales of the kidnapping of gi
