'India can help raise incomes in Africa'

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: In his first speech after becoming the director-general of United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) in December 2005, Kandeh Yumkella reminded his staff that he is from a country listed among the world’s poorest—Sierra Leone. He has since been inspiring his team to alleviate poverty, in practice, not in theory. In an exclusive interview to FE’s Ashok B Sharma and Arun S, the Unido head, who is also the current UN Energy chairman, spoke about long-term solutions to food shortages and why India needs to look at Africa as a potential market. Excerpts:

Q Due to the rising prices, the poor countries find it difficult to import food. Also, there are very few players at the global level in the food trade. What measures do you suggest to deal with this situation?

The key strategy is to enhance the capacity of countries to be more involved in the agri-business and agro-industries. We need to strengthen the capacity of developing countries to add more value to what they produce and to reduce post-harvest losses. Also, we need to attract investment into these countries where we know there is arable land and available labour to produce food products for the world.

Regarding the oligopoly nature of the global market, we can have more players only when more countries begin to invest in the agro-industries. Those who made the first move, 50 years ago or a century ago, will definitely dominate the markets. But I am very confident that other players will come in. Take India for instance, where we know that Reliance and other players are doing well in terms of supermarket chains and getting supplies from the rural areas.

Other countries need to follow such strategies as well in getting more investments in developing supply chains and in the domestic markets, and also to enter the regional and global markets.

Q The biofuel programme comes under the agro-industry category, but it has contributed to the price rise. What do you have to say?