"Ending Famine, Simply by Ignoring the Experts"

This article is about fertilizer and seed subsidies in Malawi. Here's the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/africa/02malawi.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&th&emc=th

It is pretty well-balanced, I think, in terms of who gets the most voice. There is plenty of background, and both the President and Agriculture Ministry officials commented. There were a few Western economists, too. The article ends by showing the process that a village, Chembe, used to decide which families would get access to their allotment of fertilizer and seed subsidies.

The article essentially says that Western leaders, including those at the World Bank, have discouraged Malawians from using subsidies for fertilizer. Instead, they have emphasized that farmers should use their land to grow cash crops, and use their profits to import food. However, Malawian soil--and that in much of sub-Saharan Africa--is so badly depleted that fertilizer is practically a necessity at this point.

Most Western nations, especially Great Britian and the United States, subsidize their own farmers for a variety of crops.

This year, a new subsidy program for seed and fertilizer, combined with good rains, resulted in an excess food crop. Malawi was in a position to export corn to other nations for the first time in years.

Although some economists caution that it is difficult to say how much of the crop surplus can be attributed to the rain, and urge caution to ensure future benefit to farmers, the program seems at present to be a success.

This article spread out the boring but necessary information well, and used enough quotes to make the issue seem almost like a round-table discussion. There was a seamless quality about the way different interviewees responded to each others' concerns. The tone was overall optimistic, which appears to mirror Malawians' feelings.