Great for the GDP. Great for the people?

Not that I expected Sudan's Government to be anything less than ruthless, but its brazen trade policy still leaves me appalled.

Here's a quick recap on what Sudan is all about:
-- civil war has torn the country, creating a malnourished nation of refugees.
-- international donors are sending in supplies including enormous food-aid to support the nation.

Now to add to that description: the government itself is apathetically EXPORTING food to make money while its people struggle with hunger.

In an article that has appeared in at least two major newspapers, Gettleman exposes the practice:

Sudan is growing and selling vast quantities of its own crops to other countries, capitalizing on high global food prices at a time when millions of people in its war-riddled region of Darfur barely have enough to eat.

Jeffrey Gettleman

You can read the full article here.

Of course, this is not the first case where a country with famished citizens decided to give a priority to making money.

For instance, we in India - where more than one-fourth of the world's poor live with malnutrition for company, have exported food in the past, have good reasons to continue doing so in the future.
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Or do we?

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I doubt clamping exports alone will solve India's food problems in a jiffy. But designing systems that can supply food to the poor will certainly be time better spent than say, having expositions on how exporting only high quality non-basmati is a good compromise.