JOHANNESBURG, 6 January 2011 (IRIN) - The record prices of staple
grains in 2008 made investment in agriculture an attractive
proposition for countries exporting as well as importing food. The
African Union (AU), with its mix of producers and buyers, has been
steadily gearing up for self-sufficiency.
Shortly after Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika became AU chair in
2010, he announced a plan to make Africa food secure in the next five
years.
Martin Bwalya, head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme (CAADP) said the AU's seven-year roadmap to put
the spotlight on farming so as to promote food security and economic
growth, and reduce poverty, had been set in motion five years ago.
By the end of 2010, the agriculture development plans of 18 African
countries had undergone a rigorous independent technical review and
were being rolled out.
Over 60 percent of Africa's people live in rural areas and most depend
on farming for food and income. Agriculture contributes between 20
percent and 60 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) to national
coffers.
In a document called The African Food Basket, Mutharika spelt out the
details of his plan, which requires countries to allocate a
substantial portion of their budget to agriculture, provide farming
input subsidies, and make available affordable information and
communications technology.
This would be possible with the help of a new strategic partnership
between countries, donors, aid agencies and the private sector.
CAADP, initiated in 2003, covers all the main aspects of Mutharika's
plan, including the commitment to devote at least 10 percent of their
budgets to agriculture.
Under the programme, countries draw up comprehensive investment plans
that include the four CAADP pillars: sustainable land and water
management; improved market access and integration; increased food
supplies and reduced hunger; and research, technology generation and
dissemination.
"We expect the countries to contribute at least 10 percent of the
annual expenditure budget demonstrating local ownership and
responsibility.", said Bwalya.
He added while development aid financing remained important, it was
also crucial that countries consider measures to attract direct
private sector financing to agriculture.
Uganda, one of the 18 states to undergo the review process, has
accounted for about 65 percent of its funding requirements from its
own budget.
The AU's development agency, the New Economic Partnership for Africa's
Development (NEPAD), which runs CAADP, helps countries to mobilize
funds.
Is achieving food self-sufficiency in five years a realistic goal? It
would be a tough call said Ousmane Badiane, director for Africa at the
US-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
He noted that the AU had 53 members with varying degrees of
agriculture investment, development and needs, and some countries did
not have the structural capacity to reach the target of food
self-sufficiency for many reasons including civil conflicts.
Going regional
A more realistic option, Badiane said, would be for countries with the
potential to improve food production to produce enough to feed their
less productive neighbours. This called for expanding regional trade
and investment in transportation, including ports, railways and
highways linking countries.
AU members have begun to take regional economic integration
"seriously", noted Calestous Juma, professor of international
development at Harvard University in his recently released book, The
New Harvest.
He lists regional markets as one of the three opportunities that could
fortify Africa's food security against the rising threat of climate
change.
There are at least eight Regional Economic Communities (RECs), such as
the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the
East African Community (EAC) "that are recognized by the AU as
building blocks for pan-African economic integration". However,
"regional cooperation in agriculture is in its infancy and major
challenges lie ahead."
Regions could become food secure "by capitalizing on the different
growing seasons in different countries and making products available
in all areas for longer periods of time", he wrote.
Both Mutharika and CAADP emphasize the development of regional
markets. Mutharika listed 12 regional trade corridors identified by
the various RECs and suggested the AU draw up an institutional
framework for each corridor.
Science and technology
In his book Juma lists advances in science and technology as another
factor that could propel Africa towards food self-sufficiency, and
called for more investment in the creation of regional hubs of
research and innovation.
Research is being carried out by groups created under NEPAD, such as
the Biosciences Eastern and Central Africa Network (BecANet), which
has been leading research on food crops, including banana, teff,
cassava, sorghum and sweet potatoes. More investment in networks,
especially agriculture-related ones, could produce far-reaching
results.
Subsidies
Underuse of fertilizers has often been cited as a major cause of low
production in Africa. Only four countries - Egypt, Malawi, Mauritius
and South Africa - have exceeded the 50 kg per hectare target set by
the AU, Mutharika noted in his plan.
Fertilizer use in Africa accounts for less than 10 percent of the
world average of 100 kg per hectare, "Just five countries (Ethiopia,
Kenya, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Nigeria) account for about
two-thirds of the fertilizer applied in Africa," Juma said.
Mutharika, who promoted the provision of subsidised fertilizer in
Malawi, makes a strong case for this approach. At present 19 African
countries are implementing various programmes providing fertilizer.
Juma sees leaders like Mutharika, who has prioritized food security as
the third factor that could set Africa on the path to food security.
The Malawian government devotes 16 percent of its national budget to
agriculture.
Yet IFPRI's Badiane sounded a note of caution on subsidies and cited
the case of Senegal. After independence the West African country put
in place an agriculture subsidy programme in the 1960s that was even
more comprehensive than Malawi's. "It had a dramatic effect on
agriculture in Senegal, but by 1979 one of its [agriculture] agencies
had worked up a deficit amounting to 98 percent of the national
budget."
Carefully managed subsidies, run for a short term, and aimed at
strengthening existing markets and agricultural infrastructure, were a
lot more effective, he said.
The Rwandan government provided free fertilizer to farmers for four
years after 1994. In 1998 it wanted to hand over importing and
distribution to the private sector, which unfortunately lacked
capacity, so the government continued to procure and import fertilizer
but left distribution and selling to the private sector.
Since then, aid from financial institutions has helped the private
sector build capacity to import, and at least 20 bodies now import
several hundred tonnes of fertilizer, Badiane said.
Way forward
The AU's plans for agriculture also tackle other major issues
affecting food security, such as irrigation (only four percent of
Africa's crop area is irrigated, compared to 39 percent in South
Asia); improving soil fertility (more than three percent of
agricultural GDP in Africa is lost annually as a direct result of soil
and nutrient loss); post-harvest storage loss (sub-Saharan Africa
loses about 40 percent of its harvest per year, against one percent in
Europe); setting up databanks to share early warning information and
energy.
There is a high level of engagement between countries on agriculture.
"They meet regularly and we support them in building evidence-based
information," CAADP's Bwalya noted.
If they stayed the course in implementing CAADP, Badiane said in five
years a large number of African countries, if not food secure, would
be in a much better position to feed themselves.
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[END]
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