Stop Paying Lip-Service To Agriculture

African governments have been asked to stop paying lip-service to agriculture and implement policies that will help transform the sector into a profitable business venture.

The Chairman of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kofi Annan, who disclosed this during the African Green Revolution forum at the Accra International Conference Centre yesterday, said the continent is currently facing huge challenges in its effort to end poverty, hunger and transform agriculture into an engine of economic development because of weak policy support, lack of finance and markets especially for smallholder farmers.

“The time to invest in African agriculture and smallholder farmers is now.  Let us leave this forum with determination to transform smallholder farms into productive profitable businesses and to help ensure an Africa, which is food and nutrition secure and prosperous.

Our smallholder farmers are poised to deliver long-term solutions to hunger and poverty but they need supportive policies, better access to finance and markets,” he said.

Africa has the singular and tragic distinction of being the only place in the world where overall food security and livelihoods are deteriorating.

According to statistics from AGRA, the number of Africans living below the poverty line ($1 per day) has increased by 50 percent over the last 15 years.

It is estimated that one-third of the continent's population suffer from hunger and that in the past five years alone, the number of underweight children in Africa rose by about 12 percent.

A root cause of this entrenched and deepening poverty is the fact that millions of small-scale farmers, majority of whom are women, cannot grow enough food to sustain their families and communities, let alone their countries.

The challenges confronting Africa's small-scale farmers start in the field and extend across the entire agricultural value chain.

Most African farmers can neither access nor afford the necessary farm inputs.

Quality seeds, organic and mineral fertilizers which are required to replenish depleted soils, and simple water management systems that allow farmers to deal with erratic rains, are largely beyond their reach.

Furthermore, untarred roads inhibit transport while strong market and finance systems are missing. Research from AGRA shows that since the early 1960s, agriculture in Africa has declined in myriad ways.

The research shows that Africa has gone from being a net food exporter to a net food importer, and that per capita food production has declined as the population grows.

Africa's population growth rate of three percent a year has outstripped the two percent annual increase in food production.

During his tenure as Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan called for a new “uniquely African Green Revolution that will help the continent in its quest for dignity and peace.”

To break the cycles of hunger and poverty, AGRA is responding to the cry of African leaders by building African-led partnerships that draw upon the knowledge of Africa's farmers, apply the lessons of modern agriculture and work across the agricultural value chain while rigorously monitoring impacts in terms of equity and environmental sustainability.

AGRA strongly believes that smallholder farmers in Africa need the support of government through policies that promote sustainable and productive agriculture and ensure accessible markets.

So far, AGRA has worked to provide smallholder farmers with soil nutrients and improved transport, credit, seeds, irrigation facilities, extension services and market information, all of which are expected to boost agricultural production on the continent.

“Africa's smallholder farmers are the people who grow our food. Transformative change will enable them to leave behind subsistence farming to run their farms as businesses, and to market their surpluses,” Mr Annan stated, calling on commercial farms to provide opportunities for aggregation and uptake of new technologies.

The African Green Revolution forum is expected to end on September 4, 2010.  

The event, which is being attended by African heads of state, industry players, the international donor community and farmers, is expected to solely focus on agricultural development It is one of the continent's major gatherings of players in the public and private sectors which.

The main aim of AGRA is to achieve a food secure and prosperous Africa through the promotion of rapid, sustainable agricultural growth based on smallholder farmers.

By Felix Dela Klutse