Africa has the capacity to feed the world yet growing enough to feed Africa by Africans has been a challenge despite several interventions. Why is this so?
Africa can feed itself and indeed earn billions and avoid food crises. The challenge with growing enough foods in Africa is intricately interwoven with the governance because many of the challenges facing agriculture are systemic and can be fixed only at higher level. The challenge is multi-faceted and ranges from the lack inadequate investments by Governments, inadequate access to technologies leading to low farm productivity, inadequate market access for producers, food wastes and losses from postharvest operations. Other factors include insecurity, population explosion, management of transboundary resources and political instability.
To be successful, interventions have to be holistic and address the multiple challenges simultaneously hence a systemic approach is required to fix what is broken in various segments. It is like the spokes of a wheel. Some people believe that Africa indeed produces enough food but infrastructural challenges impede the opportunity to move food from areas of the ability to trade regionally and move food across borders. The ability to trade regionally and move food across borders is severely limited by lack of infrastructure as well as by the challenges of cross-border trade.
But all these are challenges that can be resolved through cooperation and working together at sub-national, national and regional level to benefit farmers and consumers. Significant progress has been made, and there is potential for much more.
Beyond quantity, there is also the issue of inadequate calories/nutrition in food available to majority of Africans. What is AGRA doing to ensure African Agric meet the calories need of Africans?
Smallholder farmers produce bulk of the food consumed on the African continent. AGRA supports them to raise productivity on their farms by facilitating access to improved technologies such as new varieties of seeds (Pro-Vitamin A, Quality Protein Maize, Cowpea and Vegetables), fertilizers, crop protection products and good agricultural practices. AGRA also facilitates access by these farmers to profitable and sustainable markets to enable them translate marketable surplus to income to spend on additional nutrients outside their farm production. government to support increased productivity, resilience and nutrition.
AGRA also works with governments to strengthen execution capacity while enhancing the transparency, accountability systems and policy environment for increased public and private sector investment in agriculture. This is because Governments have the major responsibility for feed its people and AGRA’s mission is to support them to actualize the vision of a food-secure continent.
There is suspicion around the provision of needed improved seeds – especially over affordability and safety. How do we resolve this?
The proponents of farmers using own seeds do not fully grasp the implication of farmers recycling seeds over a long period of time. In many cases, what the farmers plant are ‘grains’ which are distinct from seeds. Recycled seeds loose viability over time and this is the main reason why yields continue to decline. Evidence from research and experience working with farmers have shown that farmers are able to recoup the costs of investments in inputs if they are able to access it. This is the reason why we also support governments and private sector on financing for farmers to make the needed investments in the production to raise productivity and also to enhance the nutrient base for sustained production.
AGRA does NOT promote GMOs. Africa still has a substantial gap between actual yields and potential yields from our staple crops using conventional breeding techniques. We can still double yields for most of our staples using conventional breeding. The question of safety rests largely with national governments who make decisions on agriculture strategy for their countries. AGRA works with Governments on their national priorities.
Access to Land is also a major issue for African agriculture. How do we get land to those who will make it more productive without displacing small holders who had been working the land for centuries and also ensure environmental sustainability?
Land is very critical factor for food production and the issues of land reform has attracted attention of Governments and scientist for many years. First, given the limited scope for opening up new lands or expanding farm sizes, use of purchased inputs to enhance the productivity of our farmland is imperative.
Land consolidation makes it possible for farmers to farm contiguous piece of lands where access to mechanization and other technologies of production becomes much more feasible and profitable. Besides, there are models for investors to involve communities in farm businesses without necessarily displacing them or turning them to farm labor on their own lands. This is what policy makers
In Nigeria, for instance, there is this clash between the needs of herders and farmers. How engaged are you with the Nigerian government in providing a pathway to resolve this? What would you suggest as the solutions to this crisis?
AGRA works with the Government of Nigeria at both the Federal and State levels to support inclusive agricultural transformation. AGRA’s support is facilitated through mobilization of investors for the National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) through Agribusiness Dealroom alongside support of our partner, Tony Blair Institute. The best approach is to work out a system that allows both to exist without conflict and this is what the National Livestock Transformation Plan seeks to do with the support of other development partners including the BMGF. The age-long practice of transhumance and shifting cultivation are simply unsustainable in environments where land markets are fast developing and modern methods of socially acceptable ranching models are needed.
Some activists argue that AGRA promotes big Agro at the expense of small farmers. Is this a fair assessment?
Quite frankly, this is not an informed argument. AGRA’s focus is the smallholder farmers and over 90 percent of the millions of smallholder supported by AGRA own less than 2 hectares. Our partnership with leading private sector champions in the input and output markets are to leverage entire ecosystem and build partnerships around knowledge, intelligence sharing, improving integration and coordination which lead to investments beneficial to smallholder farmers. You may even aver and correctly so, that “No small holder farmers, No AGRA”.
How do you ensure your work gets the buy-in of African governments and non-governmental organisations?
AGRA’s strategy is well-aligned with the national policies of various governments on agricultural transformation at both national and sub-national levels based on co-creation of investment priorities as detailed in the Country Operational Plans. AGRA also works with the leadership of the Ministries of Agriculture, the NEPAD, Africa Union and other regional bodies such as ECOWAS, and COMESA to hold Joint Sector and Biennial Reviews that stimulate peer learning, and encourage feedback and accountability. AGRA supports policy reforms to untie many knots in agricultural transformation and many of the partners working on this are non-governmental organizations.