Staple Crops Processing ZonesA Flagship Program of the Feed Africa Strategy

Transforming African Agriculture: The Feed Africa Agenda

The transformation of African agriculture islong overdue and it is the only way to un-lock Africa's enormous potential. The Afri-can Development Bankʼs agenda aptlytermed “Feed Africa” focuses on 18 prioritycommodities across the five agro-ecologi-cal zones of Africa and has set the targetsof raising Africa's 2015 food production byan estimated 174 million metric tons (seeFigure 1).

Such an increase in production requires thedevelopment of allied agro-industries to ab-sorb the expected additional production,add value to it, produce and market highquality and nutritious food products to re-place current over-dependence on imports,and in the process, create business andemployment opportunities at all stages ofagricultural value chains.

Figure 1 Total African supply and demand of key commodities in 2015, projected demand for 2025 and

additional production to reach self-sufficiency

What are Staple Crops Processing Zones (SCPZs)?Staple Crops Processing Zones (in some instances mayalso be known as Agro-Industrial Parks, AgribusinessParks, Mega Food Parks, Agropoles, Agro-clusters, etc.)are agro-based spatial development initiatives designedto concentrate agro-processing activities within areas ofhigh agricultural potential to boost productivity and inte-grate production, processing and marketing of selectedcommodities. These initiatives may or may not be grantedSpecial Economic Zones status.

They are purposely built shared facilities, to enable agri-cultural producers, processors, aggregators and distribu-tors to operate in the same vicinity to reduce transactioncosts and share business development services for in-creased productivity and competitiveness.

By bringing adequate infrastructure (energy, water, roads,ICT) to rural areas of high agricultural potential, they at-tract investments from private agro-industrialists/entrepre-neurs to contribute to the economic and socialdevelopment of rural areas.

Staple Crops Processing

Zones

What are we trying to achieve through Staple CropsProcessing Zones (SCPZs)?

The ultimate aim of SCPZs is to turn the African rurallandscape into economic zones of prosperity SCPZsare intended to lay the foundation for Africaʼs agro-in-dustrialization and contribute to lifting millions of Afri-cans out of poverty.

SCPZ objectives include:

- Increasing food production capacity and efficiency. - Increasing value addition to agriculture. - Promoting local, regional and international trade. - Promoting investments in agribusiness. - Increasing the contribution of the agriculture sector to

GDP, wealth and employment creation. Source : http://footage.framepool.com/shotimg/qf/703743477-irriga-tion-serre-botanique-agriculture-industrielle-pays-bas.jpg

Essential components of a Staple Crops ProcessingZone (SCPZ)

An Agro-Processing Hub,

is a well-defined, centrally managed tract of land develo-ped, subdivided and dedicated to supporting firms andother stakeholders engaged in agro-processing and rela-ted activities located throughout the production area sur-rounding the hub. (FAO, 2017);

The hub offers adequate infrastructure, logistics and spe-cialized facilities and services (e.g. electricity, water, coldchain facilities, laboratory and certification services, busi-ness services, ICT, waste treatment, etc.) required foragro-industrial activities (Figure 2).

The ownership and management of the hub is controlledby a dedicated and independent entity, often in a public-private partnership arrangement.

Agricultural Transformation Centers (ATC)

For each SCPZ, a number of Agricultural TransformationCenters (ATCs) are strategically located within the pro-duction area to serve as aggregation points to accumulateproducts from the community to supply the Agro-Proces-sing Hub for further value addition or send to centers ofgreat demand for distribution and retail to consumers;

The ATC is a physical complex of facilities centrally loca-ted in the middle of a farming community, where requiredservices are offered to farmers, including crop drying fa-cilities, cold stores and warehouses, farm equipment ren-tal and maintenance services, crop handling, grading,storage, and processing for increased shelf life; livestockhandling, slaughtering and meat packing; fish handling,grading and processing; food quality and safety controland certification; distribution and marketing platforms (Fi-gure 3).

What are the Key Success Factors for an SCPZ?Overall, an SCPZ should be based on a national action plan for agricultural transformationthat targets areas of high agricultural potential and builds the needed infrastructure to attractprivate investments in agro-processing activities and associated agricultural production. Theprogram must be supported by policies and regulations that facilitate public-private partner-ships and foster a conducive business climate. Such policies and regulations are prerequisitesfor a successful SCPZ programme.

SCPZ must be Government-enabled (facilitator) but private sector-led (manager). The effec-tiveness of private sector implementation is a necessity for the success of the SCPZ program.Governments' role must be to facilitate the program by creating a conducive policy and regu-

latory environment and investing in the essential economic infrastructure required for agro-industrial development.

SCPZs offer reliable hard and soft infrastructure re-quired by agro-industries to be competitive. Unin-terruptible power supply at competitive cost, goodroads, clean water, telecommunications, wastetreatment, as well as proximity to administrativeand regulatory offices.

(one-stop-shop), to business services and inno-vation systems are highly attractive to agro-indus-trial investors.

All actors in the SCPZ should adopt best mana-gement practices. An effective governance sys-tem should be in place to ensure rapididentification of bottlenecks and finding of solu-tions, and regular sharing of information to buildtrust amongst all actors and facilitate the resolu-tion of conflicts should they arise.

Inclusion of smallholder producers and SMEs inthe SCPZ model is essential for sustainability.SCPZ initiatives should identify challenges facedby smallholder farmers and SMEs along the valuechain and endeavour to build their capacity andimprove their performance so that products from

the SCPZ can be competitive on the market.

SCPZs will play a major role in bringingabout agricultural transformation andachieving the vision of the Feed Africastrategy. SCPZs will build this capacityso that large stocks of marketable foodproducts are produced and can be lo-cally or globally traded, driving Africa tobecome a net food exporter. By bringingthe demand for farm produce to thefarm gate, SCPZs offer an opportunityto smallholder producers to increasetheir productivity and grow their farm in-comes. SCPZs also bring non-farm em-ployment opportunities to ruraldwellers, thus contributing to elimina-ting extreme poverty and hunger. Ma-king agriculture production profitableand opening business opportunitiesalong value chains promoted by theSCPZs are necessary conditions for at-tracting African youth into agribusiness.

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Atsuko TODA, Director, Agriculture Finance and Rural Development, AfDB, a.toda@afdb.org

Olagoke OLADAPO, Manager,

Layout and DesignAfDB Communication and External Relations Department