agra.org€¦ · · 2017-04-12Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President, AGRA @Agnes_Kalibata ... Waiganjo...

Here’s a deliberately provocative question to consider in the run-up to this year’s Global Food Security Symposium in Washington. Is focusing intently on food security the fastest way to achieve…food security?

I ask this only because looking at agriculture through the lens of food security sometimes narrows the conversation to issues of hunger and malnutrition. Make no mistake about it, the fundamental role of agriculture is to provide sufficient quantities of affordable, nutritious food, something currently lacking in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa, where I am from.

But what drives the great agriculture systems of today? Is it a quest for food security or the lure of economic opportunity? For example, there is a renaissance in smallholder agriculture underway in the United States because of the economic opportunity in satisfying growing consumer demand for locally grown produce.

When I travel across Africa today, I see the biggest gains in food production occurring in response to economic opportunity. That fills me with optimism, and not just because it has major implications for the fight against hunger. It’s important because Africans need agriculture to do much more than provide food security: they also need agriculture to provide a strong foundation for generating jobs and income, particularly for impoverished people.

To achieve this, we need investments and innovations on the farm and in the market place so that agriculture can do for Africa what it has done in many other parts of the world.

What’s encouraging is that if you look around sub-Saharan Africa today, we are seeing a growing consensus that agriculture systems function best when there are strong economic incentives that attract private sector investment. Look at all of the activity around cassava in Africa today. A critical food staple that can grow even in harsh conditions, cassava is being transformed into a major money maker.

In Mozambique and Ghana, thousands of smallholder farmers have a new source of income growing cassava to supply breweries that produce new commercial varieties of cassava beer. In Nigeria and Malawi, cassava is being processed into high quality cassava flour and marketed as an alternative to costly imports of wheat flour. In Malawi, it helped revive local bakeries that were floundering due to the high cost of wheat flour.

There are even efforts underway to use cassava as an industrial product that can help fuel the development of a local paperboard and plywood manufacturing industry.

Note that not all of these opportunities involve producing cassava for food. But they all help produce income and employment for people who are most likely to suffer from hunger. Today, some 70 percent of Africans work in some aspect of agriculture, and that’s where you also find the vast majority of the millions of Africans who still suffer from malnutrition. The efforts to develop new markets for cassava are expected to generate close to $200 million in additional income, mainly for smallholder farmers and small, local cassava processing operations. Putting money in their pockets is the fastest way to get more nutritious food on their tables.

Don’t get me wrong. I believe food security has been an incredibly important rallying point for attracting international attention to the potential of African agriculture. But food security is just one of many things to be gained by investing in Africa’s food systems. Perhaps the invitation to this year’s symposium should say “come for the food security, but stay for the economic opportunity.”

Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President, AGRA@Agnes_Kalibata

President’s NoteExpecting More from Agriculture than Food Security

6 Impact / April - June 2017 Edition

Photo CreditsAGRA, IDRC, Oikocredit, Research Leap, CGIAR, ONE, ECDPM, ILRI, CSAP Africa, AECF & AGCO

PrintingEcomedia Ltd.

Art Direction, Layout & EditingDavid Maingi

Contributors Hon. Vicent Ssempijja, Agnes Kalibata, Boaz Blackie Keizire, Kehinde Makinde, Anne Mbaabu, Waiganjo Njoroge & David Maingi

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Head Office - KenyaWest End Towers, 4th Floor, Kanjata RoadP.O. Box 66773-00800, Nairobi, KenyaTel: +254 (20) 3675 000, +254 703 033 000Web: www.agra.orgEmail: [email protected]

IMPACT is a quarterly publication by AGRA. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

Agriculture forms a signicant portion of the economies of all African countries, as a sector it can therefore contribute towards major continental priorities, such as eradicating poverty and hunger, boosting intra-Africa trade and investments, rapid industrialization

and economic diversication, sustainable resource and environmental management, and creating jobs, human security and shared prosperity.

Africa has come a long way since 2003 when the continent’s leaders birthed the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). AGRA working with its partners is committed to a process across the continent that mobilizes all member states, stakeholders in the agrifood sector, and primarily, agricultural producers’ organizations, regional institutions and technical institutions to place investment a roadmap.

Over the years, many African leaders have come up with agricultural policies to seek to regulate agribusinesses in their respective countries. These policies are designed to achieve a specific outcome on the domestic agricultural product market but these policies are often inadequate in the grand scheme of things.

Given the capacity constraints most African countries face, AGRA’s central message is that to succeed, agricultural development plans must be less ambitious and more targeted. They will differ for each country, so a uniform implementation isn’t possible. But agricultural development comes to life when government, working with all interested parties, pursues selected initiatives that have identified sources of demand and appropriate enabling investments supervised by a nimble implementing authority.

In the first three months of this year, the AUC and NEPAD and in collaboration with Africa Lead, AGRA have instituted a domestication process for five country agriculture investment plans. Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda and Ethiopia have benefitted from this intricate process that brings together multiple stakeholders to review plans for agriculture.

This effort is situating the importance of agriculture to the continent’s economic transformation and positioning it right at the front and centre of economic development. It also attests to a new approach to the way in which Africa is shaping its future, with development and investment choices made by Africans providing the framework for contributions from partners and determining investment decisions.

As more countries ratify their investment plans and align them to CAADP principles - the march towards a truely African agricultural transformation is taking shape.

A luta continua!

David Maingi, MCIPR, Head, Communications, AGRA@commsdamu

AGRA is supporting and partnering with both the public and private sectors to develop the systems that ensure sustained availability, delivery and adoption of improved seed and fertilizers, with a particular focus on getting these inputs into the hands of women farmers. AGRA believes that once a farmer can profitably invest in seeds, fertilizers and associated good agronomic practices, the market becomes the real driver of agricultural transformation.

Through our work in seeds and soil health, AGRA is building on its experience, expertise and partnerships to take innovative crop varieties and soil and crop management techniques to scale, to help farmers confront local constraints to production and emerging threats such as climate change.

AGRA is promoting interventions that enhance the resiliency of the production system to climate change and climate variability. This includes developing more efficient marketing systems, introducing post-harvest technologies to close yield gaps and ensure farmers can sustainably sell quality product to consumer markets.

AGRA is working to develop the capacity of local agri-businesses to access markets, support local and national financial institutions. this includes providing affordable financing to smallholder farmers and local SMEs in a bid to transform farms and businesses into sustainable and profitable enterprises. In its interventions AGRA catalyzes public investments impact in supporting farmers and leveraging private sector investment in agriculture to build sustainability and contribute to overall economic development.

Critical to this is the participation of both in providing solutions for Public Private Partnerships in the agriculture sector. AGRA has a clear role in catalyzing and facilitating the realization of public and private investments in specific value chains where the private sector has shown interest by helping to get these value chains functioning efficiently.

AGRA has been and will continue to shape the continent’s CAADP implementation through support to the African Union Commission for country National Agricultural Investment Plan (NAIPS) review as well as playing a critical role in supporting the biannual review process through technical assistance. we are building government capacity to strategize, fund and deliver on agricultural strategies while supporting sector coordination and accountability.

As agricultural development is significantly influenced by national level policies, investments, and institutional arrangements, AGRA has developed custom-tailored business plans for individual countries and within each agro-ecology. By analyzing and advocating for critical policy reforms, AGRA is working with governments to strengthen national capacities to deepen and sustain the gains made through policy decisions and encourage significant investments of public resources into the agriculture sector.

AGRA’s Package of Interventions

Input Systems - Strengthening agricultural input systems, technology & adoption

Resilience Building - Growth for structured markets for quality produce & operational capacity of output systems

Agribusiness Development & Innovation Finance - Strengthening business growth and finance & risk managment

Policy & Country Support - Strengthening national and regional level systems and reducing impact of agricultural volatility

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AgBigBriefs10 Impact / April - June 2017 Edition

Researchers ‘close’ to developing disease-resistant seeds in KenyaFarmers in the South Rift and North Rift will soon get hybrid seeds that are resistant to the Maize Lethal Necrosis Disease (MLND), researchers have said.

The crossbreed seeds will be a major boost to maize farmers who had abandoned the crop for others following an outbreak of the disease three years ago. In 2014, the disease ravaged parts of South Rift and North Rift which are considered to be the food basket of the country leading to losses amounting to more than Sh 800 million. According to Dr Immaculate Maina, a director at the Njoro- based Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research Organisation (KALRO), experiments that will lead to production of the disease resistance seeds are at an advanced stage.

“Apart from advising farmers to undertake rotational farming, KALRO is also involved in further experiments to come up with the MLND resistant seeds,” said Dr Maina.

World Bank sow $46 million financial lift in Rwanda’s agri-sectorAgribusiness in Rwanda could have another improving lifeline, courtesy of a huge financial lift from World Bank. This would see the productivity of the industry take a positive direction altogether. Rwanda’s government and World Bank Group penned a deal worth $46 million (Rwf38 billion), a loan agreement to uplift the farming arena countrywide. The money is part of the International Development Association (IDA) funding agreed upon back in 2014. Amb. Claver Gatete, the Minister for Finance and Economic Planning, and Yasser El-Gammal, the World Bank country director, signed on behalf of the parties.

The financing will be used to support the third phase of four broad programmes aimed at transforming agriculture across the country, Minister Gatete said during the signing ceremony in Kigali. In 2014, the World Bank approved $60.9 million (about Rwf50 billion) to support infrastructure and agriculture sectors. Part of the money was to be used to finance feeder road infrastructure development, agri-production and market accessibility by farmers. The government is counting on agriculture for economic resilience and sustainability during 2017.

Mastercard links Kenyan farmers with buyers online Financial technology firm Mastercard has launched a digital platform to connect smallholder farmers to buyers. The portal, dubbed 2Kuze, will allow farmers to buy, sell and receive payments for agricultural goods via their phones. 2Kuze was developed by the Mastercard Lab for Financial Inclusion based in Kenya through an $11 million (Sh1.14 billion) grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to develop local products.

The pilot has been signed up to 2,000 small-scale farmers in Nandi Hills in partnership with Cafedirect Producers Foundation, a non-profit working with 300,000 smallholder farmers.

“80 per cent of farmers in Africa are classified as smallholder farmers having less than one to two acres of farming land…. We believe that by using mobile, we can improve financial access, bring in operational efficiency and facilitate faster payments,” said Daniel Monehin, Division President for Sub-Saharan Africa and head of financial inclusion for International Markets at Mastercard.

AgBigBriefs

CDC and AgDevCo in $11.5 million Malawian agriculture deal

CDC, the UK’s development finance institution, and AgDevCo, a social impact investor targeting sub-Saharan Africa, have invested $11.5m in Jacoma Estates Group to expand its Malawian farming operations.

Daudi Lelijveld, CDC’s Investment Director, said: “CDC’s investment in Jacoma will boost agricultural growth and poverty reduction in Malawi. Jacoma plays a vital role in Northern Malawi, providing good quality jobs, as well as new markets for local farmers.”

The new financing – $8m of equity from CDC, and $3.5m from AgDevCo structured as debt and preference shares – will help Jacoma expand its farming operations at its Tropha Estates in Northern Malawi, where it produces high value macadamia nuts, chilli and paprika.

The funding will also provide up to 100 hectares of year-round irrigation to local smallholder farmers, extend existing outgrower schemes and further strengthen the company’s impact in neighbouring communities.

In a country where farmers face significant challenges from climate change, lack of access to international markets and low-quality yields, the new investment will enable a further 1000 local farmers to reach export markets and benefit from a company scheme that provides yield-boosting seeds and other agricultural inputs.

Chris Isaac, AgDevCo’s Investment Director covering Malawi, said: “Jacoma is a good example of the benefits a socially-responsible agribusiness can deliver to local communities. We are particularly pleased that irrigation will be extended to smallholder farmers in an area prone to drought.”

The new financing for Jacoma, which follows a recent $0.5m investment from the African Agriculture Capital Fund, is expected to create at least 350 new jobs and bring about climate-smart agricultural practices that allow local smallholders to manage resources better and protect themselves from extreme climate change.

Armyworm threatens a tenth of Zimbabwe’s maize cropMore than a tenth of Zimbabwe’s current maize crop is under threat from a fall armyworm infestation that has affected at least seven countries in the southern African region, the United Nations’ Food and Agricultural Organisation has said. Zimbabwe, a regional bread basket turned perennial food importer, has planted 1.2 million hectares of the staple maize in the 2016/17 farming season, with the country receiving above normal rains. But hopes of a return to surplus are under serious threat from the armyworm. Statistics provided by FAO at the end of a three-day regional emergency meeting held in Harare to forge a multinational response showed Zimbabwe as being the worst-hit by the armyworm outbreak. Sixteen states from eastern and southern Africa were represented at the conference.

“Zambia has reported that almost 90,000 hectares of maize have been affected, forcing farmers to replant their crops. In Malawi some 17 000 hectares have so far been affected while in Namibia, approximately 50 000 hectares of maize and millet has been damaged and in Zimbabwe up to 130 000 hectares could be affected thus far,” FAO said in a statement at the end of the regional meeting.

Tanzania and Netherlands to collaborate to up potato yield

OLX starts mobile soil testing for right fertiliser use in Kenya

Tanzania and the Netherlands have agreed to work together to increase productivity in food crops. Representatives of governments from the two countries reached the agreement after talks held last week in Dar es Salaam in a meeting that was also attended by representatives of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The Dutch Deputy Minister for Agriculture, Ms Marjolin Sonnema said at the meeting that one area of focus could be helping improve yield of Irish potatoes by smallholders in the country.

“We plan to bring in more quality seed varieties of Irish potatoes and we would also double our efforts in training potato farmers and a range of stakeholders to improve productivity in potatoes yield,” she said.

The assistant director of Crop Development in the ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Mr Beatus Malema said, according to the agreement, the Tanzanian government would focus on improving the physical infrastructure and transportation services potato growing areas.

SAGCOT Centre chief executive officer Mr Geoffrey Kirenga on his part said other issues discussed in the meeting include improving extension services and involvement of institutions dealing with quality control of the crop.

The chairman of the Dutch Horticultural Growers Association, Mr Loek Hermans, said the Dutch delegation visited some parts of Tanzania prior to the meeting and were impressed by the fertility of the land and opportunities in agriculture in Tanzania that are attractive to private investors. He said they were bracing themselves for cooperation with Tanzania because of the many opportunities they have witnessed.

AgBigBriefs

Online advertising site OLX has started mobile soil testing in agricultural rich zones ahead of the planting season to provide the right mix of fertilizers bought through its platform. The tests establish the suitability of different types of fertiliser for given locations, said OLX country manager Peter Ndiang’ui. Farmers have been using fertilisers with little regard to the needs of their soils, distorting soil acidity and ultimately affecting crop production. Mr Ndiang’ui said the right type of fertiliser will address the issues of increased soil acidity from wrong manure use that has seen production on the farms decline.

OLX has partnered with Dutch headquartered Soil Cares Ltd to conduct the test through a mobile soil testing lab comprising a truck equipped with equipment for analysing samples to determine the nutrient levels, deficiencies, acidity and the general health.


AgBigBriefs

Unemployment is rising around the world to the point that anxiety over that basic modern human need—a job to provide for our families— has emerged as a

universal concern. It also is a major factor driving the growing global trend towards protectionism and inward looking politics.

But you will have to excuse Anna Viola Walter if she’s not focused on the unemployment rate, which remains stubbornly high where she lives in rural Tanzania, as it does for the rest of sub-Saharan Africa.

She’s too busy setting up a distribution warehouse and negotiating with competing local manufacturers to supply her booming business selling a new type of hermitically sealed storage bag to fellow maize farmers. The bags, originally developed by a research team at Indiana’s Purdue University, have emerged as an inexpensive way to fend off the pests and rot that, in Tanzania and many other parts of Africa, routinely destroy half of a farmer’s maize harvest.

Walter started small but in only a couple of years sold 5,000 bags. By 2016, she had recruited 11 distributors to service two districts and expanded sales to 20,000 bags. And she hired additional workers to manage her 10 hectare maize farm. Only 25 years old, Walter now earns enough to send her two young kids to school, and buy modern amenities such as a television and a refrigerator.

This is just one example of many to be found today across sub-Saharan Africa that illustrate how agriculture can help tackle the region’s voracious need for employment.

While I empathize with employment concerns in places like Europe, the US and Japan, Africa’s employment problems are of a much greater magnitude, and they could easily get much worse. Falling prices for oil and other high-value commodities have significantly slowed economic growth prospects. Meanwhile,

the working age population in sub-Saharan Africa is already at 466 million people—more than the entire population of the US— and is on track to reach 793 million by 2030, a staggering 70 percent increase.

The choices are stark. We can either create employment opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa, or brace for potential chaos. Today’s exodus of African job seekers contributing to the immigration crisis in Europe could be just a preview of far worse things to come—if we fail to act or think erecting barriers is a solution. The fact that young Africans are risking it all to cross the Mediterranean Sea points to a tremendous level of desperation, the likes of which we have never seen before.

Agriculture can help provide a reason for people to stay in sub-Saharan Africa. It’s a fairly simple proposition. Most Africans already works in some aspect of agriculture, but often earn meager pay. Make agriculture, starting with smallholder farmers, a profitable pursuit and the positive vibrations will be felt across the economy. That’s what happened in the United States and Europe a century ago and in Asia in more recent times: agriculture provided a foundation for building a more diverse economy.

The key to tapping agriculture’s potential for Africa is to focus on more than just production, because production improvements unmoored from market opportunities are an economic dead-end. But agriculture becomes an incredible source of economic opportunity when producers are strongly linked to purchasers, input providers, banks and all the other players crucial to supplying consumers with an abundant supply of affordable food.

Thankfully, many people in the public and private sector in Africa are working to make these connections.

For example, thousands of cassava farmers in Mozambique have found profitable employment supplying a brewery that is making cassava beer. In Ghana, Burkina Faso, Nigeria and

Tanzania, investments in roads and irrigation are enabling local rice farmers to connect with African food companies to provide a domestic alternative for Africa’s surging imports of rice. Meanwhile, there could soon be an explosion of jobs on and off the farm as growers and processors in East Africa join forces to satisfy a multi-billion dollar market opportunity for the Irish potato which is fast becoming an important crop for a majority of Africans.

Overall, experts at the World Bank predict that by 2030, rising consumer demand in Africa could create a US $1 trillion food market that produces a bounty of jobs. I’ve seen the potential of agriculture in my own life growing up in Uganda where my parents’ hard work on their farm helped pay for my schooling. Over the past decade, countries like Ethiopia, Ghana and Rwanda that have prioritized agriculture investment have seen an improvement in food production, GDP and nutrition.

In most cases, though, African agriculture’s potential remains just that, potential. It has largely failed to provide food and nutritional security and overall it has done a minimal job of reducing poverty and improving livelihoods.

That’s mainly because African agriculture has rarely been treated as a business and an opportunity for economic growth. It is only over the last few years that a very strong coalition has emerged, one that includes African governments, businesses, international donors, philanthropies and civil society groups, who see agriculture as our most promising path to stable and equitable economic growth. And that could benefit our trading partners as well, through increased consumer spending power in the world’s fastest growing population.

Yet many of us in Africa are concerned that, rather than bringing us together, 2017 could be a year in which our economic anxieties cause many to turn inward. But we need our friends around the world to embrace opportunities to work together and find common ground in our shared desire to create employment.

Look at what a simple plastic bag created by a team of enterprising agriculture experts in Indiana is doing to build businesses in Tanzania. And think of the many ways international partnerships focused on African agriculture can contribute to creating jobs and easing the global employment crisis.

Dr. Agnes Kalibata is the President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).


Against the background of falling oil prices, Kehinde argues for the potential for agriculture to change Nigeria’s fortunes, providing income and employment for a fast growing

population that, by 2050, is likely to be larger than that of the United States. Kehinde discusses Nigeria’s National Agriculture Investment Plan,

which was consolidated at a meeting in Lagos in early March to place African farmers and agriculture businesses at the center of the continent’s economic development. He also draws on his experiences in the country to highlight new income opportunities for poor smallholder farmers, including production and processing of cassava.

Viewed from the historian’s perspective, a significant advance in a nation’s fortunes can seem to occur almost overnight and be driven by destiny. The reality of course is quite different. Meaningful change is most often the long-term product of a series of small, connected, deliberate actions whose importance may not be immediately apparent.

One of those low-key events that one day could be endowed with historical significance took place in Nigeria last month, when senior officials from the national government and the African Union Commission, joined by agriculture experts from across the continent, gathered in Abuja to consolidate Nigeria’s National Agriculture Investment Plan, or NAIP. Similar blueprints are being drawn-up across sub-Saharan Africa to ensure countries stay focused on the African Union’s Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and their commitments, re-enforced in the 2014 Malabo Declaration, to place African farmers and agriculture businesses at the center of the continent’s economic development.

In Nigeria’s steady progress in agriculture: Potential history in the making

If there is anywhere in Africa where a surge of agriculture investments could change the fortunes of an entire country, it is here. Moreover, success in Nigeria would send a strong signal to the rest of the continent that agriculture offers our most promising path to sustainable and equitable economic growth.

Agriculture’s emergence as Nigeria’s number one economic opportunity comes as falling oil prices are taking their toll on this oil-rich country. Nigeria urgently needs a more stable foundation for providing income and employment for a fast growing population that, by 2050, is likely to be larger than that of the United States.

Agriculture already accounts for 70 percent of employment in Nigeria, but only 40 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), an indicator that the sector is underperforming. Every year, Nigerians still spend billions of dollars on food imports, a huge economic opportunity forfeited to farmers and food companies outside of the country.

Part of the reason for the shortfall is that Nigeria has 84 million hectares of land suitable for farming, but less than half of this area is planted with crops—and most of the farming is accomplished with inefficient, outdated methods and without basic inputs. . Irrigation, which is becoming more important as climate change disrupts rainfall patterns across the country, is available on only 220,000 hectares, when there are enough water resources in the country to supply three million.

But if last week’s meeting is any indication, agriculture may finally be getting the attention it deserves in Nigeria. Under the leadership of Chief Audu Ogbeh and his predecessor, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, who went on to become president of the African Development Bank, over the last few

By Kehinde Makinde

years, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has pushed through several ambitious initiatives.

For example, Nigeria is the world’s largest cassava producer. And there are now a number of new income opportunities for poor smallholder farmers and local agriculture entrepreneurs around producing and processing this hardy root crop. Cassava is now being processed into high quality flour that can be used as a substitute for expensive wheat imports. It’s providing a source of fish feed for Nigeria’s rapidly growing aquaculture industry. Cassava can also provide an industrial starch with surprising usefulness in areas like paperboard and plywood manufacturing.

Similar efforts are underway to bring jobs to rural areas by attracting investments in maize, rice, sorghum and livestock production. For example, the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) has generated US$273 million in loans for some 454 projects. They include a new rail-shipping venture that is connecting struggling livestock producers in the north to consumer markets in the south.

Despite the promising progress, agriculture in Nigeria still needs far more investment. For example, a lack of storage and processing options causes many poor farmers to lose nearly half of their harvest to rot or pests. Also, while fertilizer usage is up and local seed production is rising, many farmers in Nigeria still lack access to improved crop varieties and basic inputs.

That’s why it’s so critical to develop a new agriculture investment plan that shows Nigeria is committed to ensuring agriculture can flourish as a business. Numerous studies have shown that, along with increasing food security, economic growth driven by the agriculture sector is far more effective at pulling people out of poverty than growth in any other sector.

If Nigeria ultimately realizes its ambitions for agriculture, historians of the future may point to an investment meeting that occurred in Abuja in February of 2017 as the juncture when farming and food production became an engine of opportunity for Nigeria—and helped rally similar efforts across the continent. And those falling oil prices that capture the headlines of today? Maybe they will be relegated to a footnote.

Dr. Kehinde Makinde is the country lead for Nigeria at the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).


The search is on for the 2017 Africa Food Prize laureate - the prize is the preeminent award that recognizes outstanding individuals or institutions that are leading the effort to change

the reality of farming in Africa from a struggle to survive to a business that thrives.

Now in its second year, the US $100,000 prize celebrates Africans who are taking control of Africa’s agriculture agenda. It puts a bright spotlight on bold initiatives and technical innovations that can be replicated across the continent to create a new era of food security and economic opportunity for all Africans.

In 2016, the inaugural Prize was awarded to Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, the outgoing President of the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), for his outstanding leadership and passionate advocacy in putting Africa´s smallholder farmers at the center of the global agricultural agenda. As one example, Dr. Nwanze was credited with reorienting IFAD´s work to focus more on making small-scale farming a viable business through a country-led approach to rural development, moving from one office on the continent just a decade ago to 40 country offices today. The Prize also acknowledged Nwanze´s courage in reminding African leaders to go beyond promising development and change to delivering it.

“It was an honour to be the first recipient of the Africa Food Prize and to be selected from amongst the many agricultural champions across the continent, to help highlight the critical role that smallholder agriculture plays in driving our economies,” said Nwanze. “As I prepare for my retirement, I look back at the achievements that brought me this recognition, both as the president of IFAD and throughout my career as an agricultural research scientist, with satisfaction. Although much has been achieved, a lot more needs to be done to deliver on Africa’s agricultural potential, especially with its youth. Over the next few years, I will continue to focus on this priority and mentoring young people to take over agricultural leadership in Africa.”

The 2017 winner will be chosen by the Africa Food Prize Committee, an independent body of preeminent leaders that is chaired by the former Nigerian President, H.E Olusegun Obasanjo. The other committee members are Prof. Calestous Juma, Dr. Eleni Z. Gabre-Madhin, Prof.

Joachim von Braun and Amb. Sheila Sisulu. “The Africa Food Prize calls attention to individuals who are inspiring

and driving innovations that can be replicated across the continent. It is worth much more than its monetary value of US$100,000 as it recognizes and celebrates agricultural excellence and signals to the world that agriculture is a priority for Africa that all should embrace”, said H.E Obasanjo.

“You do not have to be the head of a global organization to be awarded. You just need to be dedicated to African agriculture, be deeply convinced in its transformative power for economies and families, and have made significant contribution towards realizing this dream”, he added.

With the acknowledgement that no region of the world has developed a diverse, modern economy without first establishing a successful agriculture sector, the Africa Food Prize exists to reward individuals and institutions that are pioneering efforts to create prosperity in Africa. It is hoped that this will encourage others to follow their lead.

The Africa Food Prize began as the Yara Prize, and was established in 2005 by Yara International ASA in Norway to honor achievements in African agriculture. The Yara Prize recognized individuals from Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Uganda, Malawi, Senegal, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Mozambique for their success in making African farms more productive, profitable and resilient. Past winners include Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the former Nigerian Agriculture Minister who now heads the African Development Bank (AfDB); Dr. Agnes Kalibata, the former Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources in Rwanda who now serves as AGRA’s President; and Dr. Ousmane Badiane, Africa Director for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Moving the Yara Prize to Africa in 2016 and rechristening it the Africa Food Prize gave the award a distinctive African home, African identity and African ownership

The deadline for nominations is 05 June 2017 and the winner will be unveiled at a high-profile gala dinner at the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2017, 4-8 September 2017 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.

To nominate please visit www. africafoodprize.org

Nominations Open for the Africa Food Prize 2017

Agriculture at the Centre of Uganda’s Push to Middle Income Status by 2020 Nigeria aims to be a leading light for continent-wide effort to harness the potential of food production to become a significant source of jobs on and off the farm

Senior Ugandan Government officials welcomed a team of private sector, civil society

organizations and development partners’ representatives for an intensive two-day meeting to develop a strategy to attract and increase investments in the country’s agricultural sector.

The meeting — organized in partnership with the Africa Union Commission and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency — will review the country’s Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP) to identify opportunities for investment. It will also seek to align the plan to the continental Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) whose biennial review inaugural report will be presented at the January 2018 AU Assembly.

Speaking at the opening of the meeting, Pius Wakabi Kasajja, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture reiterated that it is the Government’s goal to transform Uganda from a predominantly peasant and low-income country to a competitive upper middle-income country.

“We aim to transform agriculture in Uganda from subsistence to commercial

farming. It holds the greatest potential for attaining inclusive economic growth, employment creation and boosting local, regional and international trade,” said Mr. Kasajja.

Agriculture is still a major force to Uganda’s poverty reduction, economic growth and economic development. The sector’s contribution to economic development remains strong with agriculture contributing 24 percent of the national GDP and 52 percent of total exports earnings in 2015/16.

The sector is expected to contribute to wealth and employment creation through implementation of actions for the value chain development of twelve priority commodities, namely: bananas, beans, maize, rice, cassava, tea, coffee, fruits and vegetables, dairy, fish, livestock (meat), and four strategic commodities, namely, cocoa, cotton, oil seeds, and oil palm.

Uganda’s national development blueprint, the National Development Plan (NDP) II, that aims to propel the country towards middle-income status with a per capita income of US$1,033 by 2020, places agriculture at the center of this bold ambition.

Over the NDP-II period, the Government

of Uganda (GoU) is targeting to increase agricultural exports to US$4 billion by 2020 from the current USD1.3 billion and halving the labour force engaged in subsistence production from six to three million.

The meeting in Uganda is the fourth to be held across the continent after Malawi, Kenya and Nigeria. These meetings seek to revamp countries’ National Agricultural investment Plans (NAIPs) linked to the CAADP (Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme) that seeks to boost investment to stimulate growth in the agricultural sector. The framework brings together public and private sectors and civil society – at the continental, regional and national levels – to increase investment, improve coordination, share knowledge and promote joint and separate efforts. Similar meetings will be held in Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Senegal in the month of March.

Speaking on behalf of the AUC’s Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Ernest Ruzindaza, the AUC-CAADP Team Leader, noted that NAIPs are the central tool for implementing the Malabo Declaration and the attendant commitments, as they translate continental

and country aspirations into an evidence-based plan with clear targets, budgets and mutual accountability. The NAIPs are also key to realising the ambitions of Africa’s Agenda 2063, a detailed 50-year framework for transforming African economies through inclusive growth and sustainable development.

“We all have a key role to play in energising the agriculture sector in Uganda in a bid to ensure food security in this country, create employment and accelerate the growth of the country’s economy,” said Mr. Ruzindaza.

The Malabo Declaration calls on countries to scale up their budgetary allocation to the agriculture sector to at least 10 percent of total budgets. Some of the CAADP pillars that will attract more investments and grow the agricultural sector include: improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access, improving agriculture research, and technology dissemination. Uganda is one of the countries that embraced the 2003 Maputo commitments which were later reaffirmed and expanded at the 2014 AU Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, giving renewed legitimacy to CAADP as Africa’s policy framework for agriculture growth and transformation for shared prosperity.

Other participants at the meeting included representatives from the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the United States Agency for

International Development (USAID), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD), the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). Also in attendance are regional government officials, private sector and civil society groups that work around agriculture business in Uganda.

26 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition

US$30B Pledged to 2021 for Africa’s Agriculture

The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has established the first early

generation seed production entity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) to effectively and efficiently supply high quality foundation seed for small and medium enterprise (SME) seed companies on the continent. The establishment, announced early this year by AATF’s Executive Director Dr. Denis Kyetere, will be known as QualiBasic Seed. It will be based in Nairobi, Kenya, and has received an initial five year investment of US$ 8.4 Million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

QualiBasic was established to address technical, infrastructural, and financial challenges that seed companies face in maintenance, multiplication, and timely supply of quality foundation seed. Overcoming these challenges is essential to improving farm productivity by small holder farmers. This is because low access and use of poor quality foundation seed by seed companies result to low crop yields and crop failure, in some cases, for small holder farmers. This affects sustainable food production and costs the continent a valuable development opportunity.

“Huge investments have been made by donors through various global public crop improvement programs for the benefit of African farmers. These breeding programs have released high yielding and

very adaptable crop varieties, for example, maize hybrids, that offer high productivity opportunities. However, the benefits of these products are yet to be realized by smallholder farmers due to delayed seed production in some cases and low quality seed in others,” said Enock Chikava, Deputy Director Agricultural Development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Under the partnership, AATF will help establish and nurture QualiBasic into a professional fully-fledged, independent and sustainable private sector driven business

First Foundation Seed Production Entity for sub-Saharan Africa mooted

within five years. QualiBasic operations will start with foundation seed for maize in East and Southern Africa then grow to serve other cereals and legumes across SSA when fully functional. Three foundation seed production hubs with seed processing and storage facilities will be established in Kenya, Zambia and South Africa by the second and third year of operations, in order to meet demand for products in a timely manner, and avoid lengthy delays in seed movements.


Tasting the Sweet Fruit of Profit from Farming

Black Sigatoka may sound like the name of a rock band, but it is actually the name of a problematic fungus that reduces banana yields around the world by 40 percent

every year. The government-funded Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) responded to this threat by cloning disease-free plants and distributing more than six million cuttings to farmers in Kenya over the last 10 years. As a result, banana farmers earned more than US$64 million in this time period.

Across the African continent today, governments are finding that investments in the agricultural sector are uniquely effective at energizing the economy. The welfare benefits of agriculture spurred the African Union in 2003 to develop the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)—a commitment by African governments to allocate 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture and to aim for six percent annual growth in the sector. A recent report found that in the 13 countries that signed on to the agreement, agricultural production and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita rose twice as fast as elsewhere in Africa, while rates of malnutrition fell twice as far.

Rwanda provides an excellent example of how agriculture can be an economic elixir. Rwanda was the first country to endorse the CAADP, and it has gradually increased its spending on agriculture from 1.8 percent of its total budget in 2002 to 9.1 percent in 2014. In the last five years alone, yields have grown

steadily for key crops—by 115 percent for wheat, 180 percent for maize, and 200 percent for Irish potatoes. Because agriculture powers Rwanda’s rural areas, this increase in productivity was the key force driving a 14 percent reduction in poverty. Better farm production led to higher incomes as farmers were able to sell surplus produce at market.

Despite this success, many discussions of the CAADP process often dwell on the fact that the majority of CAADP signatories have not met the 10 percent budget allocation target. But rather than pushing countries to meet what is a somewhat arbitrary number, we should instead focus on encouraging public spending that can attract private sector commitments to agriculture, which are ultimately the key to breaking the cycle of food shortages and rural poverty in Africa.

That work starts with encouraging governments to develop quality national agriculture and multi-year investment plans—known as National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs). The best ones now emerging in Africa typically set a time-table for action, promise specific deliverables, and send a clear signal to the private sector: the government will be a partner in creating an enabling environment where farming can function as a business.

In the southern highlands of Tanzania, for example, the government released a specific investment plan with a budget and timeline for building a road, installing electricity, and providing water for irrigation. Farmers and other agriculture businesses alike immediately responded with their own investments. For example,

By Boaz Blackie Keizire

rice companies participating in the Competitive Africa Rice Initiative (CARI) partnered with small, family farmers, giving them access to high quality seeds and fertilizers. Farmers were willing to buy these inputs because the companies guaranteed them a market and a price.

As a result, since 2012, rice yields in the region have increased from four metric tonnes per hectare to six to seven metric tonnes. This bounty brings increased income that provides a better life for local farming families—they are sending kids to school, and the added income helps them afford basic needs like heath care.

Nigeria is another country experiencing the benefits of carefully thinking through its agriculture investments. In 2011, the Central Bank of Nigeria launched the Nigeria Incentive-Based Risk Sharing system for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL) to increase financing available to agricultural business. In only four years, the program has delivered US$273 million in loans to 454 projects, including an ambitious effort to establish a rail shipping service that connects farmers in northern Nigeria to market opportunities in the south. The program also has trained 27,000 farmers in how to obtain financing.

These are just a few of the ways government investments are tapping the potential of agriculture to be an engine of economic growth for Africa. The common thread in all of these efforts is that the public spending was directed at a specific problem or opportunity, and it was intended to promote economic activity that will more than payback the government’s outlay.

By encouraging African governments to develop detailed, predictable investment plans, and to support agriculture as business, we can pull Africans out of poverty in far greater numbers than any social program ever could achieve. That’s what Kenya did in directing resources to defeating Black

Boaz Blackie Keizire is the Head of Policy and Advocacy at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and a 2017 Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow.

Sigatoka. It freed up farmers to do what they do best, which is to grow and sell bananas, and hopefully get a taste of the sweet fruit of economic success.


Evidence of Nairobi’s ascendance to the status of major urban center, as is the case with other big cities on the continent, can be found in its near constant gridlock. And one common

feature amidst the long lines of crawling cars are roving “hawkers,” typically young transplants from the countryside, weaving in and out of traffic selling an assortment of cheap trinkets, like pens and pencils and small toys.

Occasionally I ask one of them, “why did you come to the city?” and the answer is typically some version of “because there was nothing for me to do in the village.” Since village life in Kenya and most of sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by agriculture, what they mean is that they saw no future in farming.

That’s hard for someone like me to hear. My career is dedicated to finding a way for agriculture to be a source of income and employment on a continent where economic opportunity can be as scarce as rain in the arid lands of East Africa. Yet, every day, I encounter young Africans who find more opportunity in being street hawkers in Nairobi than farming back home.

They re-enforce a message many people and governments are starting to heed. While agriculture in Africa often is discussed in the context of hunger and malnutrition, the only way for agriculture to become a source of food security is to ensure it also becomes a source of economic security.

For decades, Africa’s food challenges were viewed primarily through

Agriculture to Drive Africa’s Economic Transformation

the prism of production challenges—and for good reason. On most African farms, yields of rice, maize and other staple crops—the amount harvested per acre or hectare—are often less than half of what farmers elsewhere in the world produce.

There are several factors behind these substandard harvests. Many African farmers lack the basic things many farmers outside the region take for granted, like access to improved crop varieties, fertilizers, and irrigation. Although some progress has been made, addressing these weaknesses by themselves is not enough.

Even when subsidized, farmers have no incentive to invest in the means to boost their yields if they have no way to earn income from their hard work. So they either continue doing the best they can with what they have, or they put down the hoe and head to the city.

Whenever I visit the countryside in Kenya where I grew up, I often see families who own five hectares of land planting crops on only one. Why? Because their children, once a reliable source of farm labor, have moved away to Nairobi or other urban centres. At the same time, I do see food production rising in Kenya and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa in places where agriculture development initiatives are addressing production and marketing challenges simultaneously.

For example, cassava production is reliably rising in parts of Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi where new processing facilities have been established to meet new demand for cassava as an ingredient in everything

By Anne Mbaabu

from baked goods and beer to paper board and plywood. In Rwanda, Tanzania and Zambia, sustainable increases in crop production are occurring on smallholder farms that have contracts to grow maize and other crops for the UN World Food Program. In Ghana, rice yields are rising on smallholder farms that have joined an initiative to grow rice for a domestic food company, which is providing consumers in Ghana with a cheaper alternative to imported rice. Crop Clusters around a processor have proved very effective.

This kind of agriculture development is generating economic opportunities in rural communities on and off the farm. For example, in rural Nigeria today, young people who don’t want to farm increasingly have the option of working nearby at a cassava processing facility. In Kenya, I meet young adults who once saw farming as a career of last resort but are now drawn to the business proposition of adopting tech innovations to grow high-quality, high-value produce in greenhouses. Access to affordable fince is a link-pin to this end coupled with efficient markets.

On the one hand, the lesson here is that the long-term solution to hunger and malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa is more complicated than many may have imagined. It requires addressing multiple weak links in what is sometimes called the “value chain” of food production.

But there is a major upside to the value chain approach to agriculture development. The investments most likely to increase food security in Africa will also increase economic opportunity. And on a continent where some 233 million are undernourished but more than twice that many earn a $1.90 or less a day, it’s clear the two issues are inseparable.

Solving Africa’s food production problems by expanding the economic possibilities of the agriculture sector might mean there are fewer hawkers to distract me from the monotony of the morning Nairobi commuter crawl. But if we can generate investments, partnerships and policies to grow an abundance of both good jobs and good food, maybe solving Nairobi’s traffic problems can be next on the list.

Anne Mbaabu is Head of Markets and Harvest Management at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).


Nigeria Convenes Expert Panel to Draft New Plan for Achieving Economic Diversity through Major Investments in AgricultureNigeria aims to be a leading light for continent-wide effort to harness the potential of food production to become a significant source of jobs on and off the farm

The Nigerian Government welcomed senior officials from the African Union Commission

and agriculture experts from across the continent for an intensive three-day meeting to develop a new national agriculture investment plan (NAIP) that will provide a blueprint for returning agriculture to its once prominent role anchoring Africa’s largest economy.

“We are here to ensure the Malabo commitments are aligned into the government’s plan for agriculture, which remains a particularly important revenue generator for this country,” said Dr. Ngozi Okonjo, Director-General, Nigeria Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. “We want a detailed plan of action, one that signals to our private sector partners that Nigeria’s agriculture sector is open for business and primed to deliver new income opportunities to the millions of Nigerians who depend on farming and food production for a living.”

The key purpose of the meeting—organized by the AU Commission and the

New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD)—is to review and refresh the plan for making crop, livestock and fisheries the centerpiece of Nigeria’s economic development agenda. The effort also will ensure Nigeria’s NAIP is aligned with commitments contained in the AU’s 2014 Malabo Declaration, which seeks to cut poverty rates in half by 2025 through agriculture-led economic growth.

“The NAIP remains a central tool for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) implementation as it translates the continental and country aspirations into an evidence based plan with clear targets, budgets and mutual accountability,” said Ernest Ruzindaza, Senior Advisor and CAADP Team Leader, African Union Commission. “It’s inspiring to see such a diverse group come together to determine exactly how Nigeria is going to generate the investments required to energize a sector that embodies the hope for a better future for all Nigerians.”

Nigeria has many of the key attributes—including large tracts of fertile land, a favorable climate, and a large, educated workforce—to

become a global player in agriculture and food production.

“A bold, concise investment strategy that sets out government responsibilities and a clear timeline for delivering on them can unlock investments from other partners and generate the productive, prosperous agriculture sector Nigeria needs and deserves,” said Dr. Makinde Kehinde, Nigeria Country Lead for the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

Experts noted that NAIPs are considered the key to realizing the ambitions of Africa’s Agenda 2063, a detailed 50-year framework for transforming African economies through inclusive growth and sustainable development.

Participants in this week’s meeting include representatives from key development partners, donor governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank, and the African Development Bank. Also in attendance are and representatives from agriculture businesses and civil society

groups that work in Nigeria, AGRA, Africa Lead, and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

The consultations come on the heels of the release last month of Nigeria’s Zero Hunger report. The manifesto calls for bringing modern and sustainable production methods to Nigeria’s smallholder farms, while creating more market opportunities by establishing trade corridors, processing zones and industrial parks that can connect Nigerian farmers to consumers in Nigeria’s urban centers.

Organizers of this week’s NAIP meeting expect to emerge from the consultations with a roadmap that re-enforces the call to action in the Hunger report with a detailed multi-year spending plan for agriculture that is tied to a performance scorecard to publicly monitor progress.

The refreshed NAIP also will build upon the Nigerian Government’s Agriculture and Food Security Strategy and its recently approved “Green Alternative” policy, both of which emphasize agricultural transformation as crucial to Nigeria’s economic diversification. Recent declines in oil prices have re-enforced the importance of a diversified economy in Nigeria and officials are looking to investments in agriculture to reduce food imports, create employment, improve livelihoods and generate foreign exchange.

Nigeria was largely self-sufficient in food production through the 1960s, but agriculture’s dominant position declined as

oil became major source of revenue. Today, Nigeria imports about US $11 billion worth of wheat, rice, sugar and fish each year.

“We see many opportunities in Nigeria to boost food production by introducing higher-yielding, climate smart crop varieties and improved fertilizers along with support for private sector marketing activities,” added Kehinde. “The Guinea Savannah and Sudan Savannah regions are particularly ripe for progress, as they offer both fertile agriculture lands and large populations that are skilled in farming and eager for new economic opportunities.”


Africa’s capacity to produce seed of high-yielding varieties of staple food crops received a major boost with the launch of a modern seed processing facility and a seed laboratory at the

University of Nairobi in Kenya. The seed processing unit will be used as a training resource for

local seed companies and for processing seed from the University Seed Company (UNISEED). It will also offer processing services for local seed companies that do not have adequate internal capability.

These new facilities form part of the Seed Enterprise Management Institute (SEMIs), a training facility for managers of seed companies from around the region. Availability of high yielding and quality seed remains low in sub-Saharan Africa where, on average, only 20 percent of the farmers use improved seeds. This greatly affects productivity, economic growth and the attainment of food and nutrition security targets.

The new facilities will enable the institute to train more seed specialists from across the continent. So far, SEMIs has trained close to 850 specialists including personnel from over 100 seed companies from 16 African countries since its inception in 2011. Postgraduate students pursuing plant breeding and seed related disciplines who train at the institute will also benefit from the facilities.

In addition, the facility will be used in the multiplication of seed of high-yielding bean varieties bred at the University’s 13-acre breeding station. Currently, the institute is multiplying foundation seed of six recently-released bean varieties that have been licensed to the Kenya Seed Company. This has been a major success with, for instance, over 2.5 tons of breeders’ seed produced and handed over to Kenya Seed Company

State of Art Seed Management Facilities Open at the University of Nairobifor further multiplication and production of certified seeds for the mass market.

Speaking at the official unveiling of the facilities, Prof. Peter Mbithi, the University’s Vice-Chancellor, lauded the pioneers of the project who dared to dream that such a project was possible. “Academia offers a fertile ground for big ideas. When one dares to dream, they have courage and commitment to achieve their targets,” he said.

AGRA’s Vice-President for Programme Development and Innovation, Dr. Joe DeVries, emphasized that this is not a gold-plated facility but a practical learning resource for up-and-coming seed companies of Africa. “We purposely built the facilities here to showcase the kind of equipment and machinery local seed companies can afford. The installed equipment is adequate for a young seed company of the type that comes to learn at SEMIs,” he said.

About SEMIs

The Seed Enterprise Management Institute (SEMIs) is a collaborative project between the University of Nairobi’s College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences (CAVS), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT), Iowa State University (ISU), the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Services (KEPHIS), the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Institute (KALRO), the Kenya Seed Company, a host of agricultural consultants, and private and public institutions involved in seed production.

Mechanization, especially the use of tractors, holds a huge promise for agricultural

transformation. It has the potential to enable farmers double their yields thanks to improved land preparation, fertiliser application and spacing. It also allows farmers to plant more acreage and be ready with the land preparation when the rainy season starts.

Although every farmer would want to own a tractor, this is not feasible owing to the high cost of purchasing one. A tractor and the associated implements will cost US$ 30,000-35,000. As such, the few that own tractors rent them out to the rest.

For instance, in the Mbeya and Songwe regions of Tanzania, middle and large scale rice and maize farmers rent out their tractors to smallholder farmers. Despite its few successes, this arrangement disadvantages the smallholder farmers as the tractors are not available when they need them since the owners prioritize work on their farms. The quality of work done is also never guaranteed.

A recent fact finding mission in Tanzania revealed that the demand for

mechanisation by smallholder farmers is very high yet few tractors are available. For example, one tractor owner who set out to plough 50 acres for some 10 farmers ended ploughing 150 acres as more farmers requested for the services once the tractor appeared in the area.

Despite this huge demand and the business opportunity it presents, none of the farmers own a tractor to be used exclusively for rental services both for land preparation and for transport. All of them own tractors mainly for use on their farms. It also became clear that the tractor owners have no view on the number and location of smallholder farmers in need of their services. The tractor rental business is also affected by brokers who introduce conditions like only working with their own drivers while charging high fees and delivering bad quality work. In some instance, some smallholders fail to pay the last instalment of the fees.

To address these challenges and ensure that smallholders are able to mechanize, a number of innovative financing arrangements have been instituted to enable farmers groups, lead farmers or agri-preneurs purchase tractors to be shared among the members.

The best example in this region is the

partnership between Akiba Bank, Equity for Tanzania (EFTA) and ETC Agro, the representatives of the Mahindra tractors through which farmers are accessing loans to cover the upfront payment for the tractors. For example, members of Mbuyuni Irrigation Scheme Cooperative in Mbeya are in the final stages of acquiring a tractor and its implements. The members saved the 40 percent down payment and Akiba Bank will provide financing for the remainder. ETC Agro has guaranteed to buy back the equipment if the cooperative fails to pay back.

AGRA is providing technical support for such shared tractor services. The organization has cost shared the business case development to test how the tractors can best be deployed and at which fees in order to become a profitable venture. It has also supported the marketing and digitisation of the matchmaking between owners and users of tractors using an ‘Uber for tractors’ model. In the next 2 years, AGRA will support 26 farmers or their organisation to purchase tractors that will serve close to 40,000 smallholder farmers.

‘Uber for Tractors’ Model Helping Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania to Mechanize


Recent decision by the Government of Malawi to reduce overdependence on tobacco and diversify to other commodities including oil seed products derived from sunflower, soya bean, groundnuts and cotton seems to be paying dividends.

With support from the Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) which operates a large commercial “anchor” farm agribusiness (Tukula Farming Company) to produce improved seed, smallholder farmers in a number of districts have received high yielding seeds leading to improved incomes.

This is complemented by the Initiative’s other agribusiness, Moyo Nuts and Seeds, that buys high quality groundnuts from smallholder farmers at a premium price for export. CDI’s partnership with many other development organizations including the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to provide agronomy services to smallholder farmers to increase crop productivity has also paid dividends.

Consequently, the agricultural transformation work that started in 2008 with only 200 farmers in one district has today extended to cover six districts in Central Malawi benefiting over 100,000 farmers. These farmers have doubled their soya yields and farm incomes.

The consequent enhancement of farmers purchasing power has in turn enabled them to buy their own farm inputs,

mainly seed and fertilizer, to produce maize and soya bean for household food security and for the local market to boost domestic income.

Further, increased household incomes contributed by soya farming has resulted in many households investing in multiple economic activities including livestock rearing. A more recent development is the investment in motorbikes by a large number of farmers. This has not only eased rural transport but led to the emergence of a vibrant motorbike taxi business.

A probe into what changes motorbikes were bringing to the rural communities had striking revelations. For instance, in very remote rural areas, the sole purpose for buying a motorbike was to ease family transport. The motorbikes have become the main means of transport in the rural and peri-urban areas, usually at a nominal fee. On average, these motorbike taxi operators earn MK200,000- 250,000 (US$270 - 340) per month.

The motorbikes have also enabled farmers to transport their produce to far-off markets where they fetch better prices. Some, Mr Fanuel Paulo who is a member of a farmers’ soya club that is registered under the CDI outreach program, narrated that he started a commodity trading business (focusing on maize and soya) in 2014, with a modest capital of MK10,000 (about US$14). In 2016, he injected MK100,000 (US$140)

Soya Farming Motorizes Rural Economies in Malawi

from soya sales into the trading business. In addition, he bought the motorbike in 2016 using money from soya sales to help him travel longer distances looking for markets where he could buy commodities for resale. Mr Paulo lauded his commodity trading business as very helpful in his quest for further generation of income as well as ensuring a sound cash flow.

The proliferation of motorbikes has also spurned a thriving motorbikes repair business which has created employment opportunities for skilled mechanics. For example, Yohane Eliya started the business of repairing motorbikes in 2012. At the time, he was repairing 10 to 15 motorbikes per month. With the influx of motorbikes bought by farmers, his business is now booming. He now repairs about 50 motorbikes in a month earning him about MK180,000 (US$250) per month. In Malawi, this is equivalent to the monthly salary of a senior civil servant!

Sale of motorbike spare parts is also booming. Mr. Eliya estimated that motorbike owners buy spares worth MK300,000 (US$ 410) per month for the motorbikes he services. He said that such basic motorbike spares, oil and petrol are found even in grocery stores in remote villages.

The potential of smallholder farmers, who constitute 70 percent of the African

population, to feed the continent and drive an inclusive economic growth and development is enormous and well acknowledged.

For the farmers to fully harness this potential, concerted efforts must be made to optimize their yields. Key to increasing yields is access to good quality seeds of improved varieties of a wide range of priority staple crops. This is particularly dire as only 20 percent of farmers in sub-Saharan Africa use seeds of improved varieties despite the fact that over 50 percent of the total crop yield is determined by the genetic potential of the crop, carried in the seed, with the rest apportioned to proper agronomy, use of other inputs like fertilizer and climatic conditions.

Although the continent has made major strides in the production of such seeds, these efforts are hampered by the acute shortage of world-class plant breeding specialists. At the moment, the continent has less than 500 active crop breeders working in the public sector, which is about a tenth of the recommended number. Unlike the Developed World, in Africa the generation of improved crop varieties by plant breeders is still the preserve of the public sector.

Unfortunately, the capacity to substantially increase the numbers of scientists remains low as most universities only have one to two academic plant breeders which limits the numbers of people

that can be trained. Training of Plant Breeders is also done by public universities, with little government funding necessitating the need for other players to fund this.

Bridging this gap for trainers and funding calls for innovative approaches that leverage existing opportunities. One model that AGRA and its partners have pioneered involves funding training programs in universities that collaborate with the extensive network of research institutions that exist on the continent including the National Research Systems (NARS) and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) centers, international universities and private seed companies.

Through the Education for Africa’s Crop Improvement (EACI) programme, AGRA funds PhD and MSc training in partnership with 14 universities in 10 countries across the continent. The programme also offers short-term training of plant breeding technicians in partnership with regional research centres. To date, a total of 480 post graduate students – 152 PhD and 330 MSc and 152 plant breeding technicians (from mostly NARS) from 20 countries have been sponsored.

These students have greatly benefited from the partnership. The courses are presented by university lecturers and industry specialists while practical training is provided by the attachment of the students to the research centres and private seed companies. This affords them an opportunity to interact with and learn directly from experienced specialists.

The students also conduct their research embedded in the NARS and CGIAR research programs ensuring effective training and

immediate utilization of their research results into relevant on-going research, with a clear goal of delivering new crop varieties. The research centers provide the students with the ideal working environment for research. Senior scientists at these research centres also, co-supervise the students.

An evaluation of the programme shows that over 90 percent of the scientists trained in this programme conducted their thesis research in NARS centers and were co-supervised by senior scientists in the institutions. These students also benefitted from germ plasm from CGIAR centers. The remaining 10 percent conducted their research at CGIAR centers, university research farms and with private seed companies.

Scientists trained in this programme have developed over 130 improved varieties of a wide range of crops including maize, rice, finger millet, sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts, beans, cassava and sweet potato in 15 countries in the continent. These varieties have been licensed to and commercialized by private seed companies, making them accessible to smallholder farmers by a network of agro-dealers – who were also trained by AGRA – and are helping farmers to multiply their yields.

The specialists have also published over 300 papers in refereed journals worldwide thereby contributing to the body of knowledge on breeding priority African crops on the continent.

Winning Partnerships: Training Crop Breeders in Africa


An agricultural transformation is well and truly underway in Africa. Across the continent, smallholder

farmers have more options in the seeds they plant, the fertilizers they use, the markets they can tap into, and the information services available to help them manage their farms.

New agri-businesses are springing up and finance and markets are growing. The resilience of smallholder agriculture to climate change and variability is continuously being enhanced, and the sector is growing in commercial attractiveness.

As outlined in the 2016 edition of the African Agriculture Status Report (AASR), a decade of intense domestic attention to farmers and food production has generated “the most successful development effort” in African history, with countries that made the biggest investments in smallholder agriculture rewarded with sizeable jumps in both farm productivity and overall economic performance.

The attendant agricultural growth has expanded livelihood opportunities for millions of people now engaged in the growing off-farm aspects of the food system like storage, processing for value addition and supporting technologies. Offering a glimpse of future success, these advances have helped inspire a new vision for Africa, one in which farming realizes its potential to help make the continent sustainable and hunger free. Private companies have also invested heavily in Africa’s agriculture value chains in recent years.

At the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) held in Nairobi in September 2016, public and private leaders delivered a massive infusion of financial, political and

policy commitments to African farmers and agriculture businesses.

More than US $30 billion dollars in investments over the next 10 years to increase production, income and employment for smallholder farmers and local African agriculture businesses were pledged. This is part of the ongoing Seize the Moment Campaign by African Governments and pan-African partners to secure the continent’s rise through an agricultural transformation.

However, more still needs to be done. Millions still go to bed hungry; the farming population is rapidly ageing; levels of post harvest losses remain unacceptably high; farmers in large swathes of the continent have no access to locally adapted high yielding seeds or the right type and amount of fertilizer; and there are limited innovative financing options for farmers.

For Africa to prosper, it must empower it’s smallholder farmers who make up 70 percent of the continent’s population to achieve their aspirations which will ultimately lead to economic growth, development and prosperity of the entire continent.

To deliver this promise, Africa needs a world-class work force to be deployed across the agricultural value chain. At the moment, the continent has a deficiency of trained agricultural personnel ranging from plant breeders to technical specialists.

This has been blamed on inadequacy of funds to finance the capacity building of agricultural specialists mainly due to over reliance on funding by governments and donors, which is dwindling.

Other models of sustainably funding capacity building need to be explored for the continent to continuously produce active

agricultural professionals in the field, generate new relevant technologies and disseminate these technologies.

In most industrialized countries, the private sector is increasing their investments in research and capacity building which is now more than public sector investment. For example, in Europe and North America, the private sector contributes to capacity building and training by offering scholarships to their own employees as well as others on corporate social responsibility, endowing faculty positions, offering internship opportunities, sponsoring short courses and providing mentorship to both public and private sector personnel.

Closer home, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) works with a wide range of private sector institutions across the agriculture value chain to build the capacity of small to medium enterprises that support smallholder farmers. This programme has, in the last 10 years, supported close to 720 PhD and Masters students in agricultural related studies. Over 30,000 other various value chain actors like Small and Medium Enterprises involved in seeds, grain handling, agro-dealers, extension workers, fertilizer inspectors and field and laboratory technicians have received vocational training.

This work has offered valuable lessons that can inform the development of training model that unlocks private sector investment across the continent. It has also helped identify priority investment areas for the private sector based on their commercial viability and attractiveness.

is less than 0.4 tons per hectare. The newly released 6 varieties of climbing beans yield 1.5-2.5 tons per hectare. Additionally, the project has released 4 bush bean varieties that yield 1.2 tons per hectare Hybrid maize - The new hybrid maize - UH5053 - has the potential to increase the yields of maize on farmers’ fields from the current 1 ton per hectare to 3.5 tons per hectare. This variety is also particularly responsive to fertilizer use. For example, farmers who planted the hybrid seeds and used fertilizer received 4-5 tons per hectare in 2016. It is hoped that this variety will replace the local, low yielding ‘bamboo’ variety that is commonly planted.

The implications of this development are great as the country will no longer have to import these seeds but will, instead, produce them locally. This will not only benefit the farmers but the country’s nascent private seed sector too. Private seed companies will now be allowed to fully commercialize and produce certified seeds of these varieties for sale to farmers.

As such, and by extension, the release of these new varieties is a major boost to the work of the PASA, an affiliate of AGRA and funded by the Howard G. Buffett Foundation that has supported the establishment of five local private seed companies in the DRC.

New Varieties of High Quality Seed Released in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo will reap the benefits of extensive breeding work that

culminated in the release of 14 new and improved varieties of different crops earlier this month. Agricultural authorities and specialist announced that 3 new varieties of maize, 1 of cassava and 10 of beans will be available to farmers immediately. They will also be listed in the national crop variety catalogue.

The release of these seeds marks a landmark moment as it is, for example, the first time a hybrid maize variety has been released and commercialized for use by farmers in the DRC since the Partners for Seed in Africa (PASA), which financed the project, entered into the country in 2014. Besides their potential to enable farmers double their yields, all the varieties have unique characteristics that make them best suited to the North and South Kivu ecological conditions. They are:

Cassava – Despite being the largest cassava consuming country in Africa, the DRC hardly produces enough for domestic consumption. The predominant varieties that farmers grow are affected by cassava brown streak disease that makes the tuber unpalatable and reduces yields to less than 3 tons per hectare – an extremely low figure for cassava. The new variety, ‘Kizimbani’, is resistant to the disease and is high yielding producing about 20-35 tons per hectare.

Beans - Farmers traditionally grow the local beans types ‘Kabulangeti’ whose yield

The paradox of scarcity amidst plenty best defines the modern day reality. This is especially true

for agricultural financing and investments. Although myriad investors and financiers are increasingly channelling resources into agricultural development, farmers, particularly the smallholders and the small and medium enterprises servicing them (SMEs), rarely access these resources. And, when they do, they lack the capacity to absorb them into their businesses in ways that deliver tangible and long-term profits.

As noted by the World Economic Forum, private flows to developing countries are already increasing, reflecting increased attention on investment opportunities in global growth markets. However, they often struggle to make inroads into the projects, sectors and countries where they can have the maximum development impact.

Enter blended finance, which is generally defined as the approach to development finance that employs the strategic use of development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilize private capital flows to emerging and frontier markets. In most cases, technical assistance for banks, farmers and SMEs is provided alongside blended finance to enhance uptake and impact of financial instruments.

Applied correctly, blending development finance or philanthropic funds with private

Views on Davos: Redesigned Focus on Blended Finance to Unlock Africa’s Agriculture Potential

Continued on Pg. 41


Kenya has witnessed a general decline in food production in the last five decades. Although

the trend is sharper in the marginal lands, agriculturally productive areas like the western parts of the country - traditionally considered as the breadbasket, have not been spared which has sounded the alarm bells.

Although the region receives good amounts of rainfall all year round, thanks to a nearby rainforest ecosystem that borders Kakamega, Nandi and Vihiga counties, yields of staple food crops such as maize and beans are reported to be less than 1 ton per hectare compared to over 5 tons/ha of maize in most Asian countries and in the United States of America.

Poor agronomic practices such as continuous cultivation of farmlands without adding soil-enriching inputs and use of low quality seeds are some of the factors responsible for the low crop yields in this region. For example, soils in western Kenya have been greatly depleted with more than 57,670 ha of land being acidic.

The situation is made worse by the rapid rise in the area’s human population. For instance, Kakamega which is the largest of

the three counties has a population of over 1.6 million people and increasing at the rate of 2.5 percent annually. Vihiga county, on the other hand, is the most densely populated rural area in Kenya with a population density of over 1000 persons per square kilometer, way above the national average of 66 persons per square kilometer.

This population bulge has resulted in increased demand for food, shelter, water, energy, and waste disposal. Unable to meet these needs on their highly degraded 0.5 – 3 hectare farms, locals have encroached into the forests to open up new farms and obtain timber, fuelwood and medicinal herbs for sale to supplement their incomes.

Consequently, the forest is under severe threat of total destruction despite its multiple social, economic and environmental benefits to the over 3 million inhabitants of these counties. Its other regional and global functions including water provisioning, sink for climate change inducing carbon and biodiversity habitat are also endangered.

Efforts to reverse this trend received a major boost with the launch of a major initiative earlier this week to sustainably increase agriculture productivity especially by smallholder farmers and ease pressure on

these critical ecosystems. The 5-year project is aimed at introducing Sustainable Land and Forest Management (SLFM) practices to restore land productivity, increase food security, incomes and halt environmental degradation.

Speaking at the launch of the project in the Lake City of Kisumu, the Director General of the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Dr. Eliud Kireger promised to deploy his organization’s competitive research capacity towards the success of the project.

“We have developed working technologies like new crop varieties and new livestock breeds that farmers can adopt to deliver the twin benefits of increasing agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental conservation,” he said. ”We will also continue conducting new research to fill any existing knowledge gaps”

Committing the support of the three county governments, the Deputy Governor of Vihiga County Hon. Caleb Amaswache, stated that his government has provided political goodwill to the project whose success, he said, will increase food production and reduce poverty levels among the smallholder farmers surrounding

Millions of Smallholder Farmers in Western Kenya to Benefit from Sustainable Farm and Ecosystem Management Efforts

the forest ecosystems.Jointly implemented by the Kenyan

Government, both at the national and county levels, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the project aims to restore the productivity of over 10,000 hectares of farmlands in the three counties. It also aims to double the yields of maize and grain legumes by applying sustainable land practices. Three community based seed systems for indigenous crops will also be established to ensure that farmers have regular and affordable access to locally adapted high yielding seeds of major staples.

The farmers will also be connected to reliable markets through the establishment of 20 small and medium agricultural enterprises. This will ensure that they reap maximum benefits from their produce and are able to continue investing in sustainable and productive agricultural practices.

Dr. Rebbie Harawa, Interim Head of the Farmers Solution Program at AGRA said that this project is a good example of what needs to be done to achieve an agricultural transformation in Kenya and across Africa. She further noted that agriculture and the environment are inextricably linked. “We cannot talk about conserving forests

if the land is not producing enough for the community which calls for interventions that increase agricultural output per unit of land. As we look into the future and continue transforming agriculture, projects like this become important in building the resilience of farmers”

Henry Ndede, Coordinator of the Kenya Country Programme at UNEP, noted that there was pressure by the local population to derive livelihood out of the forest necessitating interventions like the ones proposed by the project. “Only through Sustainable Land and Forest Management will we guarantee cleaner rivers, biodiversity conservation and a regular supply of non-consumptive services from the forest. We stand to benefit,” said Mr. Ndede.

capital de-risks the agricultural sector thereby infusing private financiers and investors with confidence to channel their investments into the sector.

Ultimately, the private investors and financiers secure viable returns while the farmers receive requisite funds to transform farming into thriving businesses. Development funders, on the other hand, magnify

the impacts of small amounts of public sector support to leverage larger amounts of private finance into the sector

Despite the well-meant intentions of this approach and the attendant increase in finances available in the sector, these resources are still not reaching the critical end users - farmers, their associations, business enterprises and banks. AGRA thinks one of the reasons is the lack of relevant technical assistance which should help to close the gap between the banks and borrowers. The design and implementation of the technical assistance facilities largely remain as ‘orphans’ in the blended finance mechanism.

That is why AGRA is calling for more focus and a rethinking on the design and implementation of TA facilities linked to the blended finance mechanisms to ensure that more beneficiaries are impacted sustainably. We are aiming for more effective technical assistance facilities

At the moment, most attention in designing blended finance instruments goes to the structuring of the financial instruments including a variety of debt and guarantee mechanisms that are managed by investment funds or banks. The structuring of the technical assistance (TA) is in most cases less thought through and left to non-permanent structures to implement.

TA is mostly outsourced to a wide range of consultants and therefore remains uncoordinated and ad hoc. Consultants hardly have ownership of the design process or the incentive to make TA permanent and sustainable. This hampers SMEs and farmers to continuously access affordable and appropriate financial services and banks to continuously provide relevant services.

Continued from Pg. 39

Views on Davos: Redesigned Focus on Blended Finance to Unlock Africa’s Agriculture Potential

The AGRA President Dr. Agnes Kalibata was a keynote speaker at the sixth annual AGCO Africa

Summit in Berlin, Germany. Other keynote speakers at the event included Christian Schmidt, Germany’s Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Elsie Kanza, Head of Africa, World Economic Forum and Christian Wulff, Former Federal President of Germany.

A joint initiative of AGCO (a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of agricultural equipment), Bayer CropScience, Rabobank, De Lage Landen, Trelleborg and Fuse Connected Services, this year’s Summit focused on ‘Organizing Farmers of the Future.’

Hosted by Gary Collar, AGCO Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Africa and Nuradin Osman, AGCO Vice President and General Manager Africa, the summit brought together hundreds of actors in the African agricultural landscape.

Dr. Kalibata emphasized that the adoption and use of appropriate farming tools and machines at all levels of the value chain has the potential to transform the lives of smallholder farmers through increased productivity, expansion of the area under cultivation and reduction of costs. It also eliminates the hard farm labour associated with agricultural production and creates an opportunity for youth engagement.

“All farmers can afford mechanization. However, not all farmers can afford a tractor. Those are two different things. AGCO and

other companies they brought together here today are leading critical efforts to identify technologies and business models that will enable even the smallest scale farmers in Africa to improve the way they farm and do better for their families,” she said.

“Co-operation among farmers has proven advantages in the advancement of agriculture,” said Gary Collar, AGCO Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific and Africa. “As well as giving farmers a voice and pushing for beneficial policies from the grassroots, collaboration can help achieve economies of scale and facilitate access to inputs, credit and markets. Today, technology, particularly through the proliferation of mobile phones and social media in Africa, is providing one of the greatest-ever opportunities for groups to organize themselves into powerful, influential bodies.”

Through presentations and panel discussions, the Summit explored how agribusiness and farmer-based organizations can be aligned as co-creators of rural wealth; how youth and Information and Communication Technology (ITC) can catalyze the organization of farmers in the future, and how maximum ‘value’ can be secured from the value chains for the farmers who participate in them.

Among the panelists were figures from farmer organizations in Africa and Europe including Dr. Theo de Jager, President Pan African Farmers’ Organization, Joachim Rukwied, President German Farmers’ Association, Ishmael Sunga, CEO Southern African Confederation of

Agricultural Unions and Jehiel Oliver, CEO and Founder of Hello Tractor, an innovative shared-economy platform that makes tractor usage affordable to marginalized farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

“AGCO is investing significantly in Africa and growing its local presence there by providing African farmers and African agribusinesses with comprehensive agricultural solutions,” says Nuradin Osman, AGCO Vice President and General Manager Africa. “The Company is committed to the transformation of African agriculture based on a strategy of inclusive and sustainable farm mechanization. In 2017, we will be retaining a strong focus and investment in small-scale agriculture, as well as leading the way in high-tech solutions for commercial farmers on the continent.”

Since its premiere in 2012, this AGCO Africa Summit has established itself as an important institution for discussing critical issues impacting Africa’s agricultural development. The Summit has a strong focus on private sector-driven agricultural growth, promoting the idea of agriculture as a business and not a development agenda. The focus of panel topics, discussions and workshops engage with practical real-life examples of leading edge projects and initiatives. The international conference attracts CEOs, industry experts and political leaders with a common interest to accelerate the development of African agriculture.

AGCO Africa Summit: Enabling Farmers to Improve Agricultural Prosperity


About the AGCO Africa Summit

Since its premiere in 2012, this AGCO Africa Summit has established itself as an important institution for discussing critical issues impacting Africa’s agricultural development. What sets the AGCO Africa Summit apart from other agricultural conferences is that it has a strong focus on private sector driven agricultural growth, promoting the idea of agriculture as a business and not a development agenda.

The focus of panel topics, discussions and workshops engage with practical real-life examples of leading edge projects and initiatives that are already making an impact which others can learn from. It is a conference of international character, which attracts CEOs, industry experts and political leaders with a common interest to accelerate the development of African agriculture with a strong focus on networking, information exchange and an emphasis on building lasting business partnerships.

The overall aims of the AGCO Africa Summit are:

Actively engage and lead the international dialogue on the development of the agricultural sector in Africa within the industry and beyond;

Raise international awareness for the needs of the agricultural sector in Africa with a strong focus on commercial agriculture, as well as on specific interests of key players throughout the value chain including producers, suppliers, manufacturers, processors and the market;

Highlight concrete solutions and opportunities for engaging in sustainable agricultural development in Africa and by doing so, encourage other companies to do the same;

Support the spirit of global partnerships and local cooperation, knowledge transfer and sustainability.

About AGCO

AGCO (NYSE: AGCO) is a global leader in the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural solutions and supports more productive farming through its full line of equipment and related services.

AGCO products are sold through five core brands, Challenger®, Fendt®, GSI®, Massey Ferguson® and Valtra®, supported by Fuse® precision technologies and farm optimization services, and are distributed globally through a combination of approximately 3,000 independent dealers and distributors in more than 140 countries. Founded in 1990, AGCO is headquartered in Duluth, GA, USA. In 2015, AGCO had net sales of $7.5 billion.


Kenya has witnessed a general decline in food production in the last five decades. Although

the trend is sharper in the marginal lands, agriculturally productive areas like the western parts of the country - traditionally considered as the breadbasket, have not been spared which has sounded the alarm bells.

Although the region receives good amounts of rainfall all year round, thanks to a nearby rainforest ecosystem that borders Kakamega, Nandi and Vihiga counties, yields of staple food crops such as maize and beans are reported to be less than 1 ton per hectare compared to over 5 tons/ha of maize in most Asian countries and in the United States of America.

Poor agronomic practices such as continuous cultivation of farmlands without adding soil-enriching inputs and use of low quality seeds are some of the factors responsible for the low crop yields in this region. For example, soils in western Kenya have been greatly depleted with more than 57,670 ha of land being acidic.

The situation is made worse by the rapid rise in the area’s human population.

For instance, Kakamega which is the largest of the three counties has a population of over 1.6 million people and increasing at the rate of 2.5 percent annually. Vihiga county, on the other hand, is the most densely populated rural area in Kenya with a population density of over 1000 persons per square kilometer, way above the national average of 66 persons per square kilometer.

This population bulge has resulted in increased demand for food, shelter, water, energy, and waste disposal. Unable to meet these needs on their highly degraded 0.5 – 3 hectare farms, locals have encroached into the forests to open up new farms and obtain timber, fuelwood and medicinal herbs for sale to supplement their incomes.

Consequently, the forest is under severe threat of total destruction despite its multiple social, economic and environmental benefits to the over 3 million inhabitants of these counties. Its other regional and global functions including water provisioning, sink for climate change inducing carbon and biodiversity habitat are also endangered.

Efforts to reverse this trend received a major boost with the launch of a major initiative earlier this week to sustainably

increase agriculture productivity especially by smallholder farmers and ease pressure on these critical ecosystems. The 5-year project is aimed at introducing Sustainable Land and Forest Management (SLFM) practices to restore land productivity, increase food security, incomes and halt environmental degradation.

Speaking at the launch of the project in the Lake City of Kisumu, the Director General of the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), Dr. Eliud Kireger promised to deploy his organization’s competitive research capacity towards the success of the project.

“We have developed working technologies like new crop varieties and new livestock breeds that farmers can adopt to deliver the twin benefits of increasing agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental conservation,” he said. ”We will also continue conducting new research to fill any existing knowledge gaps”

Committing the support of the three county governments, the Deputy Governor of Vihiga County Hon. Caleb Amaswache, stated that his government has provided political goodwill to the project

Fresh hope for potato producers in KenyaBy Isaiah Esipisu

whose success, he said, will increase food production and reduce poverty levels among the smallholder farmers surrounding the forest ecosystems.

Jointly implemented by the Kenyan Government, both at the national and county levels, the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the Kenya Agriculture and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), the project aims to restore the productivity of over 10,000 hectares of farmlands in the three counties. It also aims to double the yields of maize and grain legumes by applying sustainable land practices. Three community based seed systems for indigenous crops will also be established to ensure that farmers have regular and affordable access to locally adapted high yielding seeds of major staples.

The farmers will also be connected to reliable markets through the establishment of 20 small and medium agricultural enterprises. This will ensure that they reap maximum benefits from their produce and are able to continue investing in sustainable and productive agricultural practices.

Dr. Rebbie Harawa, Interim Head of the Farmers Solution Program at AGRA said that this project is a good example of what

needs to be done to achieve an agricultural transformation in Kenya and across Africa. She further noted that agriculture and the environment are inextricably linked. “We cannot talk about conserving forests if the land is not producing enough for the community which calls for interventions that increase agricultural output per unit of land. As we look into the future and continue transforming agriculture, projects like this become important in building the resilience of farmers”

Henry Ndede, Coordinator of the Kenya Country Programme at UNEP, noted that there was pressure by the local population to derive livelihood out of the forest necessitating interventions like the ones proposed by the project. “Only through Sustainable Land and Forest Management will we guarantee cleaner rivers, biodiversity conservation and a regular supply of non-consumptive services from the forest. We stand to benefit,” said Mr. Ndede.

Isaiah Esipisu is a journalist specialising in agriculture and climate change reporting with the Daily Nation, a publication of the Nation Media Group.

Agriculture to Continue Driving Ethiopia’s Diversified Economic Growth

In the last decade, Ethiopia has been a shining example of the potential of sustained investment in the agricultural sector as a driver of economic growth. Agriculture has been at the heart of the country’s impressive growth rate of 8 - 11 percent annually for more than a decade making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world.

The government of Ethiopia prioritized the sector in its Growth and Transformation Plan I (GTP I). As a result, for instance, the area under cultivation grew by 27 percent during the decade with cereal yields increasing by 7 percent per year. This has been attributed to intensifying labor and land, using fertilizer and improved seed and better infrastructure to facilitate access among others.

Yet, despite progress, poverty levels in Ethiopia remain high due both to rapid population growth and a low starting base. Regular rainfall failures due to climate change have resulted in prolonged droughts leading to food insecurity for millions of Ethiopians.

To address these challenges and expand economic growth opportunities,

the Government finalized and published the current 2016-2020 five-year plan, the Growth and Transformation Plan (GTP II) in 2015. Although agriculture remains key in the new plan, GTP II emphasizes economic diversification by improving the manufacturing sector in areas where Ethiopia has a comparative advantage in exporting, including textiles and garments, leather goods, and processed agricultural products.

In a bid to develop a strategy to attract and increase investments in the country’s agricultural sector, The Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia launched the process of domesticating the commitments of the AU 2014 Malabo Declaration on Africa Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation (3AGT), into their National Agriculture Investment Framework (NAIF).

The two day workshop organized in partnership with the Africa Union Commission and NEPAD Agency will review the country’s NAIF; align it to the commitments agreed to in the Malabo Declaration and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and identify more opportunities for agricultural investments. This will result

in the establishment of a roadmap for a comprehensive second phase of the NAIF dubbed the NAIF II.

Mutual accountability for results and impact is a key determining factor for Africa’s development as pointed out in the AU 2014 Malabo Declaration which contains seven key commitments on agricultural transformation, which the AU Heads of State and Government committed to, and in turn tasked the AUC and NEPAD Agency to lead the establishment of the Biennial Review Mechanism for regular country progress reports to the AU Assembly.

Increased performance by AU Member States to deliver on targets set by the Malabo Declaration, that will in turn trigger evidence based planning and implementation for the expected agricultural growth and transformation in Africa; and ultimately lead to the Africa We Want , as embodied in the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and in particular, to Aspiration 1 of Africa’s Agenda 2063; a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.

The country aims to attain middle-income status by 2025


The Agricultural Transformation Agenda in GTP II is aimed at increasing crop production and productivity, enhancing livestock production and productivity, reduction of natural resource degradation while at the same time ensuring food security and disaster risk reduction through enhancing the country’s capacity to deal with disasters.

Based on the learnings from GTP I and detailed feedback from stakeholders in the sector, access to markets and support for agri-business and building institutional and human capacity of key agricultural systems are also covered in GTP II.

Officially opening the workshop, Mr. Zena Habtewold, Director, in the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Ethiopia, reiterated the country’s commitment to translating and domesticating the Malabo commitments while adhering to the principles of CAADP in ensuring a NAIF II that would take stock of all the pertinent drivers of agriculture meant to significantly enhance food security and grow the economy.

Mr. Habtewold assured the participants at the workshop that the NAIF II would be finalised in a few months.

Mr. Ernest Ruzindaza, the AUC-CAADP Team Leader, commended the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia for being among the African countries that has adhered to the CAADP principle of committing 10 per cent or more of its national budget to the agriculture sector and going beyond the recommended annual six

per cent agricultural growth rate; translating to significant economic growth.

“The NAIF is cardinal in implementing our continental obligations and also the country’s aspirations into an evidence-based plan with clear targets, budgets and mutual accountability,” he said. “We all have a huge responsibility to transform the agriculture sector in Ethiopia ensuring food security, creating employment and accelerating the growth of the country’s economy.”


Agriculture is one of the most crucial sectors of the economy not only for Uganda but the entire African continent. Over the last two and a half decades, Africa has under the auspice of the African Union had an increased focus on agriculture as a mitigation against poverty and as an enabler for development. Though Agriculture has always been top on Africa’s agenda, real impetus came in 2003 under the Maputo Declaration and subsequently in the 2014 Malabo Declaration.

The twin declarations continue to gunner support through various initiative including the domestication of Agriculture Sector Support Project (ASSP), Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) under the African Union Commission and the development of National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs). So far three African Countries have unveiled their National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs) including Kenya, Nigeria with Uganda having just concluded its forum.

Agriculture accounts for 22.6% of Uganda’s GDP and 53.47% of total exports. From a labour perspective the sector employs 72% of the country’s labour force with 43% of Ugandans engaging in subsistence farming. Even if you were to exclude subsistence farmers, agriculture accounts for 33% of employment making it the single largest employer and contributor to Uganda’s national GDP.

Over the last five years’ our agricultural policy has been guided by the Development Strategy and Investment Plan (DSIP), the country has

A multi-sectorial approach: Uganda set to redefine Agriculture

however since migrated to the Agriculture Sector Strategic Plan (ASSP) which will be used to domesticate the wider continental plan CAADP. As a strategy ASSP, draws from the gains of DSIP which led to a 49% growth in agricultural exports between 2010 and 2015. Unlike its predecessor, ASSP seeks to widen community involvement in the transformation of agriculture from subsistence to commercial farming. ASSP will guide Uganda’s Agricultural policy as a medium term plan to the year 2020.

To achieve its objective, ASSP has been integrated into Uganda’s vision 2040, under which agriculture is recognized as a major contributor to GDP and a key employer. To enable the full realization of the sector’s potential, the government is rolling out Operation Wealth Creation (OWC) that seeks to leverage research and the application of technology towards the commercialization of agriculture.

As a guiding policy ASSP recognizes that the transformation of the sector goes beyond the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Industries and calls for a multi-sectorial approach leveraging; infrastructure, finance, trade facilitation and Land tenure as well as business regulation and standardization. Agronomy is at the core of what ails Uganda’s agricultural sector, years of over cultivation have led to a steep decline in the country’s soil fertility with a growing deficiency in nitrogen and phosphorus levels. Bearing in mind that 43% of the population relays on subsistence farming, the only viable remedy is enhancing access to inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, extension services, irrigation and mechanization as envisioned

By Hon. Vicent Ssempijja

under the Maputo declaration. Uganda’s input uptake compares decimally

to the set standards, for instance; the average rate of fertilizer utilization stands at 2.25kgs/ha compared to the Abuja declaration average of 50kgs/ha. To enhance access to fertilizer radical measures need to be taken going by the fact that 40% of the cost of fertilizer is attributable to transport and port handling costs. Uganda is a landlocked country leaving it reliant on neighboring countries for both its export and import needs, this is a geographical limitation that can only be addressed through multi-sectorial collaboration. To ease the cost of transport and access to fertilizer and other inputs, the government is scaling up investment in infrastructure and putting in place policies to ease access to finance.

To be fully effective however, we must seek to commercialize agriculture. This calls for the aggregation of labour. The intention is to upscale production through aggregation to boost yields and generate new opportunities in Agro-processing and value chain development opening up the economy to both high skill and higher wage labour.

On the infrastructure front additional investment is needed to increase land under irrigation. Uganda’s total irrigable land is estimated at well over three million hectares; however only 15,000 hectares is under irrigation. To increase the acreage under irrigation the government will leverage on public private partnerships with an increased focus on community involvement through out-growers’ schemes borrowing from existing Ugandan schemes such as the Mubuku irrigation settlement scheme in Kasese and the Doho rice scheme in Tororo.

The multi-sectorial approach lends itself economic integration, with Uganda having ramped up its power production over the last decade with the installation of the 250 MW Bujagali power plant and the 183 MW Isimba Power stations. The net effect has been a 10% power surplus that may lay the foundation for value addition and agro-processing and if the government’s commitment at the recently concluded National Agriculture Investment Plan is anything to go by this may very well be Uganda’s economic lynch pin.

Hon. Vicent Ssempijja, Minister for Agriculture, Uganda.


Renewed Push to Boost Agriculture Investments in KenyaKenya takes stock of agriculture progress to date, and outlines way forward to improve economic growth, reduce food imports, and boost nutrition

The Kenyan Government launched a critical phase of its ambitious agriculture development strategy,

as influential public and private sector partners joined senior officials from the African Union Commission (AUC) and major development partners to agree on a roadmap for making crop and livestock production a powerful engine for economic growth in Kenya.

The focus of the three-day meeting—organized in partnership with the AUC and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency— is to evaluate and refine Kenya’s National Agriculture Investment Plan (NAIP), the core blueprint for revitalizing crop, livestock and fisheries production in Kenya. Agriculture employs 75 percent of Kenyans but has yet to reach its potential to boost food security, nutrition and incomes—particularly for the country’s poorest people.

“The NAIP remains a central tool for the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) implementation as its translates the continental and country aspirations into an evidence based plan with clear targets, budgets and mutual accountability,” said AUC’s Commissioner for Rural Economy

and Agriculture, H.E Tumusiime Rhoda Peace. “ It’s inspiring to see such a diverse group come together to determine exactly how Kenya is going generate the investments required to energize a sector that embodies the hope for a better future for all Kenyans.”

She added that the NAIP process was in line with the aspirations of Africa’s Agenda 2063; a prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development.

The gathering is one of a series of meetings being held over the next year across Africa to revamp national agriculture investment plans linked to the CAADP process. The CAADP was endorsed by African Leaders in 2003 and then reaffirmed and expanded at the 2014 AU Heads of State and Government Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. CAADP is an African led and owned framework that commits African countries to increase public sector spending on agriculture to at least 10 percent of national budgets, among others, while embracing reforms that will attract more investments from the private sector.

Leading the assessment of Kenya’s agriculture investment plan is the Cabinet Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, and Fisheries, Hon. Willy Bett. Ministry officials were joined at the meeting by senior colleagues from other ministries that

have a significant stake in spurring progress in Kenyan agriculture.

Other participants included representatives from key development partners, donor governments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Bank, and the African Development Bank. Also in attendance were county government officials from across Kenya and representatives from agriculture businesses and civil society groups that work in Kenya, including the Nairobi-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Africa Lead, Grow Africa and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

“It’s a major achievement to assemble such a broad group of investors and allies who all understand that there is an impressive array of agriculture opportunities in Kenya,” said CS Bett. “It sends a signal to our farmers and to all of the citizens of Kenya that the Government is moving aggressively to generate investments that will bring rapid progress in fields, pastures, fisheries and food markets across the country.”

Informing the discussion of the investment strategy is a soon to be released assessment of Kenya’s progress to date that

finds increased spending in agriculture is clearly boosting production and profits. But the analysis also finds that public sector investments in Kenya are still short of the commitment by CAADP signatories to allocate 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture. And it shows that while the annual growth in agricultural productivity has reached 4.8 percent in Kenya, that’s still below the 6 percent CAADP target. Meanwhile, the analysis indicates that most of the economic growth in Kenya in recent years has been driven by sectors other than agriculture, evidence that agriculture has yet to reach its potential to deliver benefits across the economy, particularly for the poorest workers.

According to the FAO, in sub-Saharan Africa, growth driven by agriculture is up to 11 times more effective at reducing poverty than growth generated by other sectors.

The report also notes that the most valuable food crops in Kenya today are maize, potatoes, bananas, tea and mangoes. It also finds that though Kenya has made significant progress in reducing malnutrition, iron and vitamin A deficiency remain a major problem, especially for very young children. Yet at the same time, obesity is on the rise in Kenya.

Organizers of this week’s investment strategy meeting expect to emerge with a more detailed roadmap that will include consensus on priorities as well as a detailed multi-year spending plan tied to a performance scorecard that can be used to publicly monitor progress.

“It’s particularly important that we have a strategy that can drive greater investments from the private sector,” Hon. Bett said. “Government commitments are crucial, but creating a more prosperous, food-secure future for Kenya requires a more entrepreneurial approach across the sector—in production, processing, inputs and marketing. That means attracting support for small and medium sized enterprises that can generate income and employment in rural communities.”

agra.org€¦ · · 2017-04-12Dr. Agnes Kalibata, President, AGRA @Agnes_Kalibata ... Waiganjo...

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