ACCORDING to the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), four out of five people in Africa depend on agriculture for their livelihoods.
However, it remains the only region in the developing world to have low and declining agricultural development, with a per capita output totalling 56 percent of the world average.
In addition, Africa’s per capita agricultural output has declined by five percent over the last twenty years while other developing nations have seen a 40 percent increase.
However, given that the region is home to about 60 percent of the world’s arable land, the expansion of new markets and sustainable technologies proposed by the ECA can help alleviate poverty in Africa and reduce income inequality.
Many of those who depend on agriculture to survive live in rural areas with little access to research and technology. This means that outside investment is often necessary for a country like Zambia to maintain sustainable farming rituals.
With more than 80 percent of Zambia’s population depending on agriculture for their livelihoods, agriculture is central to Zambia’s economic development.
For this, President Lungu announced his decision to diversify the nation’s economy by focusing on unlocking the agriculture potential of the nation, while reducing its dependence on copper mining.
President Lungu expressed this after being sworn in for a new five-year term on Tuesday last week.
“We must promote agriculture to become one of the main drivers of our diversification programme,” he said.
Although Zambia’s economy has been hard hit by depressed copper prices, diversifying into agriculture still presents a number of difficulties.
Reports say the agriculture sector is one that still needs a lot of development.
This is owing to the fact that it is focused on staple maize and is mostly produced by subsistence farmers who lack the capital and technology to improve their yields.
The subsistence farmers can also be classified as small and medium enterprises who make up about 50 percent of Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
There are currently a good number of entrepreneurs in Zambia, running small, medium or micro enterprises responsible for generating up to 30 percent of total employment.
Therefore, investing in SMEs is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and increase incomes.
But why has the investment in SMEs taken a while besides them (SMEs) being paramount in agriculture transformation?
Despite the huge potential for growth in this sector, most of the businesses have remained largely informal thereby limiting the sector’s contribution to the growth of the economy.
Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) NonState Actors Coalition (CNC) deputy chairperson Cris Muyunda says SMEs face many and varied challenges to their growth and operations.
Dr Muyunda says most enterprises are struggling to survive due to lack of financing.
“SMEs represent a ‘missing middle part in agriculture transformation’ not only in Zambian but in African private sectors as these are dominated on the one hand, by (mostly informal) micro enterprises, and by large companies on the other.
Dr Muyunda says other barriers that hold SMEs from growing are the lack of appropriate skills, knowledge, technology and the limited access to markets.
Addressing these constraints is crucial to moving towards sustainable employment, innovation and increase incomes and exports in Zambia and Africa as a whole.
Improved value chain is another prerequisite to the growth of SMEs and this will also create jobs and thereby grow the economy too.
To create economic growth, Zambia’s agricultural productivity needs to improve from start to finish.
Recently, Zambia CAADP Focal Point at the Ministry of Agriculture Justin Chuunka said, “We need to look at the whole value chain and create market linkages. From inputs into the production through harvest, storage, marketing, processing and retailing. It involves all steps from farmer to consumer. A more inclusive value chain benefits all players.”
Mr Chuunka said elevating SMEs to the centre of industrial development and economic growth requires financial and human resources (training) to achieve their goals.
“It is important that we encourage SMEs to expand and to evolve, innovate, to hire employees and inspire others to do the same. The benefits for Zambian economy would be enormous,” Mr Chuunka said.
To grow and support SMEs in Zambia and Africa as a whole is the pathway if hunger and poverty are to be reduced.
The future of the African continent is about growing rural enterprises that will support smallholder farmers and employment creation.
Despite their high contribution to economic growth and job creation, SME’s face significant constraints with respect to access to agricultural technology, information, financing and markets.
The smallholder farming sub-sector is constrained by inadequate private sector development, by general market failure and a farming community whose knowledge, skills, and assets base are limited which are a result of lack of adequate training and education.
To close this gap, the need for transferring knowledge, building technical skills and providing management support solutions via mentoring, coaching and training to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) cannot be overemphasized.
The problem of poverty and how to reduce it remains the most pressing dilemma in the international development debate.
But the good news is that the agriculture sector has the capacity to lead the poverty transformation if only SMEs can be empowered. PUBLISHED IN THE ZAMBIA DAILY MAIL ON SEPTEMBER 18, 2016. https://www.daily-mail.co.zm/?p=79762
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