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| Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma with Dr Ibrahim Mayaki |
By DOREEN NAWA
A CALL to transform Africa’s agriculture in a bid to win the war on poverty, hunger and indignity was the main theme in all the deliberations at the African Union Commission (AUC) Comprehensive Agriculture sector Development Programme (CAADP) 10th Partnership Platform meeting held in Durban, South Africa recently.
The key message was coined around the need to take action in priority areas to accelerate increased investment and broad-based transformation in support of smallholder farmers, including rural youth and women.
“Africa needs to come up with its own solutions to problems rather than depend on the United Nations (UN) to spearhead the process,” AUC chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said.
“The agenda of agricultural transformation is strategically positioned to provide enormous opportunities for inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.
“Agriculture has been and will continue to be at the centre of economic and also political stability in Africa. If this were not to be the case, hungry stomachs, unemployed youths and poor citizens would end up influencing hungry and poverty-induced anger and thus fuel more political conflicts in our countries,” Dr Dlamini-Zuma said.
Despite important economic progress and agricultural successes, Africa remains the world’s most food insecure continent, with relatively low levels of agricultural productivity, low rural incomes, and high rates of malnutrition.
Statistics by various organs including International Monetary Fund (IMF) have shown that Africa has recorded continuous economic growth since 1999, accompanied by improved governance and human development indicators. Currently, seven out of the top 10 fastest growing economies in the world are situated in Africa, and IMF estimates that economic growth in sub-Saharan Africa will be 6.1 percent by the end of 2014.
Africa’s annual total GDP grew on average by 4.8 percent in 2000-2010, up from 2.1 percent in the previous decade, and the agriculture sector’s growth rates in the same time period were 3.2 percent and three percent respectively.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said the continent has achieved a series of agricultural successes in major areas, including the intensification of staple food production, improved varieties of bananas in Eastern and Central Africa, high-yielding varieties of maize in East and southern Africa, and productivity gains in cotton production in Burkina Faso and Mali and in tea and floriculture in East Africa.
“The question is how African leaders can build on this progress by providing stable agricultural and fiscal policies that encourage investment, as committed 10 years ago in the Maputo Declaration, and strengthen governance and accountability mechanisms that contribute to more systemic implementation of policies and programmes,” she said.
Dr Dlamini-Zuma said these actions were critical to trigger a transformation in the capacity of countries to deliver sustained and broad-based agricultural growth and development.
Furthermore, concerted efforts were needed to assist a broader set of asset-poor family farms gain access to agricultural inputs, affordable credit, rural services and extension information that allows them to take advantage of the growing market. Innovative social protection and risk management programmes were also required to address the particular constraints of smallholder farmers.
Chief executive officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Ibrahim Mayaki said the agenda of agricultural transformation is strategically positioned to provide enormous opportunities for inclusive and sustainable development in Africa.
Dr Mayaki said ¬ “agriculture is everyone’s business that is why national independence depends on its development as it is enables countries to escape the scourge of food insecurity that undermines the sovereignty and fosters sedition.
“Agriculture is the driver of growth whose leverage is now acknowledged by economists and politicians. It is a sector offering potential for poverty and inequality reduction. Agriculture constitutes the development battlefield where Africa can win the war on poverty, hunger and indignity.
“Agriculture has been and will continue to be at the centre of economic and also political stability in Africa. It is therefore imperative to invest in agriculture in order to overcome the food insecurity in the continent,” Dr Mayaki said.
Trends in per capita food production have been generally positive over recent decades. On average, agricultural production in Africa has increased slightly less than 1 percent per year, compared with about 2 percent in developing countries.
While Africa experienced high instability in food price levels, per capita food production was more stable over time and variability was relatively low compared to other regions, such as Asia or Latin America.
But despite the overall progress made on hunger and malnutrition in Africa over the past decades, absolute levels of hunger and undernourishment remain worrying in sub-Saharan Africa including Zambia
It is estimated that poverty rates in Africa declined marginally from 56 percent in 1990 to 49 percent in 2010, leaving 388 million in extreme poverty and approximately 239 million chronically undernourished. The food security situation in Africa continues to be of particular concern.
With a view to transforming agriculture in Africa, research is also an important element.
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) said African countries need to invest more on research in agriculture if meaningful transformation was to be realised.
FARA executive director Dr Yemi Akinbamijo said Africa cannot grow without the use of research and science in the agriculture sector.
Dr Akinbamijo also said there was need for political will by government leaders to endorse science into agriculture which will be translated into economic development.
“FARA has taken the mandate of the science agenda and we are keen to deliver it to African farmers as we embark on reducing hunger.
“Science will also enable farmers use better methods of farming as modern technology increases efficiency and productivity,” Dr Akinbamijo said.
The 10th CAADP partnership platform (PP) meeting was being held under the theme, “Transforming Africa’s agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods, through harnessing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development.”
The five-day conference attracted over 5,000 delegates from across Africa and beyond.
The 10th CAADP PP was being held at a historical moment when the AUC was celebrating 10 years of CAADPP and the year of African agriculture and food security.
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