Africa must do more than increase agriculture productivity

Africa’s capacity to feed itself now and in the future remains a major challenge, despite its enormous agricultural potentials to produce enough food for the continent and sell surplus produce.

According to Dr. Abdalla Hamdok, Deputy Executive Secretary, UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), transforming agriculture into a more dynamic commercial-oriented sector will improve productivity, create jobs, generate income and enhance livelihoods.

“Increasing agricultural productivity alone is not sufficient enough to ensure food security,” he observed. “Agriculture must gradually transition from subsistence to agriculture as a business in order to achieve the objective of ending hunger and alleviating poverty.”

Dr. Hamdok was addressing the opening session of the Fourth Conference on Climate Change and Development in Africa (CCDA-IV) in Marracach, Morroco. The theme for this year’s conference is “Africa can Feed Africa Now: Translating Climate Knowledge into Action.”

 

To achieve the set objective, he recommends more value addition, agro-processing and agribusiness as well as improved access to markets.

“Limited access to markets, both at local and regional level perpetuates poverty and food deficiency whereas improved infrastructure would not only open up access to markets but also help address challenges of climate change and facilitating movement of food from areas of surplus to those that suffer crop failure due with impacts of climate change,” noted Dr. Hamdok.

Agriculture remains the single most important sector in many African economies, accounting for at least 30percent of national incomes and forming the bulk of export earnings. But the continent continues to spend colossal amounts of money annually – between $40-$50billion – importing agricultural products, inspite enormous resource endowment, unutilized arable land, fresh water resources and human capital to produce sufficiently.

Dr Fatima Denton, Director, Special Initiative Division, noted that Africa is missing the opportunity to use agriculture as a foundation for industrial pathway.

“Agriculture has not served as a transformational hub in fuelling economic growth and propelling industrialization,” she said.

She however there is a major opportunity in turning agriculture in Africa as the engine of development.

“This will require a deep reflection not just about producing more food, but also how we produce it using SMART agriculture for example,” said Dr. Denton.

Dr. Hamdok wants scientific and technological interventions and innovations efficiently harnessed to transform the agricultural sector.

“The availability of reliable and sufficient energy to drive this transformation process is critical across the entire agricultural value chain,” he stated.

According Ms. Yacine Fal of the African Development Bank (AfDB), the CCDA-IV is an opportunity for the Bank to hear from experts and stakeholders in designing its new agriculture strategy.

“We are convinced that the recommendations that will come from this important conference will be soon translated into actions by our respective countries. For our part, we stand ready to support any and all actions that are bankable and fall within the remit of the African Development Bank Mandate,” she said.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh/in Marrakech, Morocco


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Ghanaian farmers earn extra from purchase for progress initiative

The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) has been taking stock of activities under its ‘Purchase for Progress’ (P4P) initiative in Ghana, three years into implementation.

The innovative initiative is being implemented in 20 other countries across the globe, with the objective of linking small holder farmers to markets.

In Ghana, the P4P initiative is built on the successes of the WFP’s local food procurement programme – food purchases rose from US$234,000 in 2003 to US$7.1 million in 2008.

The 5 year pilot programme targets three districts in Ghana – these are mostly rice farmers in Tamale Metropolitan and Tolon Kumbungu district in the Northern region and maize farmers in the Ejira-Sekyeredumasi of Ashanti.

According to Programme Officer, John Sitor, the WFP has been purchasing surplus produce of food security crops like the cereals directly from the farmers, in order not to distort the market.

“This project will in the long way will help the smallholder farmers to engage in other quality markets”, he observed. “Formally we have been purchasing from renowned companies or traders that have to do with competitive tendering, but we thought it that these people have been buying from the smallholder farmers. So this programme is being developed to target the smallholder farmers directly”.

 

Smallholder farmers in Ghana are often exploited by middlemen in efforts to sell produce, due to their limited knowledge and skills in accessing markets.

Mr. Sitor noted that the introduction of standard weighing scales has opened up opportunities for the farmers to get most from their cereals.

The farmers are improving their livelihoods by earning more from selling the surplus produce to the WFP, he said.

 

The WFP focuses on reducing chronic hunger and undernutrition, strengthening Ghana’s capacity to reduce hunger, and restoring and rebuilding lives after emergencies.

Story by Kofi Adu Domfeh