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AU countries tackle the ‘how’ of agricultural growth on the continent

AU countries tackle the ‘how’ of agricultural growth on the continent

Photo by Bloomberg

25th March 2015

By: Natalie Greve

Creamer Media Contributing Editor Online

  

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Representatives of African Union (AU) member States, Parliamentarians, African farmer’s organisations and donor partners have this week met in Johannesburg to discuss how a 2014 declaration to advance agricultural growth on the continent can be translated into action, results and implementable government policy.

The eleventh Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP PP) sought to build a shared understanding of country and regional needs and expectations in terms of the roll-out of the Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods, which resolved to accelerate agricultural transformation on the continent through collective and AU member State-specific actions.

This followed the adoption of the declaration by AU Heads of State and governments at the twenty-third Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly, in Equatorial Guinea, in June last year.

Under the declaration, countries committed to allocating 10% of their yearly budget to supporting agriculture, while ensuring a 6% yearly agriculture productivity growth rate by 2025.

States further committed to enhancing investment finance in agriculture, ending hunger in Africa by 2025, halving poverty by 2025 through inclusive agricultural growth and transformation, boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services, enhancing the resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability, ensuring mutual accountability for actions and results and strengthening the AU Commission (AUC) to support delivery on these commitments.

STRATEGIC ACTION AREAS
The CAADP work programme would be informed by the declaration and would provide guidance on what outcomes were expected at various levels and according to which timeline, thereby guiding the determination of “locally appropriate” sets of actions by countries, regions, agricultural organisations and others.

Among the programme’s strategic action areas was enhancing the support to the owners of smallholdings to enable them to transition into modern “family farms”, as well as strengthening the position of farmers, women and youth in agricultural value-chains, while promoting preference for regional markets.

“Indeed, to take advantage of the growing domestic market and reduce food dependency, a regional preference strategy is essential, consistent with the regional integration agenda.

“This may include promoting customs unions and a functional free-trade area, as well as a kind of “infant industry” strategy that protects emerging industries for a gradual integration into global markets,” AU implementing agency, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) outlined in a CAADP PP support document this week.

The work programme would further attempt to increase the resilience of livelihoods and systems through “coping and adaptation mechanisms” at production level, while reducing shock-reduction measures.

“The transformation of agriculture and the building of resilience must be part of a comprehensive approach that includes regulating the relationships between stakeholders and market institutional arrangements that promote contractual and balanced relationships within the value chains,” it read.

Attention would also be given to the management of natural resources and to increasing the participation of the local community to ensure secure and equitable access to opportunities and ensure a fair distribution of the created wealth.

CHANGED ACTIONS
To accelerate the pace of agricultural transformation, CAADP stakeholders had identified certain actions that needed to be scaled up, those that needed to be stopped entirely and those that needed to be implemented for the first time.

The CAADP Results Framework document outlined that the continent should intensify attention on agriculture as a priority sector; increase investment into the sector; sustain an enabling environment; mainstream youth, gender and nutrition issues into agricultural programmes; and sustain regional integration efforts.

“The continent [should, however], stop playing beggar in the global food system and selling arable land for fuel at the expense of agriculture and local people’s livelihoods.

“[We] should also stop paying lip-service to agricultural investment instead of acting on pledged investments and accepting donor financing regardless of the agenda,” the framework stated.

Member States should meanwhile encourage more aggressive African agribusiness entrepreneurship on the domestic and global markets and accurately value the natural resources needed for agriculture, such as land, water and labour.

CAADP should be further driven as a tool to empower people to “unleash” their own potential, while promoting transparency and accountability on all levels.

“The CAADP Results Framework will help countries internalise the drive to identify and address, within local circumstances, that delivering results is not a matter of simply doing more of the same things,” the document read.

WALKING THE TALK
Noting that the time for talkshops were over and the time for action imminent,  AUC Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture commissioner Tumusiime Rhoda Peace appealed to delegates in Johannesburg on Wednesday to use the forum to develop concrete actions for the effective delivery of the programme’s objectives at country level.

“It’s now time to deliver. It’s now time to walk that talk. Indeed the Malabo Declaration is in line with Africa’s Agenda 2063 and we need a greater call for action and the expedient translation of the commitments into results,” she commented.

Peace said that while there had been significant progress in terms of the allocation of public expenditure to agriculture, at 7.4% of overall budget allocations, this remained below the targeted 10% threshold.

She added that some countries were also yet to deliver on their pledges of support to other countries, despite having signed CAADP compacts to this effect.

According to Peace, Africa’s agricultural sector remained stifled by the widespread lack of adoption of modern farming, low productivity and increased food imports, which she said amounted to some $40-billion a year.

“This diverts considerable investment from local investment and job opportunities and makes locals vulnerable to external shocks, such as food prices and climate change. Mutual stakeholders [now] need to be held accountable for mutual action and results,” she maintained.

Reiterating Peace’s appeal, South African Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries director-general Professor Edith Vries stated that member States now needed to look at how the CAADP commitments could be translated into concrete actions.

“It’s now about the where and how. Where do we find the capacity and how do we implement it. People are becoming impatient with leadership, whether its political leadership or policy leadership, so it’s very important that we come up with concrete actions and hold ourselves accountable.

“We can’t keep meeting like this and coming up with recommendations. Africa has the capacity to feed itself, ” she enthused.

Nepad CEO Ibrahim Mayaki added that the Malabo Declaration placed agriculture in the broader social context.

“It places agricultural development in the broader context in terms of the structural transformation of our societies. It looks to eradicate hunger and poverty and addresses changes in trade and institutions.

“Action is a necessity, but the leap forward is going to come from an increased and bold focus on reforms in economic policies and institutional capabilities. It’s now clear that when financial investments are not accompanied by a clear vision of the State’s role in the revitalisation of the private sector, there are problems,” he noted.

He further urged member States to develop action plans that created an environment that stimulated investment through transparent policies while regulating markets to deal with possible market failures.

“CAADP is a way of working and promoting dialogue within countries and we must admit that, by engaging on economic policy issues, Africans need to assert improved leadership.

“Leadership is not about making speeches about the beauty of the declaration –the leaders that transform their countries go beyond speeches and implement,” he said.

Edited by Chanel de Bruyn
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor Online

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