The key to unlocking Africa’s agriculture potential

Lazarus Sauti

This possibility lies in its land and water – agriculture, one of the key pillars of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), an African Union (AU) strategic framework for pan-African socio-economic development.

Agriculture, says NEPAD, forms a significant portion of the economies of all African countries.

“As a sector, it can contribute towards major continental priorities such as eradicating poverty and hunger, boosting intra-Africa trade and investments on top of rapid industrialisation and economic diversification,” asserts NEPAD, adding that agriculture can have a say towards sustainable resource and environmental management, job creation, human security and shared prosperity.

Sadly, African agriculture is at the crossroads. Calestous Juma, an expert is science, technology and innovation, believes that persistent food shortages are now being compounded by new threats arising from climate change.

Juma says for Africa to compete in a developing global bio-economy, it must embrace agricultural innovations.

“Advances in science, technology, and engineering worldwide offer Africa new tools needed to promote sustainable agriculture. Therefore, in order for Africa to compete in a developing global bio-economy, the continent must embrace agricultural innovations,” he says.

Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Agriculture at the Africa Union, agrees. “Africa must feed itself and in fact this initiative of scaling up innovation is very critical. Africa should have no hunger because we have the capability, the land, the people, but as you have also heard only 50 per cent of agriculture productivity is contributed to by innovation.”

During a two-day forum recently held in Nairobi and organised by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the German government, Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Felix Koskei, noted: “One of the key ingredients to yield immense socio-economic benefits and impact productivity income and sustainability of the environment for the small holders growth in the agriculture sector must be science, technology and innovation.

“In particular, innovations should be self-perpetuated or be taken up by commercial entities and business.”

The forum, attended by key dignitaries and agricultural policy makers, established that Africa needs to not only improve food security, but also ensure sustainable value chain development.

For this dream to be a reality, as Juma advises, food security, sustainable value chain development, agricultural expansion, and economic growth should be intertwined.

He urged political leaders in respective African countries to craft policies and strategies as well as to make efforts to bring higher technical education, especially in universities, to the service of agriculture and the economy.

Juma goes on to say, “It is important for African leaders, together with development partners, to focus on how to improve the productivity of agricultural workers, most of whom are women, through technological innovation.”

The African Union should also strongly encourage regional groupings in the continent to create regional markets so as to effectively provide new incentives for agricultural production and trade.

“The emergence of Africa’s Regional Economic Communities (RECs), for instance, provides a unique opportunity to promote innovation in African agriculture in a more systematic and coordinated way,” added Juma.

RECs should also support programmes such as the recently endorsed science funding platform – the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa – if the continent is to enjoy long-term development in areas of research leadership, scientific excellence as well as agricultural innovations.

The platform, endorsed by African leaders and created by the African Academy of Sciences and the NEPAD agency, was developed as a multi-purpose policy advocacy strategy for mainstreaming innovation in the priority areas of the African Union of which health and wellbeing are part.

Basing on this platform, political and business leaders as well as stakeholders in the agricultural sector should view agriculture as a knowledge-based entrepreneurial activity if the continent is to realise its agricultural potential and compete in a developing global bio-economy.

Notwithstanding efforts to improve food security in the continent, several hurdles are still hindering Africa from achieving her ambition of unlocking Africa’s agricultural potential. The hurdles are caused by poor funding towards agricultural activities.

This, therefore, calls for African governments to increase their funding towards agriculture.

Governments should be committed to fulfil the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa.

In 2003, African leaders came together in Maputo, Mozambique and collectively endorsed a Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa popularly known as the “Maputo Declaration”.

In the declaration, they agreed to adopt sound policies for agricultural and rural development and committed themselves to allocating and implementing at least 10 per cent of their national budgets to improve food security, reduce poverty, and spur rural development.

Nonetheless, less than a quarter have surpassed this goal.