Nairobi, Kenya
July 13, 2009
When the leaders of the G8
countries met in L’Aquila, Italy, they had the opportunity to
make good on their commitment to boost aid for Africa. They did
not disappoint. The world’s wealthiest countries committed to
raising $20 billion over three years to promote food security
and agricultural development in poor countries. The question now
moves from whether one should invest in Africa’s farms to how to
invest.
The G8 recognized the need to align development with a country’s
own plans and priorities, particularly through coordination with
the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, and
it acknowledged the positive contribution of African-led public
private partnerships such as
the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (AGRA). We are delighted that world
leaders at the G8 summit recognized the positive contributions
AGRA has made. Our work is just beginning and will now focus on
scaling up successes with African governments.
Investments in African agriculture must focus on the continent's
high-potential breadbasket areas. These areas have relatively
good soil, rainfall, and infrastructure—and could rapidly
transition from areas of chronic food scarcity to breadbaskets
of abundance. Such investments must support the millions of
smallholder farmers who grow the majority of Africa’s food;
nurture the diversity on their farms; and bring about
comprehensive change that strengthens the entire agricultural
system.
At the same time, we must boost farm fortunes across wider and
more challenging environments, working to minimize disparity in
development, and to reward innovation and spread success
wherever it is found.
Integrated investments and government policies that provide
Africans with finance and markets, good seeds and soils, and
supportive trade policies will allow smallholders to transform
their small-scale farms into commercially viable and sustainable
enterprises.
To realize such a transformation, Africa needs support on par
with that rendered to agriculture in Asia and South America in
the 1960s and 70s, which averted famine and spurred national
economic development.
Africa is ready for its own uniquely African Green Revolution,
one which rapidly increases the productivity and incomes of
smallholder farmers, most of whom are women; protects the
environment and helps Africa’s farmers adapt to climate change.
In Africa we have seen successes. There is Tanzania, where the
Minister of Agriculture reports that 700,000 smallholder farmers
have produced five million tons of the country’s major food
crop, maize—despite drought conditions in the northern part of
the country. And then there is Malawi, which doubled its
spending on agriculture, and transformed itself from a net food
importer to a net food exporter, and grew its national economy
by seven percent.
The G8 and other international partners must move rapidly to
support Africa’s agricultural development. By investing in
strategic partnerships, the G8 can greatly accelerate the
ability of Africa’s breadbaskets to meet the continent’s food
needs, and beyond that, to help ensure global food security in
the decades ahead.
To achieve our goal of a food secure and prosperous Africa, AGRA
will work with African governments, G-8 and other governments,
farmers, and regional and international development partners
such as NEPAD's CAADP, the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the UN, the World Food Programme, International Fund for
Agricultural Development, the US government's Millennium
Challenge Corporation and others to bring about an African Green
Revolution that will unlock the continent's agricultural
potential. |
|
