The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has launched an initiative to empower African governments to shape home-grown agricultural policies that provide comprehensive support to smallholder farmers. The initiative is supported by a US$15 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

With an initial focus on five countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania), the initiative will strengthen African agricultural policy-making capacity through training agricultural policy analysts; bolstering policy think tanks; establishing data banks to support evidence-based policy development; and coordinating national policy hubs. It will focus on policies that support farmers in the areas of seeds; soil health; markets and trade; land rights; women’s rights; equity; environmental sustainability; and climate change.

“Unlike farmers everywhere else in the world, African farmers, most of whom are women, receive little or no support from their governments,” says Mr. Kofi A. Annan, Chairman of the AGRA Board and former Secretary-General of the United Nations.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced this grant at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, along with a package of nine agricultural development projects totaling $120 million to address long-term food security.

African farmers need enabling agricultural policies. But Africa’s agricultural policy system is in shambles, following decades of externally-driven policies which gutted public support for agriculture and created a vacuum in Africa’s agricultural policy capacity.  External policies imposed through “structural adjustment” programs left tens of millions of farmers locked in poverty, unable to invest in their farms or to access markets.

“We cannot abandon our farmers and be surprised that Africa is in a food crisis,” says Dr. Akin Adesina, AGRA’s Vice President of Policy and Partnerships. “We must replace ‘policies of abandonment’ with policies of comprehensive support for smallholders. African institutions must lead by developing evidence-based and locally relevant policies to transform African agriculture into a sustainable, competitive and highly productive system.”

According to Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA, agriculture ought to “move beyond policy analyses into policy action.” Farmers’ policy advocacy platforms should thus be strengthened, with a special focus on women farmers, to help them gain full and equal access to land security, farm technologies, markets, finance, and extension services.

“We need policies that unlock the potential of agriculture, feed our people and support economic development,’ says Stephen Wazira, Minister of Agriculture of Tanzania.  

Nations such as Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Rwanda, Mali, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Ghana and Nigeria are taking new bold steps to revitalize agriculture.  Many more countries are signing up to the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) to provide at least ten percent of their budget in support of agriculture. As these funds become available, effective, locally-determined policies to guide investments will be even more critical. Success of the green revolution at country levels across Africa is critical for countries to achieve the 6% agricultural growth target that African Presidents agreed to under CAADP.

Malawi and Rwanda are providing comprehensive support to their farmers. Government policies, including seed and fertilizer vouchers for poor farmers, have helped transform Malawi from a net importer to a net exporter of maize for four years running, and fueled a national economic growth rate of seven percent. In Rwanda, policies which increased farmers’ access to quality seed and fertilizers have boosted food production for two straight years. Food production grew by 15% in 2007 and 16% in 2008, as the country embarked on a green revolution program. This has improved national food security, even as 20 million people in neighboring countries must depend on food aid for survival. 

Across African nations, there is no single policy solution for promoting smallholder agriculture. While farmers need direct support, equally important are accelerated investments in public goods such as agricultural research, extension, small-scale irrigation and roads. 

“In the long-term, the ability of Africa’s smallholder farmers to adequately feed the continent depends on a policy environment that improves access to agricultural technologies, assures market access, stabilizes food prices for the poor, protects the environment and helps farmers adapt to climate change,” says Annan.  

Organizations such as the Economic Commission for Africa, African Development Bank, Africa Union-NEPAD, Regional Economic Communities, the African Economic Research Consortium and the International Food Policy Research Institute will be key partners in the policy initiative. 

Courtesy: AGRA.