The “considerable potential” of Africa
When you talk about Africa’s “considerable potential”, in particular that of sub-Saharan Africa, you have to take into account the dramatic food-supply situation they currently face. Having said that, things are changing in Africa and various initiatives over the past few years — in particular the African Union’s huge agricultural development programme, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) — are testimony to this.
Roundtable 4 on Bioenergy and food security. High-Level Conference on World Food Security: the Challenges of Climate Change and Bioenergy. Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Rome, 3-5 June 2008.
© FAO/Giulia Muir
The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), adopted at the Maputo Summit during the second ordinary assembly of the African Union (AU) in July 2003, is the most successful programme by African nations to meet the challenges presented by the food crisis. In Maputo, African leaders committed to contributing 10% of their respective national budgets to financial support for the agricultural sector. Now, in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), which aim to halve poverty and hunger between now and 2015, the CAADP is targeting an annual growth rate of 6% in the agricultural sector. To achieve this, it has identified four key areas for investment: land and water management; rural infrastructure and market access capabilities; food and the reduction of hunger; agricultural research and advisory services.
AGRA’s green revolution
The CAADP is not Africa’s only response to the situation. Other proposed initiatives include the much publicised “green revolution”, espoused by two American foundations – Rockfeller and Gates – and presided over by the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan.
Furthermore, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) signed an agreement with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) at the FAO Summit in June aimed at boosting food production in Africa’s “breadbasket areas”. “This new partnership aims to make a short-term difference by optimising food production in areas with relatively good rainfall, soils, infrastructure and markets”, explained a statement issued by the FAO. AGRA’s President points out that the initiative is part of the organisation’s strategic vision to “build partnerships that pool the strengths and resources of both public and private sectors, civil society, farmers’ organisations, donors, scientists and entrepreneurs across the agricultural value chain”. He added that it would also “help to advance the goals of the CAADP and the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)”.
European cooperation
“We strongly believe in the approach of NEPAD’s CAADP programme”, said Marc Debois, Head of Section at the European Commission’s Development DG. He continued, “firstly, on account of what it promotes, and also because it allows us to strengthen our relationship with the African Union”. As part of this, the European Commission is currently looking at what it will contribute to the “partnership” that it proposed in its “Advancing African Agriculture” Communication drawn up in 2007 and ratified by the EU’s Council of Ministers. Mr. Debois noted that “the idea is to set up national round tables where all the participants – political representatives, industry, farmers, NGOs etc. – define an agricultural policy for the country.” He added that “Ghana has already done this”.
In fact, the Commission’s document proposes both short and long-term actions. The long-term approach involves supporting research and development, as well as initiatives for the management of natural resources. But the initiative also makes provision for short-term programmes. These include the creation of risk-management mechanisms and an advanced warning programme in cooperation with the FAO. The FAO already has a system for gathering information and for providing tools to enable local governments faced with crisis situations to effectively use the information collected.
The figures
Food security still remains Africa’s greatest challenge. Today, around 200 million Africans suffer from malnutrition and this represents a 15% increase since the beginning of the 1990s, and is almost double the level of malnutrition recorded at the end of the 1960s. Jeffrey Sachs, special advisor to the Secretary General of the United Nations and author of the book ’The End of Poverty’, estimates that it will take US$8bn a year to redress this inbalance in Africa’s agriculture (compared with US$5bn for Asia and US$3bn for the rest of the world). So, what needs to be done? Author Jeffrey Sachs’s philosophy is simple: “to overcome this crisis, we have to provide financial assistance for the agricultural producers in the poor countries. This would increase production and therefore reduce prices. This would also help to resolve the current crisis”. However Sachs’s vision is not shared by the European Commission. “We are opposed, and our Commissioner in particular is opposed, to this kind of vertical aid", explained Marc Debois. He went on: “the situation is so complex that we cannot simply provide targeted aid which may, for example, involve inundating farmers with fertiliser, without firstly ensuring distribution structures are in place and providing advice on usage”.
Solutions
As with many developing countries, the African nations are dependent on imports for their supply of cereals. This dependence has sparked a crisis following the recent sharp increases in global food prices. A possible solution to this would be to make Africa self-sufficient in rice production. The land required is available as well as the varieties of rice that include the well-known Nerica rice developed by WARDA, the African Rice Center. WARDA’s director, Dr. Papa A. Seck, believes that various measures are required to find a solution and these include substantial support for the production of rice, in particular the deregulation of international trade. He explained, “until recently, 11,000 North American rice farmers received subsidies worth US$1.4 bn per year. Meanwhile, in Africa seven million rice farmers continue to struggle in a liberalised market without any subsidies and with limited access to credit or market information”.
