The African Green Revolution Forum
(AGRF) has decried what it described as acute financial gap that exists in the
development of Africa’s agriculture.
NaijaAgroNet gathered the Forum, which saw over 200 delegates from
across Africa and internationally in attendant, focused on the critical role to
be played by public-private- partnerships (PPP) and business models in the
development of Africa’s agriculture, noted that
the global gap in finance for
agriculture stands at about $450 billion, and is more acute on the continent of
Africa than anywhere else.
NaijaAgroNet also gathered that evidence abound that only 10 per cent of
African smallholder farmers have access to the financing they need to expand
their production and raise their income.
According to the convenor of the
AGRF, Irungu Houghton “Throughout the African continent, we are
witnessing successful partnerships between the private and public sectors and
smallholder farmers. But these partnerships are still too rare. We will only be
able to transform Africa’s agriculture, and alleviate food insecurity and
poverty, if smallholders have the funds to boost their crop yields and expand
their business.”
Also speaking at the Forum, the
Chief Executive Officer, National Association of Smallholder Farmers of Malawi,
Dyborn Chibonga, said “Some African governments have gone some way towards
addressing affordability and accessibility of production inputs, but challenges
still persist. Each and every year smallholder farmers are pulled into a
downward spiral of taking out high-interest loans in order to buy farming
inputs for the following season. Without access to credit, smallholders cannot
raise productivity.”
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