Africa must innovate to open up agriculture potentials – FARA

NaijaAgroNet

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the German government ended a two-day forum in Nairobi by declaring that the continent must embrace agricultural innovations to become globally competitive in bio-economy, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture Felix Koskei, told participants that one of the key ingredients to growth in the agriculture sector is attributable to development of technology that fails to be aligned to the needs of the client and effectively fails to compliment national and institutional goals’ aspirations.

NaijaAgroNet reports that particularly, Koskei noted that innovations should be self-perpetuated or be taken up by commercial entities and business the innovations are expected to yield immense socioeconomic benefits and impact productivity income and sustainability of the environment for the small holders.

“Despite this huge resources and potential, this continent together with other developing countries are host to 852 million hungry residents who require constant support,” Koskei noted.

According to Rhoda Tumusiime, Commissioner for Agriculture at the Africa Union, “Africa must feed itself and in fact this initiative of scaling up innovation is very critical. One world no hunger 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.”

The executive director, FARA, Yemi Akinbamijo,lamented that “Money is not everything; by the way because we have spent more than 150 billion US dollars, about N29,925 trillion, in the last three decades and we are still where we are and we are spending 50 billion US dollars to borrow foods.”

Cyriacus Nnaji/ GEE

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Agro stakeholders brainstorm on family farming in Africa

NaijaAgroNet:

Stakeholders in the agricultural sector across the continent are brainstorming on the family farmers ability to feed Africa and change the face of the sector, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The Forum, NaijaAgroNet gathered is part of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework, coordinated by the five regional farmers’ organisations namely the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF), ROPPA (Network of Farmers' and Agricultural Producers' Organisations of West Africa (ROPPA), Southern African Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU), Regional Platform of Central African Farmers Organization, (PROPAC), Union Maghrébine et Nord Africaine des Agriculteurs (UMNAGRI) and their continental platform Pan African Farmers’ Organisation (PAFO) together with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency. 

A press statement made available to NaijaAgroNet by the duo of Benito Eliasi from SACAU and NEPAD’s Mwanja Ng’anjo, stakeholders in the agriculture sector are examining the much bigger role in creating employment to increase disposable income levels and household food security on the continent. 

NaijaAgroNet gathered that participants focus would be on the potential for sustainable economic growth, family farming - Africa’s backbone in agriculture. 

However in order for the women and men at the helm of agriculture to reach their full potential, a coalition of partnerships was required; to bring African agriculture to world class production levels, hence, the partnership with several regional farmers group, between November 10 and 12, 2014 at the Garden Court within the axis of Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa. 

NaijaAgroNet further gathered that SACAU is a co-host of the forum that is connected to the United Nations (UN) International Year of Family Farming and the AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security. 

NaijaAgroNet recalls that this is a strong signal that the international community recognizes the important contribution of family farmers to world food security. Noting that in June, African heads of state committed themselves to use agriculture growth to double food productivity, halve poverty and eliminate child under nutrition by 2025 when they came up with the Malabo Declaration following a meeting in Equatorial Guinea.

The role of family farmers on the continent, NaijaAgroNet learnt will be critical in achieving these goals. While the forum would be attended by farmers and representatives of their organisations, high-level government representatives, private sector stakeholders and international role-players and is also open to representatives who work in, with or for African agriculture.

NaijaAgroNet the four thematic areas to be looked into by the different regional farmers’ organisation for the 2014 CAADP Africa Forum including “Climate Change and climate -smart agriculture (SACAU);  Farmers’ Organisations and marketing and trade (EAFF); Mechanisation and family farming (ROPPA); and Family farming and finance (PROPAC). 

+Remmy Nweke  +Naija AgroNet +Remmy Nweke (ITRealms) +NEPAD/APDEV African Platform for Development Effectiveness +NEPAD Agency +Nepadaprmnigeria @Mwanja Nga'njo

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Valuable project delivery key for Africa says NEPAD

NaijaAgroNet:

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) has said that valuable project delivery is key for the development of the continent, reports NaijaAgroNet.

The NEPAD agency made this call known to NaijaAgroNet at the weekend in Abuja through its Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, insisting that efficient project delivery and coordination of United Nations (UN) support as a key success factor to implement agenda 2063 for continent, which is Africa’s long-term development strategy.

NaijaAgroNet recollects that Dr. Mayaki, was speaking in a series of events at the African Union Conference of African Ministers of Economy and Finance (CAMEF) held in Abuja, Nigeria, from March 25 to 30, as affirmed by a press statement made available by Maureen Nkandu of NEPAD Communication.

Also, NaijaAgroNet gathered that over 50 African Ministers of Finance attended the meeting to find alternative ways of financing African development programmes, such as the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA).

NaijaAgroNet reports that in her remarks, Nigeria’s Minister of Finance, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala applauded the significant role NEPAD has played in the implementation of PIDA as well as achievements in developing Africa’s energy sector.

Industry watchers was quoted as saying that NEPAD has taken the lead in the process of prioritising PIDA projects that will accelerate investment in infrastructure development, so as to better connect and integrate Africa.

Dr Mayaki also gave a presentation on the “Power Africa” initiative, which is a five-year energy plan spearheaded by the United States (US) President, Barack Obama, launched in Tanzania in July 2013 during President Obama’s visit to that country.

The initiative, NaijaAgroNet learnt was aimed at supporting economic growth and development by increasing access to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power in Africa.

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CAADP framework to curb food insecurity - Bwalya

Head of the NEPAD Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Mr. Martin Bwalya, has said that CAADP framework was set up to curb food insecurity on the continent.

He made this assertion to a high-level meeting of African and International Leaders in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia, recently tagged “Toward African Renaissance: Renewed Partnership for Unified Approach to End Hunger in Africa by 2025 within the CAADP Framework.”

NaijaAgroNet gathered that Bwalya told his audience that by design, NEPAD and CAADP are political response to the poverty and food insecurity challenge, noting that chronic food insecurity and hunger is critical hindrance to socio-economic growth and development of the continent and could amount to restlessness in the geopolitics call Africa.

He pointed that that it was the Compelling context that led to setting up of NEPAD and CAADP respectively.

As at 2000, Bwalya informed NaijaAgroNet that an estimated 40 per cent of people in the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) lived below the poverty line of less than a Dollar per day. While the income and human poverty saw to the rise of social and economic inequality, according to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) report of 2002, which stated that Africa is the only continent that has its 1/3 of its entire population living in chronic hunger.

He also noted that between 1980 and year 2000, Africa need for food and delivery requirement tripled in food emergencies, thus, it was a compelling context that led to the emergence of NEPAD and CAADP, lamenting however, that by 2000, there was no African country in the high group of Human Development Index (HDI) measure.

“No African countries in the high HDI group, small number in the medium HDI group; and majority in the low HDI group,” he said, that is 32 out of 35 countries in Africa.

In order to sustain CAADP momentum, he said, less focus must be on the issue of public financing and hence development aid, decrying weak inter-ministerial and inter-sectorial coordination and multiplicity of initiatives.

Africa, Bwalya said, still have food insecure and high levels of hunger and malnutrition, stressing that low agric productivity has resulted in low rural incomes.

Remmy Nweke

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