Pretoria, South Africa -- High-level policymakers, senior researchers, and representatives from farmer groups, the private sector, and international development agencies are meeting in Pretoria this week for an international conference, "Successes in African Agriculture: Building for the Future."
In his opening statement to the conference, Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu, chairman of the steering committee for the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), observed that NEPAD has ushered in the dawn of an African Green Revolution. "NEPAD has prioritized agriculture as the key sector that will stimulate economic growth in Africa," said Professor Nkuhlu. "African Heads of State and Government have added additional impetus to agricultural development on the continent by committing themselves to allocating more resources to agriculture."
Internationale Weiterbildung und Entwicklung (InWent), the German government's agency for human resources development, Capacity Building International; the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA), and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) are jointly convening the three-day conference with NEPAD, which runs from December 1-3. Roughly 80 percent of poor Africans live in rural areas, and over 70 percent work in agriculture.
"Agricultural growth is essential for improving the welfare of the vast majority of the continent's poor people. Even the urban poor, who spend two-thirds of their income on staple foods, will depend heavily on rising agricultural productivity to reduce food prices, which already consume the bulk of household incomes," noted the Honorable Dr. Wilberforce Kisamba-Mugerwa, chair of the conference and Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries in the Government of Uganda.
"That's why African governments collectively, through NEPAD, have identified sustainable agricultural growth as a key development priority, without which it will be difficult to achieve significant reductions in poverty."
To improve the state of agriculture on the continent, IFPRI launched a review of successes in African agriculture, which involved extensive consultations with over 1,000 Africa-based policymakers, scientists, and researchers. After considering hundreds of successful examples of agricultural innovation, the following case studies are serving as a springboard for discussion and reflection at the conference:
- Cassava in West and Southern Africa, 1900-2000 and 1960-2000
- Dairy in East Africa, 1900-2000
- Horticulture Exports in Kenya and Côte d'Ivoire, 1970-2000
- Maize in East and Southern Africa, 1900-2000
- Cotton in West Africa, 1960-2000
- Sustainable Natural Resource Management in West, East, and Southern Africa, 1975-2000
"The goal of the conference is to learn, exchange, and disseminate lessons from these past successes and identify key processes and technologies that countries can replicate and expand broadly to achieve sustainable agricultural growth," explained Mrs. Oumy Ndiaye, head of the Communication Channels and Services Department at CTA. "Success is possible. Improved varieties of cassava and innovative pest control strategies, for example, benefit approximately 100 million Africans."
Past successes, however, have not been numerous, continuous, or important enough to achieve food security for much of the continent's population, and per capita agricultural and food production have actually fallen over the past 40 years.
"By examining a series of case studies in which important advances have occurred in the past in African agriculture, we hope to identify promising avenues for achieving similar successes in the future. Successful experiences need to be replicated and scaled-up, and this necessitates a much better understanding of the policy and institutional requirements for success," said Dr. Peter Hazell, director of Development Strategy and Governance at IFPRI.
Conference participants are also assessing the domestic and international policy environment within which African leaders work to formulate and implement agricultural policies with impact.
"Agricultural trade, repercussions of farm subsidies, advances in agricultural technology, globalization of food processing and retailing, commodity prices, and deteriorating terms of trade all combine to shape world agriculture," said Dr. H. Jochen de Haas, representative of the German Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development. "Policymakers in African countries must also contend with limited government resources, budget constraints, debt, and macroeconomic concerns-thus limiting the scope for agricultural and rural development options."
A shared statement of findings-identifying priorities for future policy action necessary to trigger and sustain agricultural development on the continent-will be issued at the end of the conference.
"NEPAD intends to move forward to build on past successes by placing the conference findings before African Ministers of Agriculture and initiating a series of partnerships to replicate and scale-up past achievements," said Professor Nkuhlu. "By learning from the past and creating more successes in African agriculture, we ultimately hope to alleviate poverty and hunger in Africa."
InWent--Internationale Weiterbildun und Entwicklung (Capacity Building International, Germany) is a government owned agency for human resources development dedicated to international cooperation.
NEPAD--The New Partnership for Africa's Development is a pledge by African leaders, based on a common vision, to develop a program of action for the redevelopment of the African continent.
IFPRI--The International Food Policy Research Institute was founded in 1975 to develop policy solutions for sustainably meeting the food needs of the developing world.
CTA--The Technical Center for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU was established in 1983 under the Lomé Convention between the African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States and the European Union Member States.
For more information, contact:
m.pietrowski@cgiar.org
m.rubinstein@cgiar.org
The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) seeks sustainable solutions for ending hunger and poverty. IFPRI is one of 15 Future Harvest Centers and receives its principal funding from 58 governments, private foundations, and international and regional organizations known as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research.