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IFPRI ForumMore than 70 percent of Africa's poor work in agriculture, and most of the continent's poor spend at least 50 percent of their income on food staples. Thus, agriculture has the greatest potential to simultaneously increase production and productivity while enhancing the incomes of the continent's rural poor and also raising the real incomes of the urban poor by reducing the cost of food staples.
Recognizing that agricultural growth improves food security and drives rural prosperity and wealth creation, 40 parliamentarians from across Africa met in South Africa in May to determine how best to implement the 2003 Maputo Declaration. The Declaration sought to make agriculture a top priority and increase public funding for agriculture from 6 to 10 percent of total government spending by 2008.
The heads of state and government officials agreed that meeting the goals of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) established by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) will require new, more productive technology that lowers costs and makes farming more competitive; a greater focus on Africa's growing domestic and export markets; and high-level political commitment to agriculture.
On the political front, the parliamentarians agreed to undertake concerted action on three levels: (1) at the continental level, enhance regional dialogue and harmonize accounting systems, (2) at the national level, institutionalize the Maputo Declaration in budgeting processes and establish peer-review mechanisms to monitor progress toward this goal, and (3) at the personal level, alert constituencies about the importance of agriculture and engage in local and regional dialogues that highlight the successful lessons learned from past efforts at agricultural growth.