Dismiss the thought that the key to Africa's
financial well-being lies in oil or other standard bearers of economic
prosperity. Agnes Kalibata looks to the future and sees smallholder farmers as
the answer.
“Today, the countries that have depended so
much on oil are suffering the most,” said Kalibata, the head of the Alliance
for a Green Revolution in Africa, the continent's largest agricultural
non-governmental organization.
“We mine it and send it out. If we had used
it to invest in agriculture, we would have seen much greater economic benefits.
We can sell oil and make money, but we miss opportunities to invest in
agriculture, which reaches the most numbers of people.”
Kalibata says greater investment in Africa’s
farming sector is imperative and should take priority over economic drivers,
such as oil.
A former minister for agriculture for Rwanda,
Kalibata says that the $35 billion Africa spends on importing food from other
countries would be better spent on farmers. She contends that if they were
helped to become “agropreneurs,” they could efficiently replace many of the
imported produce with domestically grown food.
In a conversation with The Times, Kalibata
shared some of her views on the benefits of putting farmers first. The
interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Agnes Kalibata
is president of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. (Ellen Wilson /
BurnessGlobal)
How can agriculture boost economic
development in Africa?
Today we are talking about 70% of the people
in sub-Saharan Africa who earn their income from agriculture. Because of that,
agriculture ends up being between 25% and 40% of the gross domestic
product of these countries. That’s an extremely significant figure.
And it’s not just that agriculture is
contributing to GDP; it’s also the inclusivity of agriculture. The
benefits are spread more evenly across society, particularly to the benefit of
the poor. You are able to reach people in deeper ways in terms of reaching them
with investments that can transform their lives, than you could do with any other
sector.
Investment in agriculture is 11 times as
effective in reducing poverty in sub-Saharan Africa compared
with investment in other sectors. In other developing countries, it’s said
to be about four times as effective.
Give us a success story.
The real success story has been that by
really focusing on the role that agriculture plays in food security and
nutrition, in the last 15 years, 22 countries have been able to cut hunger by
half. Also the framework for agriculture that African countries have put together
has enabled them to put their own investments into agriculture.
And for the first time, because of all these
combined efforts, in the last 10 years, we have seen an upward trend in the
output of African agriculture.
Also in some economies, including countries
like Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Rwanda, agriculture led to a reduction in
poverty levels. But also it’s contributing to GDP growth and economic growth in
these countries. They are some of the fastest growing on the continent, and
agriculture is the No. 1 or No. 2 contributor to this growth.
So there is real evidence of success, and
these are the stories we want to build on and show that agriculture is actually
not a lost cause. It’s a very serious opportunity to grow African economies.
Farmer Waziri
Strahare harvests cassava near the Farm Concern's Cassava Village Processing
center in Tanzania on Sept. 3, 2013. (Karel Prinsloo / Agra)
What specific policies are needed to help
farmers?
Some of the things we really have to worry
about are policies that would allow them to access the technologies that they
need.
In this case, we’re talking about simple
things like seeds and fertilizers. Policies that allow farmers to have access
to seeds, policies that allow the private sector to set up businesses that
deliver supplies to farmers and policies that allow markets and trade
environments to function for farmers are going to be very critical for farmers
to be able to produce more and reinvest in agriculture.
At the end of the day, agriculture is a
private business. You can help [farmers] get the initial capital, but they
should be able to continue investing in their businesses and grow their businesses.
We want them to be able to make money, and the only way they can make that
money is if there are policies to allow them to affordably access seeds and
fertilizers and knowledge on when to plant and the markets that they
need.
Sometimes they produce more than they need,
and they don’t know where to put it so it goes to waste. We need to ensure that
what they produce becomes a source of income as opposed to being a burden for
them. It’s not rocket science.
Workers cover
yams and cassavas on a truck after off-loading their products at a market in
Accra, Ghana, on Oct. 16, 2013. (Karel Prinsloo / Agra)
What are some of the solutions to alleviating
the impact of drought on African farmers?
There are several things that can be
done right now. Again, using technologies, this time meaning the use of seed
varieties that have the ability to survive drought because they have better
genes, like we’re doing in Malawi.
We have some farmers [there] that have
been growing potatoes and cassava and cow peas because they are more resistant
to drought. These farmers tried to grow maize four times before they gave up.
They’ve been able to plant these varieties of potatoes and have been able to
get a crop, whereas farmers who insisted on planting maize have nothing.
The other thing is helping them access
fertilizers so that the crops they grow are more resistant, and giving them the
knowledge to be able to deal with the changes that are happening in the
environment.
There are also other things we could do, such
as working with other financial institutions to start looking at insurance
mechanisms that can support farmers in these times, so that as countries are
looking at how to adapt and how to move forward, we ensure that people are not
starving.
http://www.latimes.com/world/global-development/la-fg-global-agnes-kalibata-qa-snap-story.html
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