From Subsistence to Market Oriented Agriculture, Remarks by Dr. Namanga Ngongi at the Cameroon Professional Society Congress
The Agricultural Sector: Is it time for a paradigm shift?
(Baltimore, Maryland, USA 31 July 2010)
Remarks by Dr. Namanga Ngongi, President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Distinguished Guests
Ladies and Gentlemen
It gives me great honor and pleasure to take part in the deliberations of this Congress of Cameroonian Professionals and contribute to the reflection on agricultural development in Africa and Cameroon. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Cameroon Professional Society for inviting me to address this impressive gathering. You are all testimony to the diverse talent that our beloved nation has produced. I applaud the efforts of the Cameroon Professional Society here in the United States to bring together so many individuals who have come to this country to succeed in many areas of business and education, and to provide you with a platform for dialogue and cooperation, as well as a vehicle to help you promote the economic and social development of the Cameroon nation.
Coming from a farming background, I learned from an early age the importance of agriculture in the social and economic development of our communities and our country. Agriculture is the main engine of Cameroons’ economy, employing up to 70 percent of our workforce, and contributing 42 percent of Gross Domestic Product and 30 percent of export revenues. I am sure there are many in this room whose education was financed from farm revenues.
Cameroon is blessed with relatively fertile lands and abundant rainfall. This enables our farmers to produce a variety of crops, some of which are never found anywhere else, to meet both our domestic food needs as well as earn income from exports. Coffee and cocoa are grown in the Central and Southern regions, in addition to bananas while cotton grows in several Northern provinces. Smallholder farmers also grow millet, sorghum, peanuts, plantains, sweet potatoes, yams and cassava. The Western Highlands produce most of the maize consumed in the country. Legume crops especially beans, cowpeas and groundnuts are produced throughout the country and so are a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. There is also livestock production in many provinces particularly in the North.
Cameroon is similar to neighboring African nations; in that agriculture is our lifeline and it is the roadmap for moving millions in Cameroonians, and hundreds of millions across the continent, out of poverty. Smallholder farmers, the majority of them women, produce most of Africa’s food. Often, they will do this with minimal resources and little support, without good seeds, healthy soils, finances and good policies. Without these basic necessities African agriculture has fallen far behind that of every other continent and our yields have remained at one-quarter the global average.
Africa’s agricultural land is more than China, India, the United States and Western Europe put together, but Africa continues to be plagued by food shortages, hunger and malnutrition. Many factors are responsible for this sad situation and they include:
· Low productivity of African agriculture as a result of low adoption of productivity enhancing technologies such as improved seeds and fertilizers;
· The economic and physical inaccessibility of inputs such as fertilizers, high yielding seeds, agrochemicals and credit; constitute serious handicaps;
· Poor infrastructure such as markets, roads and electricity supply hamper agricultural development; and
· Low priority accorded by governments and unsupportive policies
If we can remove these handicaps, constraints and blockages, Africa’s subsistence farming system can be transformed into a viable market oriented commercial activity.
A wake up call was sounded when African Heads of State met in Maputo in 2003 and undertook to accord high priority to agriculture and allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets in order to attain a 6.2 percent growth rate. However, less than ten countries have attained that target. The majority are still less than 5 percent. Without adequate funding for agriculture, it will be difficult to attain the growth target. Additionally, the Heads of State also established the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) to serve as a framework to guide investments in the agricultural sector and for consultations between African countries and the development community with the objective of reaching agreement on national compacts for joint action. To date, some 20 countries have signed the CAADP compacts.
The organization that I lead, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), is committed to working with smallholder farmers across the African continent to improve agricultural productivity, and as our name suggests, lead the way toward revolutionizing agriculture across the African continent. AGRA was established to achieve a smallholder farmer-based African Green Revolution to transform African subsistence agriculture into a highly productive and commercially sustainable system, and to enable Africa to be food secure.
There are no simple solutions or quick fixes. This means: training farmers to be more productive; educating a new generation of researchers, seed breeders and soil scientists and agricultural economists. It includes investing in farm inputs, into research for new higher yielding crop varieties that will flourish in Africa’s diverse agro-ecologies. It means improving farmers’ access to credit and markets and involves promoting a new generation of investment – from national governments, multilateral institutions and the private sector. In summary, it means shifting the focus from large scale to small scale; from subsistence to market and from men to women who actually produce Africa’s food.
For AGRA, the central question is not whether we should invest in Africa’s farms, but how we invest. The main problem is not a lack of technology. It is that national governments and multilateral institutions, have not invested enough in basic programs and infrastructure that will turn small holder farming into a viable economic enterprise. As mentioned earlier, Agriculture receives, on average, just 5 percent of African national budgets. In addition, the private sector has not been sufficiently incentivized to invest in agriculture.
AGRA has developed a comprehensive plan to spur the transformation of African agriculture through integrated programs in Seeds, Soils, Market Access, Policy and Partnerships, combined with Innovative Financing. Together, these innovations will trigger sustainable change – a green revolution for Africa through the support of innovative programs along the agricultural value chain.
Presently, the large gaps between actual and potential yields offer great opportunities for raising African agricultural productivity rapidly through conventional breeding. African countries have lagged behind in plant breeding because of the acute shortage of trained scientists and support institutions. AGRA is now undertaking an effort to redress this situation by training some 250 plant breeders—80 Ph.D. and 170 M.Sc. in African universities. Already, more than 150 students have joined fellowship programs, with approximately half of these now actively engaged in thesis research in their home countries. Following their training, however, plant breeders need institutional support and facilities, and ways of engaging with farmers so that the varieties selected truly respond to farmer needs. Plant breeders supported by AGRA have released 130 improved crop varieties in the past three years.
Plant-breeding efforts will have no impact if the new varieties are not multiplied in sufficient quantity to be available for use by farmers. With assistance from AGRA, 45 local seed enterprises are now taking hold and expanding rapidly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
AGRA believes that the production of improved varieties by conventional breeding will largely bridge the productivity gap for African farmers. With good agronomic practices and wise use of fertilizers and irrigation, the large-scale adoption of improved varieties should double or triple current yields.
Once quality seeds and inputs are available, they must get into farmer’s hands. To achieve this, AGRA is creating and expanding national networks of farm retailers. At the village level, rural farm shops or agro-dealers are uniquely situated to reach millions of farmers with seed, fertilizers, and other inputs – as well as sharing the knowledge of how to use them effectively. Some 9000 agro-dealers have been trained and linked to financial institutions in 13 AGRA program countries. The increased density of agro-dealer networks has significantly reduced distances farmers have to travel to access much needed inputs and this has increased their use. These critical inputs are increasingly available in small packs and affordable prices.
A major technical handicap is the state of degradation of Africa’s soils. Africa is the oldest land mass in the world and has been subjected to millions of years of erosion and leaching. Fertilizers and other soil amendments that have been used in other parts of the world to improve soil fertility are scarce in Africa. African farmers use only 23 kilograms of fertilizers per hectare, and Sub-Saharan African farmers, just 9 kilograms per hectare—the lowest rate in the world. Population density has reduced the scope for shifting cultivation and fallow systems that characterized African agriculture. Continuous cultivation in the absence of nutrient replenishment from organic or inorganic fertilizers has resulted in serious soil nutrient depletion. That must be reversed.
AGRA’s Soil Health Program is working with national and international partners to revitalize millions of hectares of degraded farmland over the next 10 years. Increased use of inorganic and organic fertilizers, combined with improved sustainable land and water management, is critical to raising yields. AGRA is supporting a continent-wide effort to map Africa’s soils and determine the specific elements needed to rebuild soil fertility across a variety of agro-ecologies and cropping systems. AGRA is supporting the development of cost-effective regional fertilizer procurement facilities and national fertilizer production and distribution systems, as well as promoting methods of enriching soils through fertilizer trees, grain legume rotations and organic matter. These should be fully exploited to reduce the use of inorganic sources of nitrogen. Nonetheless, inorganic fertilizers will be needed. Liming, micro dosing, conservation agriculture are also practices being promoted.
Finally, once farmers increase their yields and produce a surplus, they need access to local, national, regional and ultimately global markets. AGRA is improving farmers’ access to market information and training them to understand how markets function, where and when to store as well as opportunities for value addition. Market places seem to be among the most important infrastructure, along the agricultural value chain that need urgent attention. The picture of women sitting under the sun all day, just to see half of their produce wither away is unacceptable.
Partners of AGRA such as the Millennium Development Account (MIDA) in Ghana are involved in upgrading feeder roads and building storage facilities (Silos, Warehouses) to assist farmers conserve their harvests and avoid losses of upto 30 percent registered every year. AGRA participates by training farmer groups to access its program on warehouse receipt systems. Processing plants, even for basic value addition are urgently needed. AGRA’s Market Access Program that is at the final stage of preparation will partner with other development agencies to introduce and scale up the use of small scale processing plants that will significantly add value to staple food crops.
Agricultural policies across Africa must also support small holder farmers and especially women farmers who are the backbone of Africa’s rural economies. Policies must ensure land security for women, and enhance their access to financing, extension services and education. In addition, policy support should strengthen farmers’ associations and civil society organizations that benefit smallholder farmers. Special efforts need to be made to ensure that women play leadership roles in farmers associations and development programs and that they benefit fully from their efforts.
This is the commitment and vision of AGRA. By investing in small holder farmers through improved knowledge and technologies, access to credit, and through partnerships large and small, we are empowering a new generation of agricultural entrepreneurs including women. Working across the entire agricultural value chain, we can make a difference in the lives and livelihood of millions of Cameroonians and hundreds of millions of Africans.
AGRA has achieved significant results since it was founded in late 2006. AGRA is today implementing field projects in 13 sub-Saharan countries. More than 130 new crop varieties have been released to farmers. 14,000 metric tons of improved seeds have also been made available to smallholder farmers. AGRA is training seed breeders, scientists and researchers who will improve tomorrow’s agricultural technologies and policies. AGRA is also engaged in a robust dialogue with several governments to develop policies favorable to smallholder farmers on issues such as land use, market access, and investments in agriculture infrastructure.
Looking ahead, Africa needs massive investments in agriculture. That is because Africa today has a lower density of critical agricultural infrastructure than Asia had in the 1960s. Experts estimate that Africa will need $32 to $39 billion annually to achieve the full economic potential of its farm sector, not including the cost of climate adaptation. These funds must come from a combination of sources: African governments, overseas development assistance, foreign direct investment, philanthropic contributions from within and outside Africa, and Africa’s domestic private sector. Africa needs support on a par with investments in Asia and South America agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s.
But while this investment may seem massive, it is achievable. African governments have committed to invest 10 percent of their national budgets in agriculture. If they realize this investment, at least $20 billion will become available from domestic budgets. At the same time, increased investments by the global community, including bilateral and multilateral partners, foundations, and the private sector, can make up much of the remaining shortfall. The ‘Feed the Future’ initiative of the United States can be a major source of funding.
In the meantime, AGRA is putting in place innovative financing schemes to fill financial gaps in many countries. Millions of smallholder farmers, thousands of agro-dealers and other operators along the agricultural value chain are benefiting from those schemes. AGRA has thus far partnered with several donors and African commercial banks to increase agricultural lending by commercial banks. AGRA and partners have used “loan guarantee funds” totaling $17 million to leverage $160 million in more affordable loans from banks. The interest rate of 18 percent charged by Equity Bank was reduced to 12 percent under an AGRA supported scheme. AGRA aims to leverage at least $4 billion in financing for smallholder farmers and investments along the agricultural value chain over the next five to seven years. At present, only 2-3 percent of commercial bank lending in Africa goes to agriculture.
A few African governments are changing their priorities. In Malawi, the government broke with conventional wisdom when it boldly decided to provide smallholder farmers with support. The government distributed vouchers for improved seed and fertilizer, which smallholder farmers could redeem with local agro-dealers, who were then reimbursed by the state. It worked brilliantly – not flawlessly – but brilliantly. Government support transformed Malawi from a net food importer to a net food exporter, and grew its national economy by seven percent.
Last year, Tanzania’s Minister of Agriculture reported that 700,000 smallholder farmers have produced five million tons of the country’s major food crop, maize. This was attributed to the increased access to inputs through agro-dealerships put in place with the assistance of AGRA.
Rwanda has made major strides in food production in the past three years. Food production grew by 15% in 2007 and 16% in 2008, as the country embarked on a green revolution program based on increased access to inputs. Kenya, where AGRA has made its highest investments so far, became the latest country to sign the CAADP compact. The President of Kenya, Hon. Mwai Kibaki, stated that his government is making policy changes that will allow individual farmers shift from subsistence crop production to market oriented commercial production. In West Africa, Ghana and Mali have put in place policies and programs that have spurred agricultural productivity, production and economic growth. Indeed, Ghana is the only African country that will meet the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) to cut hunger and poverty by half by 2015.
We are excited by such bold political leadership and the emergence of a new breed of public-private sector partnerships that will drive growth in the agricultural sector. Policies are needed that will contribute to the sustainability of these innovative programs.
AGRA’s work to date has been based on individual grants. However, experience has shown that integrated programs in high potential areas yield the highest returns in terms of production, incomes and poverty reduction. AGRA has thus developed a breadbasket development strategy that is being piloted in four countries: Ghana, Mali, Mozambique and Tanzania. Breadbasket development strategies and implementation plans will drive agricultural transformation in Africa through the demonstration of effective partnerships between governments, development partners, farmer organizations and the private sector. The investment plan approach developed is now seen as a key driver for the implementation of CAADP compacts.
AGRA is not working directly in Cameroon. However, two partnership programs housed by AGRA, the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF) and the Coalition for African Rice Development (CARD) are active in Cameroon. The AECF is supporting smallholder farmers involved in sorghum production in the Northern provinces while CARD collaborated with the government to produce a National Rice Development Strategy (NRDS) that is supported by a wide group of development partners. It is hoped that these efforts will contribute to mobilizing additional investments for Cameroon’s agriculture.
In recent months, Cameroon's cocoa and coffee sectors have both benefited from increased investment, improved industry trends, and better global economic conditions. Other parts of Cameroon's agricultural sector are also benefitting from new investment and reforms. For example, the government will devote increased resources to boosting maize production over the next five years. In April, Cameroon's Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development launched a US$65 million project – with World Bank financing – designed to boost productivity in commodities such as rice, maize, plantains, palm oil and poultry. However, there is need for policies that will make inputs and credit more accessible to farmers especially small holder farmers.
As in other African markets, one critical factor blocking growth in agriculture is the bad state of Cameroon’s rural infrastructure. Poor transport links make it difficult for farmers to get products to market. The high cost of transporting produce from farms to markets and ports mean farmers receive only a fraction of the market prices for their crops. Work on improving the country's major highways is underway, but many farmers struggle to get their goods to markets. It will take years to improve the infrastructure, leaving many smallholder farmers at the mercy of middle men, traders and transport companies.
In an effort to improve the value of food crops, the government has initiated a project to help farmers sell their produce on national and sub-regional markets. The initiative, which began in April, is dubbed the Agricultural Competitiveness Improvement Project, better known by its French acronym, PACA. The program is being launched in seven of the country’s 10 administrative regions. PACA is jointly financed by the government of Cameroon and a $82million loan from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA).
PACA is one of several food security measures conceived by the government following hunger related protests in February 2008. Among others, it aims to increase production and farmer incomes by improving productivity, quality and market access. The project should also help the competitiveness of farmers’ cooperatives that produce rice, maize, plantains, palm oil, pork and poultry.
Despite all of the challenges facing Cameroonian and African farmers, I am optimistic about our future. I am convinced that Africa’s agricultural system can become a model of efficiency, high productivity, and sustainable development. I am convinced that agriculture can move hundreds of millions of Africans out of a life of poverty and hopelessness. Millions of smallholder farmers in Cameroon and across Africa are poised to deliver long-term solutions to chronic hunger and poverty. Cameroon has the land, the soil, the water resources, the energy, the experience, and we can improve and develop the technologies needed to end the undernourishment that today affects nearly one in five Cameroonians.
I am also optimistic about the economic future of Cameroon. There are today signs of economic recovery following the adverse impact of the global financial crisis on our country. The International Monetary Fund last week forecast that economic growth will gradually climb to above 4.5 percent by 2014, from an expected 2.6 percent this year. Meanwhile, inflation should remain below 3 percent. The biggest risks to Cameroon's growth outlook is weak global economic recovery. That is because Cameroon depends on commodity exports and global demand for its products which include oil, wood, rubber, coffee, cocoa, cotton and aluminum. Refocusing on food crops to meet national food needs and the needs of neighbouring countries will reduce dependence on the export of traditional commodities and diversify sources of income.
I thank you and the Cameroon Professional Society for this opportunity to meet with you and highlight this enormous challenge to both our country and our continent. I look forward to the rest of the program and to tonight’s dinner event. But while we enjoy this evening’s award dinner, let us remember that tonight one in three Africans went to bed hungry. So while a day of talking and networking is good, let us awake tomorrow with a new commitment to action.
Thank you.
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About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programmes develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.
AGRA's Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is AGRA's president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK's Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana.