Panel Discussion at the European Union-African Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal: Partnerships for an African Green Revolution

Event Hosted by Kofi Annan, Chairman of the Board of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) - December 8, 2007

African national leaders, the director-general of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, and the president of the African Development Bank have joined with AGRA in calling for a new African green revolution. At a special side event of the European Union-African Union Summit in Lisbon, Portugal, the leaders lent their backing to AGRA’s strategy for alleviating poverty among smallholder farmers across the continent.

Kofi A. Annan, AGRA’s chairman of the board, and Namanga Ngongi, its president, led a panel discussion, “Partnerships for an African Green Revolution.” The panel included President Bingu wa Mutharika of Malawi, President Blaise Compaoré of Burkina Faso, African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka, and FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf. All pledged their support for an African green revolution and AGRA. Also participating was Peter Eigen, a member of the Africa Progress Panel, which addresses issues of governance and development. Several civil society organizations joined the open discussion following the panel.

The following are key points made by the speakers.

Kofi A. Annan, Chairman of the AGRA Board

Thank you for coming. We would like to share with you the plans of AGRA for a green revolution in Africa.

With the right approach, we can organize a unique African green revolution that can double or triple African food production in the next 5 to 10 years. Working with African governments and African farmers, we seek to help African farmers obtain the right seeds and improve their soil fertility; water management; and food processing, storage and marketing. In short, we aim to help them improve all the elements in the agricultural value chain.

In the process, we will pull together other partners. We are discussing pooling our efforts with the European Union, the Norwegian government, and the World Bank. And we’ve had very useful and constructive discussions with FAO. We have identified 13 priority countries with whom AGRA will initially partner. We are working out in very concrete terms how we are going to operate on the ground and expand this network to bring in other players, complementing one another’s efforts.

If we really work together, we should be able to make a difference in a relatively short time. In working with African governments, we aim to ensure that they have the right policies in place so that we can help farmers. We often talk about how science played an important part in the green revolution in Asia, but having the right government policies also made a difference. I’m sure that the same will be true for Africa.

Namanga Ngongi, AGRA President

AGRA’s objective is to bring about a rapid, sustainable, and environmentally sound green revolution to Africa, by significantly raising the agricultural productivity and incomes of African smallholder farmers.

The challenge is large. More so than in other developing regions that experienced the green revolution, African agriculture is complex, with multiple agro-ecological zones and crops.

But today there is a new political impulse in support of agriculture, seen since African heads of state endorsed the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program with the Maputo Declaration of 2003. Together with increased attention to African agriculture from donors, this has created a new optimism about solving the problems facing African agriculture.

We will work to ensure that African farmers have ready access to improved seed and to the resources necessary to rebuild African soils. AGRA will work to improve markets for poor farmers--with special focus on market development for Africa’s staple food crops--and build pro-poor policies to provide incentives for farmers to adopt new agricultural technologies and generate significant surpluses for markets. Other AGRA programs in the near future will include agricultural extension and water management.

AGRA counts on the leadership and strong support of the African heads of state in this quest for a green revolution in Africa.

Blaise Compaoré, President of Burkina Faso

We must express our gratitude to Kofi Annan and give him all our encouragement. As far as AGRA is concerned, Burkina Faso will be eager to participate in all programs vital for the future of our continent, in particular for the future of farming. As 80 percent of our people live in rural areas, Burkinabe leaders are very concerned with rural development.

In Sahel countries such as Burkina Faso, our first and foremost concern is the rational use of water. We need water resources for effective farming. The way forward is to provide for irrigation, even with foot pumps, so that during the dry season we’re able to ensure that farmers still have a way of making income.

In addition to harnessing water resources, seeds are important. We know some seeds bring a yield of 1 ton, others 2 tons. Marketing is vital, but we can’t diversify or increase production without the infrastructure that allows farmers to sell their produce in the next town or in foreign markets. Without good roads, farmers can’t reach markets.

In Burkina Faso we have 42,000 rural cooperatives that include the entire rural population. This is important, as it means that we can create rural leaders, people with knowledge and training that can galvanize and encourage others. We’re very pleased to be one of the 13 countries who will benefit from AGRA.

Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank

We face three challenges — demography, organization, and the impact of climate change — that will create problems for food supplies. Scientific packages are now known, and best practices exist, that enable us to conquer these three challenges. The Bank is very active in agriculture, with a portfolio of $2.5 billion across Africa, or 25 percent of our operations. We are at the moment evaluating our experience over the last 30 years to see what worked well and what didn’t work well.

We agree with President Compaoré that water management is critical. This is true even in countries with plenty of water. We have always known that the use of fertilizers and modern seeds is important. We are increasing our involvement in infrastructure for agriculture, water management, and roads, and also scaling up our support for intensification. If we succeed, the trade access issue ought to be resolved.

This initiative is absolutely timely. Today, the policy environment is right in almost every African country, and where it is not quite right, it is improving. Now is the moment to come together and support a green revolution. I commit the support of the African Development Bank to AGRA’s agricultural initiative. Together, we can succeed.

Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi

We need a green revolution in Africa to rise from poverty to prosperity. It is needed to give us food security as a continent, not only at the national level. We welcome AGRA and pledge our support. We will do whatever we can in terms of sharing knowledge. And, naturally, we will accept any assistance you can give us.

It is very important to understand that agriculture is a basis for development. A nation must have enough food. A nation that goes begging for food cannot claim to be sovereign. It’s as simple as that.

Perhaps we can sustain our recent progress in Malawi. In the 2006 cropping season, we realized a surplus of 500,000 tons of maize over and above our own requirements. In 2007, we had a surplus of 1.3 million tons. We have set ourselves a program that will provide enough food grain security to support us for 2 years, even with no rain.

We can’t claim to have started a green revolution yet, because we’ve had only 2 years of successes. But that was after 25 years or so of inadequate food. For the first time, for 2 years, we’ve had enough food and are now exporting to other countries. Perhaps this will prove to be a green revolution in the making.

Read more of President Mutharika’s comments about Malawi’s recent agricultural success.

Jacques Diouf, Director-General of FAO

The time is right for a green revolution in Africa. Major donors now recognize that unless we address agricultural development, we will not meet the Millennium Development Goals.

At the same time, new challenges are on the horizon. Agricultural prices are rising from the combined effect of several factors: We are seeing the effects of drought in Australia and other parts of the world, floods in India and other parts of Asia, and hurricanes in the Caribbean. These events are combining with rising demand from emerging countries for meat and milk, and therefore feedstock as well. More recent is a trend toward the production of bioenergy in light of high oil prices. This is a serious challenge because some countries are rushing into bioenergy production without first satisfying the most basic need of feeding their people. These are challenges that make an African green revolution even more necessary. The most important element of success will be national political will and leadership, without which no country will succeed.

With the help of all of AGRA’s partners, we can address not only the urgent need to get seeds and fertilizers to farmers, but we will also be able to address the critical issue of water, as well as infrastructure, training for research, and agricultural extension. We must also develop capacities in food safety and quality -- a fundamental element of consumer protection and necessary to ensure trade regionally and in the rest of the world, where we have the added challenge of agricultural subsidies.

We are on the right track, and we will be working very closely with AGRA.

Peter Eigen, Africa Progress Panel member

I am still a civil society activist, and that is why you invited me. There is a consensus that fighting poverty and turning Africa around needs good governance. We are observing this very carefully. I should emphasize that this is not just an attempt to ask African leaders to improve governance. It is a mutual commitment, looking to European countries and to companies operating from Europe and the Group of Eight. [Until recently] Europeans were allowed to bribe African decision makers and deduct it from their income. It is quite clear that the rich world has not lived up to its commitment to good governance. This is a joint responsibility.

The question is whether bad governance and corruption can interfere with the success of this fantastic initiative. We’ve heard how important infrastructure and fertilizer provision are. And we know how much these services lend themselves to corruption and may drive the process down the wrong track. More importantly, an unholy alliance between suppliers in Europe and corrupt leaders in Africa could destroy this project. Ensuring good governance in Africa and Europe is a major responsibility.

Kofi Annan: Closing Remarks

I thank all of you. If we are going to succeed we all have to work together with government and civil society. So I am happy that we are demonstrating that even here today.

What also is clear is the impact of climate change on agriculture. It threatens to destroy our way of life, through its impact on ecosystems, on food production, with increased droughts and floods.

We need to integrate environmental economics and development economics.

We also heard a warning about the production of biofuels. We need to be conscious that we do not inadvertently give away the farm belt to biofuels, only to discover that we have just marginal land left for growing food. We need to encourage governments to think through this, and to encourage people to use marginal lands for production of biofuels, and use the best lands for the production of food.

We have talked of the importance of infrastructure development, water management, and irrigation if we are going to be able to sustain an African green revolution. All that is fine, but as we heard from the leaders, governmental policy is extremely important, and without the right policies that support rural development and agriculture, a green revolution will be very difficult or unattainable. We need to encourage policies that are pro-poor, pro-rural development, and carried out in a sustainable manner, not only for one or two years.

So we want to thank all of you for participating. This is only the beginning. Carry your voice when you return home. Africa can feed itself. So let us move forward.

Bingu wa Mutharika, President of Malawi
[Extended remarks]

In Malawi, we started by revolutionizing the thinking of Malawians, by telling Malawians that Malawi is not a poor country. This was not easy. We were told before that we had to say we were poor so that the whole world would feel sorry for us. But we told our people that we’re not a poor country, that we have resources, and that we have agriculture. We’re poor by choice, and we can choose to rise out of poverty. This was revolutionary thinking that built the framework for the success that followed. We decided we would change agriculture from subsistence only so that it would not only provide food security but also be a basis for poverty alleviation.

We premised this on the understanding that many of our farmers are very, very small indeed, farming one acre [0.4 hectares] or less. These farmers needed subsidies. There was no way they could survive without subsidies. It was a big battle. As you know, subsidies are taboo in international circles. But we decided there was no other way than for us to go with subsidies for improved seeds, fertilizers, and other chemical inputs. And, of course, we supported extension services to teach farmers exactly how to apply the subsidized goods and how to look after their crops.

We found that we could not give these inputs for free. This was because of the difficulty of determining outcomes from free inputs, and because there were those who would complain of being left out or discriminated against. So we said people must pay for inputs, but with the government taking up the major part of the cost of fertilizers. We established a coupon system for which we identified those who needed subsidies for various types of fertilizers and seed. Those farmers would pay the reduced price to the seller along with their coupons. The seller would take the coupons back to the government, who would pay the difference between the subsidized price and the commercial price. This worked very, very well.

Success was partly a result of civic dialogue, advocacy, and education. We went to the villages and told the people that this was not a government program but their own program. Once people accepted that it was their own program, they went flat out to implement it. We supported it by developing infrastructure. We’re building roads and bridges in rural areas to ensure that farm produce can be transported into towns for export. This was very important because, in our dialogue with the farmers, they wanted us to assure them that, if they produced more and could not sell it, the government would buy it.

We created market structures. We had what used to be called in colonial days “farmer marketing boards.” We transformed them to the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation, or ADMARC. We have this structure throughout Malawi. ADMARC distributes inputs and also buys produce to sell to other countries.

We have very erratic rain. And quite often, as in 2004 and 2005, when the rain fails, everything else fails — not only agriculture but the entire economy. Nothing moves. So we are now going into irrigation extensively. Already some farmers are double cropping. This year alone, we completed about 20 new dams throughout the country. By the end of next year, we expect to have 58 completed. Some are dual use, for hydroelectricity as well as irrigation and fisheries.

We’ve tied all this together as total support for agriculture. The end product is to transform rural economies. With 70 to 80 percent of our people living in rural areas, we feel that there is no other way of quickly transforming their status in life but to improve agricultural production and marketing.

I’m on the phone every day, and I’m told the rains are coming. As I’m also the minister of agriculture, if everything fails, I’ll take the blame. But I think the rains are beginning to come.

We really want to welcome AGRA and would like to pledge our support to AGRA. Perhaps together we can sustain this progress. Perhaps it will be a green revolution in the making.

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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.