By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: The 2010 CAADP Day was held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso with a call for a review of the Maputo Declaration on budgetary commitments of agriculture by including a date by which countries should have allocated at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. This call was made by Laurent Sedogo, the agriculture minister of Burkina Faso while opening the CAADP Day.

“There is need to review the Maputo Declaration by including a time frame in which countries should have increased their budget,” minister Sedogo said. He added that Burkina Faso already commits 15% of the national budget to agriculture which  helped it increase production of crops such as rice in 2009 to more than 50% of the 2008 figures. Burkina Faso will be signing the CAADP compact within the next few days.

The CAADP Day with the theme of “Post-Compact CAADP implementation; the African private sector and investments in agriculture” aimed at widening the political space and investment climate for CAADP to agriculture by paying particular attention to the role of the private sector as well as showcasing the work of CAADP.

The CAADP Day took place during the ongoing Agriculture and Science Week organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

The head of CAADP, Martin Bwalya in his opening speech emphasized the need for the private sector to play a significant role in the development of agriculture. “African countries should build new bridges and explore new sources of private capital flows into agriculture,” he said.

The over 200 delegates from across the world heard from a panel of experts a bout what is taking place in several African countries in order to attract the private sector.

In Sierra Leone, the government has instituted tax holidays for the private sector involved in the agricultural sector while in Burkina Faso, private banks such as Ecobank are financing the agricultural sector, mainly in the cotton industry. In Kenya, Equity Bank is carrying out financial literacy among farmers thereby bringing them into the banking sector and enabling them develop through small loans.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: If we need agriculture to attract African politicians, it needs to be seen as an issue that can win them votes according to Boaz Blackie Keizire, the Technical Advisor/CAADP Implementation Specialist at the African Union Commission. Keizire was addressing the media at a press conference ahead of the CAADP Day that took place in Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso.

“Politicians need to see the agricultural sector as an election issue. When people are demanding  infrastructural development like roads, agriculture should be included,” he said.

“When agriculture is people-demanded, then the politicians who run the government will put in place programmes that lead to 6% agricultural growth and commit 10% of their budgets to the sector.”

Keizire challenged the media to play a key role. “How can we use agriculture as a champion in raising the politician’s profile?” he asked.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: Kenya, Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast will sign CAADP compacts in the next few days  bringing the number of countries that are committed to improving their agriculture to 22 according to Martin Bwalya, head of CAADP at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency.

Bwalya was addressing the media at a press conference organized ahead of the CAADP Day that took place in Ouagadougou Burkina Faso. CAADP compacts among other areas compel African governments to commit to agriculture by allocating 10% of their national budgets to the sector and challenge countries to attain at least 6% sectoral growth per annum.

Bwalya emphasized the value of knowledge-sharing in the CAADP processes. “What we are emphasizing is the value of knowledge. Supporting farmers should include knowledge dissemination,” he said.

“The value and quality of knowledge and how it is applied is crucial in agricultural development. We need to scale up knowledge dissemination.” He challenged the media to play a greater role in the CAADP processes on the continent.

By Denis Jjuuko

Ouagadougou: Africa is making progress towards achieving   Millennium Development Goal 1 which calls for reducing hunger, according to the Forum for Agricultural Research (FARA) executive secretary Monty Jones. He was  addressing the media at a press conference ahead of the CAADP Day in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

“Forty to fifty years ago, most countries were exporting to each other in Africa and outside the continent. Then the attention was shifted to other areas and we saw a drop in agricultural production. However, since 2000, we have seen significant development in agriculture averaging around 5%,” he said. “This means that most countries are at the threshold of reaching the 6% target set by CAADP.”

“With these increases in agricultural development,”  Mr. Jones said, “Africa will be able to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1.”  Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are targets set up by the United Nations that countries need to achieve to attain a certain level of development. MDG 1 seeks to end hunger and poverty by the year 2015.

Mr. Jones said that Africa has the resources to take it to the next level of agricultural development. “We have 60% of arable land. How can we invest into this as opposed to asking for aid?” he asked. He added that as researchers in the agricultural field, they need the support of other partners such as the private sector to ensure that farmers get the infrastructure needed to improve their fields.

He also appealed to organizations working in agriculture to share information, especially on the technologies developed in Adrica  through the CAADP processes.

Denis Jjuuko

A well-know figure in African journalism and former media consultant to the United Nations, Denis Jjuuko, will be reporting on the CAADP Day which will be held on 21 July 2010 in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

It will take place within the context of the Africa Agriculture Science Week under the theme: ‘Post-Compact CAADP Imple-mentation: the African private sector and investments in agriculture’..
Denis holds an MA in journalism and media studies from South Africa’s Rhodes University and a B.Mass Communication from Makerere University in Uganda.

He has consulted for a number of organisations including GTZ, Greenpeace, Baylor College of Medicine Children’s Foundation, Blue Finance and BAT among others.

He previously worked as a journalist and continues to write for newspapers and other publications. He also teaches journalism at Nkumba University in Uganda.