AGRF is supporting the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzanian (SAGOT) - a public-private initiative to unlock Africa‟s huge agricultural potential. As Salum Shamte, Chairman of the Agricultural Council of Tanzania, says, “the agricultural potential of the Southern corridor is enormous but remains largely dormant or highly underexploited.”

Tanzania is only using one per cent of theoretically irrigable land. Businesses have traditionally not invested into African agriculture because of perceived challenges to doing business in a region without adequate infrastructure or regulatory certainty.. The first initiative - the Beira corridor in Mozambique - is helping farmers cultivate 190,000 hectares of newly-irrigated land, generating new revenues of more than US$1 billion.

Following the success in Mozambique, Tanzania‟s own SAGOT initiative was discussed at a meeting of the African World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam in May 2010, where government and business leaders agreed to a joint initiative to develop an investment blueprint for the corridor by end of 2010.

SAGOT responds to a call for investment outlined in Tanzania‟s Kilimo Kwanza agricultural policy. Already the African Development Bank has donated US$230m to upgrade trunk roads, including one between Dodoma and Iringa. Fertilizer company Yara intends to invest US$20 million into a dedicated fertilizer terminal at the Dar es Salaam port.

In addition, helping smallholder farmers commercialize and gain access to international markets could create one million new jobs.

To receive a copy of the „concept note‟ on the SAGOT initiative, published in May, please see: www.africacorridors.com

CLick here to download the full document

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.

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.

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.

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.

Partnership for African Fisheries report of the PAF Working Groups retreat in Nairobi, 26-27 May

As Africa prepares to report on the second trimester review of its progress towards achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in September 2010, close to 80 percent of the African population remains largely dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods and survival, making them profoundly vulnerable to natural and socio-economic shocks that affect agricultural production.

The important role of fisheries in the African agricultural sector is highlighted by the fact that approximately 10 million Africans derive their livelihood from the fishing industry and are employed in different entry points of the fishing value chain. Africa’s contribution to global trade in fish and fish products generates revenues of up to US$4.5 billion for African economies locally.

Fisheries and aquaculture development in Africa are critical in addressing food security and poverty alleviation as the basis for viable and sustainable socio-economic market-led growth. In addressing the critical role of fisheries in Africa, CAADP provides a basis for determining priorities to support fisheries, addressing policy issues to improve sustainable fisheries in contributing to Africa’s economy, setting time-bound actions to scale up best practice in fisheries and aquaculture development in Africa.

Yet a number of challenges threaten the sustainability of African fisheries. These include global mismanagement, illegal fishing, over-fishing, ill-used subsidies and much more. Within the framework of CAADP, a partnership has been developed to address the key issues of governance, policy, legislation, trade, communication and advocacy to address the challenges that face fisheries and aquaculture development in Africa. The continent stands to gain substantially through improving fisheries governance to enable the inherent wealth of this valuable and renewable natural asset to be realized and protected.

Established in 2008, the Partnership for Fisheries in Africa (PAF) is a consortium of strategic and financial partners committed to working together to realise the common vision of establishing African fisheries to contribute significantly to African prosperity and growth.

The partnership ensures that fisheries policy reform is based on sound evidence-based advice that will lead to meaningful action and positive changes. The basic working areas of PAF include awareness campaigns for change; enhancing trade, developing a common voice for African fisheries; developing an African fisheries reform strategy, and establishing a viable think tank. In terms of the implementation and institutional arrangements of PAF, in addition to the think tank, four working groups have been established that focus on illegal fishing, governance and trade.

To discuss the identified essential changes needed to enhance the fishery resource and stimulate economic growth and provide pathways out of poverty across the continent - the African Union Commission in partnership with the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) will be hosting its first ever Conference of Ministers of Agriculture and Fisheries in Africa (CAMFA) in Banjul, The Gambia on 20-23 September 2010 .

Click here to download the CAMFA 20-23 September 2010 conference brochure (PDF file - 993kb)
Also available in French

In support of CAADP, the conference seeks among others to:

• Seek priority actions to scale up best practices in fisheries and aquaculture development in Africa;
• Determine priorities to support the governance of fisheries;
• Set policies to improve sustainable fisheries in contributing to Africa’s economy and welfare; and
• Establish and validate fisheries management, based on rational economic principles.

Ahead of CAMFA, the working groups of PAF met in Nairobi, Kenya 26-27 May 2010 to discuss progress to date on preparation of CAMFA within the context of ongoing strategy development and implementation plans of each working group. An important addition to PAF, which was presented for the first time at the PAF meeting of working groups, is the all-important working group, led by the University of Malawi’s Bunda College on Aquaculture Development which will oversee policy research and development necessary to enhance aquaculture production in Africa as an aspect of wealth creation, food security and poverty alleviation.

PAF anticipates that an important outcome of CAMFA will be a CAMFA resolution on African Fisheries, Governance and Trade 2010 to be submitted for consideration at the next African Union Heads of State and Governments Summit in January 2011.

Other expected outcomes of the conference include devising partnerships and leadership mechanisms including public, private sector, civil society and development partnerships necessary to achieve effective governance of African fisheries, and finally, determining the status of overseas development assistance trends in African fisheries and the evaluation of such assistance on the performance of fisheries institutions and management in Africa.

The World Bank Africa Environment and Natural Resources Unit and the Water Resources and Watershed Management Thematic Group invite you to participate in an online debate on watershed management that will run throughout June.

Watersheds are ideal systems for natural resource management. A watershed is one of the few natural systems that we can accurately map, and where we know water flows connect upstream and downstream communities.

As the unit that regulates the flow of water across the landscape, watersheds will be the place where we see the acute effects of climate change. They will be a barometer of the combined effect of our natural resource use as we move to warmer, drier times. The large size of most watersheds also makes them able to deliver real environmental and economic outcomes if their management were improved.

As always there are challenges. Watersheds rarely align to our geo-political boundaries or with the size and shape of our land management units.
The World Bank Africa Environment and Natural Resources Unit and the Water Resources and Watershed Management Thematic Group invite you to participate in an online debate on watershed management that will run throughout June.

Watersheds are ideal systems for natural resource management. A watershed is one of the few natural systems that we can accurately map, and where we know water flows connect upstream and downstream communities.

As the unit that regulates the flow of water across the landscape, watersheds will be the place where we see the acute effects of climate change. They will be a barometer of the combined effect of our natural resource use as we move to warmer, drier times. The large size of most watersheds also makes them able to deliver real environmental and economic outcomes if their management were improved.

As always there are challenges. Watersheds rarely align to our geo-political boundaries or with the size and shape of our land management units.
Anything larger than a farm or forest block requires a collective will and control that does not fit with our dominant socio-economic paradigm of individual resource ownership. Africa’s mixed and complex status on land and water access and local control of natural resources makes this an even more important need.

So what is the key to effective watershed management? How should it best be implemented? What are the right incentives? What are the barriers and who controls them? Do we ever have enough information to know when management is working?
The discussion will offer ideas, opinion and suggest some answers to these questions. Set as a series of mini-debates, watershed management experts from governments, development agencies, science and business, all with a wealth of practical experience will debate four propositions on watershed management in Africa and a dedicated website will provide the opportunity for public comment and feedback. Moderation and daily summaries of the discussion will be provided throughout the discussion.

This is your opportunity to engage in a debate that has critical outcomes for Sub-Saharan Africa.

To participate in the discussion go to www.africawatershed.org

We look forward to your contributions.

In reviewing progress towards ensuring food security and reducing poverty on the African continent, recent trends across regions and individual countries showed that 10 countries had met the 6% agricultural growth rate in 2008. The decline in the average malnutrition rate was encouraging but was still high at 29%.

About 13 countries were making progress towards the hunger or poverty targets but only Ghana was on track to achieve both the targets by 2015. Estimates of the Global Hunger Index of The International Food Policy Research Institute showed that the majority of countries had managed to reduce hunger and poverty but Africa, as a whole, was not on track to achieve the primary Millennium Development Goal. This added to the sense of urgency for speedy and effective implementation of CAADP.

Ten countries had met the target of allocating 10% percent of their national budgets to agriculture and several others had made some progress, with at least nine countries showing budget allocations in the 5-10% range.  Although the share of agricultural expenditure had risen in the large majority of countries, there was cause for concern because case studies in Ghana and Uganda had indicated that implementation of their Medium Term Expenditure Frameworks may constrain the increase in budget allocation to agriculture.

Whereas growth that had taken place in most countries should have led to greater reduction in poverty levels, this had not happened. There were many factors which threatened production, livelihoods, markets, national security, health and the environment and all key stakeholders needed to overcome the silo mentalities of planning and programming in order to design comprehensive investments and programmes.

Countries needed to maximise synergies between expenditures in the social sectors and agriculture with the objective of raising the productivity of labour in the agricultural and rural sectors, where most of the poor and vulnerable reside. Investment plans needed to anticipate, respond and adapt to potential changes, crises and threats related to African agriculture and food security.

Speedy implementation of the CAADP agenda by Regional Economic Communities and their member states had taken place. In the period from July 2009 to date, the number of countries that had signed their national CAADP compacts was 18 (6 in COMESA and 12 in ECOWAS). A further 8 countries were expected to sign by June 30, 2010: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, Namibia, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

ECCAS countries were increasingly mobilising, including Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, and Democratic Republic of Congo. Rwanda, the first country to have signed a compact, had also been the first to complete its post-compact process, followed by adoption of its financing plan. As at April 2010, US$250 million had been secured for its plan out of a total funding gap of US$325 million.

With regard to the disbursement of funds by the CAADP Multi-Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) to Pan-African institutions and Regional Economic Communities the total committed funding of the MDTF had reached US$32 million, with an additional US$ 20 million in commitments expected.

The delegates agreed that the roadmap for the remainder of 2010 should focus on countries which had already signed Compacts. Parties were urged to make sure that adequate roadmaps were in place in each country upon signing of the Compact, to be followed without delay by the formulation of agricultural investment plans.

It was vital for country leadership to get involved in the post-Compact process as well as farmer organisations, the private sector, and civil society bodies. The AU, NPCA and development partners were urged to redouble their efforts to ensure that they involve non-state domestic parties at the earliest phase of the CAADP process.

“Through CAADP, African governments have demonstrated more commitment than ever before towards a framework and plan that can be used to address some of the issues that have continued to haunt the continent - such as food insecurity and poverty,” said Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of  the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency.

Issued on behalf of:
The NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency

Contact:
Dr. Andrew Kanyegirire, Communications Manager
Tel: 011 256 3615