Prof. Mkandawire

Addis Ababa—Close to 100 policymakers, researchers, and representatives from farmers’ organizations, donor and development agencies, and the private sector are convening for an Africa-wide conference to improve agricultural and rural development across the continent. The event, “Exploring New Opportunities and Strategic Alternatives to Inform African Agricultural Development, Planning, and Policy,” is organized by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS).

Facilitated by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), ReSAKSS supports implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). “Agricultural development can be a powerful source of economic growth and a key element in the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition,” said Professor Richard Mkandawire, head of CAADP at NEPAD. “This is especially true for Sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture is the primary source of income, employment, and export earnings. Yet mobilizing resources for agriculture, a challenge in itself, is not sufficient. African policymakers must determine priorities, identify appropriate levels and areas of investment, allocate resources efficiently, and create comprehensive development strategies.”

To help achieve these goals, ReSAKSS provides analysis, data, and tools to promote evidence-based decisionmaking, fill gaps in knowledge, and support implementation of CAADP.

“Using these resources, African policymakers can take into account the potential impacts of a given strategy, continuously measure progress, and share experiences across countries,” said Ousmane Badiane, director for Africa at IFPRI.

Recognizing the crucial role of agriculture in fostering growth and poverty reduction on the continent, African leaders launched CAADP in 2003 and agreed to commit at least ten percent of their national budgets to agriculture and achieve at least six percent annual growth in that sector.

“This conference comes at a critical time,” said Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, chief executive officer of the NEPAD Secretariat. “The CAADP agenda reflects a fundamental shift in the way Africa’s leadership looks at agriculture and its potential contribution to ending poverty and hunger and achieving the Millennium Development Goals. From the G8 Summit in L’Aquila to the G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, CAADP has received international support and recognition for its role in putting agriculture at the center of the African development agenda. In addition, countries are starting to follow through on their CAADP commitments, but we continue to face challenges related to implementation,” he added.   (more…)

By Prof. Richard Mkandawire and Dr. Akinwumi Adesina

Midrand/Nairobi, 18 November - African farmers are seeding prosperity.  Just ask the woman they call “Marie Nerica” who is sowing a new breed of Nerica rice in Sierra Leone.  She now produces enough to sell the surplus in local markets and to the government.  Her success sprang from the government’s renewed commitment to agriculture, sealed when it recently signed a compact known as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, or CAADP, coordinated by the African Union’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD).

Or ask Peter and Joanina Kibuti in Kenya’s Embu town.  Using improved seed, fertilizer, government vouchers and the advice of extension officers, they more than tripled their maize yields. Their farmers’ coop shared the cost of transportation and opened a cereal bank to safely store their surplus, further boosting their incomes.  Joanina is happy because, for the first time, she is able to pay her daughter’s school fees on time.  Their success sprang from work supported by the Kenyan government and by AGRA, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.  Its integrated programs in seeds, soil health, markets, policy and innovative finance are transforming smallholder farming and agricultural value chains in 14 African countries.

Now NEPAD and AGRA are poised to scale-up such successes in countries across sub-Saharan Africa, as they join forces to boost agricultural productivity.  The two African-led initiatives both recognize that to achieve food security and spur economic development, African countries need to substantially raise the productivity, incomes and sustainability of millions of smallholder farmers.  

Today, some 218 million Africans are hungry every day, and 38% of children under five suffer from malnutrition.  Ironically, hunger and malnutrition is most acute among the families of rural farmers, who have struggled for decades without support of any kind.  The partnership between AGRA and NEPAD – which both have deep African roots and broad global support — opens a new chapter in Africa’s agricultural development.

NEPAD has mobilized political support among African governments to prioritize and invest in agriculture.  It works through CAADP, which was endorsed by the African Union Assembly in 2003.  Critically, CAADP pledges African governments to devote at least 10% of their national budgets to agriculture, in pursuit of 6% annual agricultural growth.  Progress has been meaningful: 12 countries have now signed CAADP compacts, and some countries, including Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria have met the 10% goal.  But much more remains to be done, and quickly, as the mounting pressures of population growth, climate change and global food price volatility continue to work against African food security.

AGRA’s integrated programs have already benefited hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers through increasing their access to sustainable technologies; promoting polices of comprehensive support for smallholder farmers; nurturing the growth of a dynamic African agricultural private sector and increasing the availability of affordable loans for small-scale agriculture. These programs will help implement CAADP on the ground, starting with high-potential breadbasket areas with relatively good soil, rainfall, infrastructure and large numbers of smallholder farmers.

The new partnership, launched on 9 November 2009 in Abuja, Nigeria, pledges the two organizations to work together through CAADP country roundtable processes which plan strategic investments in agriculture.  The roundtables allow all partners, from farmers’ organizations to government Ministries, to identify targeted investments which can galvanize the whole agricultural value chain and accelerate the production of food surpluses to feed Africa.

The two partners join hands to advocate for policies that support smallholder farmers; build countries’ parliamentary and institutional policy-making capacity; build the capacity of Africa’s public and private institutions involved in Africa, and partner with other stakeholders to co-convene an annual African Green Revolution Conference.

Helping Africa to feed itself and transform its agriculture into a more productive, competitive and environmentally sustainable system is the greatest challenge of our time. African leaders have called for a uniquely African green revolution – one that is unique to Africa’s needs and ecologies and which raises the productivity and incomes of smallholder farmers.

It is our hope and intention that by combining the strengths of these two organizations and our unshakeable commitment to improving the lives of African farmers, we can help usher in a new era of food security and prosperity for Africa.

By Prof. Richard Mkandawire, Agriculture Adviser, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Head of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program, and

Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Vice President, Policy and Partnerships, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa.

The information needs of farmers in Africa should not be forgotten in discussions on climate change

By Denis Jjuuko*

The small holder farmer in Africa has always depended on instinct, a bit of observations, and knowledge passed on from his fore fathers. When he wakes up in the morning, he looks at the sky to determine the weather. He has always known that if it’s cloudy on a particular side, then it will rain in his area. If it is not, then the next village will receive the rain.

He has always known the particular months that form the rainy season and worked hard to till the land so that when the rain finally comes, he will be ready to plant his crops. Today, the same farmer looks at the cloudy sky in the same direction hoping that the rain will one day come. He waits, but all in vain. Then when he thinks it is dry, it pours down for hours or even days flooding his tilled land. If he had already planted - the crops would be washed away.

Livestock farmers in the Uganda cattle corridor have been selling their animals at as low as Uganda Shillings 30, 000 to ensure that they don’t completely lose out when the cows die because of draught thanks to climate change.

This scenario should be on the minds of African negotiators at the December 2009 climate change talks in Copenhagen. African farmers need a deal that will help them adapt to the changing patterns. The farmers need information on how they can change their lives to suit the current times. That information should be part of an adaptation programme that the continent needs today and not somewhere in 2020 or beyond if our farmers and economies are to survive.

This means that if a deal is reached in Copenhagen, it must include adaptation. This will enable our farmers to know which crops to plant and when to plant them thereby stopping their dependency on the colour of the clouds. The key issues is to make sure that information is available and that it reaches these farmers who may not be in possession of irrigation systems and other high technologies that defy weather patterns. (more…)

(l-r): Dr. Adesina - VP of AGRA, Dr. Ngogi - the President of AGRA, Ms. Mulindi of AGRA, Prof. Mkandawire the head of CAADP/Agriculture at NEPAD and Mr. Bissi of NEPAD witness the MoU signing ceremony

Africa’s Two Leading Farmer-Focused Initiatives Join Forces to Unlock Potential of African Agriculture As Engine of Economic Growth

 

ABUJA, NIGERIA (9 November 2009) - The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) today announced a groundbreaking partnership that will link African government commitments to agricultural development with concrete programs in seeds, soil health, policy, and markets.”This partnership will enable African countries to close the gap between intention and action on behalf of smallholder farmers,” said Mr Kofi A Annan, Chairman of AGRA and former Secretary-General of the United Nations. “NEPAD has mobilized public support among African governments to prioritize and invest in agriculture. AGRA develops and disseminates the technologies farmers need; bolsters policy reform; builds markets and involves the private sector. Our combined efforts will be a strong force for change across Africa.”

Based on the Memorandum of Understanding, the two organizations will join forces to work directly with national governments and partners across the agricultural value chain in a comprehensive effort to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers growing Africa’s staple food crops. They will focus particularly on plans to develop high potential breadbasket areas of African countries.

“An African strategy that increases the productivity of smallholder farmers is crucial to reaching our goal of 6 percent annual agricultural growth” said Dr Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of NEPAD, who signed the Memorandum with AGRA.

NEPAD works closely with African governments to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a framework to accelerate economic growth and boost food security through greater investments in agriculture. Endorsed by African leaders, CAADP calls on African governments to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture, in order to achieve 6 percent annual agricultural growth.

AGRA is a partnership-based organization whose integrated programs in seeds, soil health, market access and policy work to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers and transform African agriculture into a highly productive, efficient, and sustainable system.

“African leaders have unified behind the CAADP vision and have taken bold steps to put agriculture at the center of the development agenda,” said Dr Namanga Ngongi, President of AGRA. “This vision has galvanized partners around the world to support agriculture. Our partnership will accelerate CAADP’s implementation at the country level.”

The new partners will work together through CAADP’s national Roundtable processes, which will direct investments toward implementing policies and programs that strengthen smallholder farmers’ access better soil management techniques and improved seeds and fertilizers, increase their access to markets, and build the capacity of African institutions to advance agricultural research and to develop home-grown, evidence-based agricultural policies.

Building on Progress
“We see CAADP as a historic development in charting new agricultural pathways for Africa”, said Prof. Richard Mkandawire, Agriculture Adviser at NEPAD and Head of CAADP. “We are therefore delighted that AGRA is joining forces with NEPAD to work hand-in-hand in enhancing agricultural productivity and food security at the country-level”.

Since CAADP’s establishment in 2003, some African countries have moved to honor their CAADP commitments by providing at least 10 percent of their budgetary allocations towards agriculture. These countries include Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Nigeria.

“The Nigerian government has allocated more than 10 percent of our national budget to agriculture,” said Dr Sayyad Ruma, Nigeria’s Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources. “We are eager to get to work with AGRA and NEPAD, to develop plans that effectively target these moneys to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers.”

“It is no surprise that countries that have met their CAADP commitments are also showing signs of greater food security and stronger economic growth,” said Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Vice President of Policy and Partnerships at AGRA.

For example, government policies, including seed and fertilizer vouchers for poor farmers, have helped transform Malawi from a net importer to a net exporter of maize over the last four years, and fueled a national economic growth rate of seven percent. In Rwanda, food production grew by 15% in 2007 and 16% in 2008, as the country embarked on an ambitious green revolution program that has increased farmers’ access to quality seed and fertilizers.

“Africa must lead its own development through home-grown policies that correspond to its priorities. Such policies will help to achieve economic growth needed to lift millions out of poverty,” said Adesina. “This new partnership will build on successes and support new efforts in other breadbasket regions of Africa. Now it is time for our words to match up with our deeds.”

Since 2006, AGRA’s work in 14 African countries has already benefited hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers, who now have better access to improved seeds of staple crops, to fertilizers, to markets, to finance, and to improved soil and water management. In Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger, for example, 295,000 farmers are being trained in fertilizer micro-dosing, and efficient and sustainable way to improve the soil and the yield of food staples such as sorghum. At the same time, AGRA efforts have led to the release of three high-yielding sorghum varieties in Mali, and networks of village-based agro-dealers are reaching farmers throughout the area.

To evaluate such efforts and scale up an ever-growing number of successes, AGRA and NEPAD announced that they will co-convene a forum in 2010. It will bring together all partners to assess progress and determine the investments needed to strengthen the value chain and support smallholder farmers.

About NEPAD-CAADP
The African Union through its programme of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) works to raise the amount and quality of food that Africa produces, in order to make families more food-secure and exports more profitable. To do this, NEPAD brings together all the organisations involved in Africa’s agriculture - and helps them voice their needs and co-ordinate their work. The framework guiding this work is CAADP, developed and led by African nations. Established as part of NEPAD, CAADP was endorsed by the African Union Assembly in July 2003. CAADP is led by Prof. Richard Mkandawire, former Regional Director of the Commonwealth Youth Programme, Africa Centre (CYPAC) and a re-known development practitioner.NEPAD works closely with the African Union Commission (AUC), regional economic communities, national governments, research institutions, farmers’ associations to make sure that the pivotal role of agriculture in development is prioritised. In addition, many global development partners who were looking for a champion for agricultural development have rallied around CAADP. For more information, go to: www.nepad-caadp.net

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 programs 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. For more information, please visit: www.agra-alliance.org

Abuja, Nigeria, 09 November 2009 -The African Union Commission (AUC), in collaboration with the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) and the Economic Commission for West African States (ECOWAS), kicked off the 5^th Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme Partnership Platform (CAADP-PP) meeting today, 09 November 2009, at the Transcorp Nicon (Hilton) Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria.

The CAADP PP engagements have grown over the years to become a key forum for collective multi-partner peer review and support of the CAADP implementation process.

The AUC was represented by H.E Mrs. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, AUC Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture. Mr. Salifou Ousseini, Commissioner for Agriculture, Environment and Water Resources, represented the ECOWAS Commission whilst Prof. Richard Mkandawire of the NEPAD Agriculture Unit who stood in for the NEPAD CEO Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki represented the NEPAD Secretariat.

During the opening ceremony, Commissioner Tumusiime, stated that the efforts of the AU-NEPAD had made promising developments in articulating broader mechanisms for ensuring effective support to accelerate the CAADP country round table processes.

She also highlighted the significant progress made by the AU-NEPAD in engaging the international community towards the Global Food Security concern as well as supporting Africa’s Agriculture through CAADP.

“We are working faster to address the issue of how to manage the post compact activities as you will listen from the elements of the roadmap to include a much clearer post-compact CAADP process implementation…” Mrs. Tumusiime added.

Speaking on behalf of Dr. Mayaki, Prof. Richard Mkandawire of NEPAD revealed that it is the mutual interest and engagement on issues of African agriculture that had brought all the various entities – development partners, RECs, national focal points and civil society together as partners in support of African agriculture.

However, we are aware that the issues we discuss and are concerned about are just more than just being about ‘agriculture’, he added.

“Africa faces critical challenges many of which continue to trap the continent and its people in the poverty spiral”.

He then went on to note that the rising interest of the global community towards African Agriculture and the prioritization of agriculture by the African leadership through the Maputo declaration had paved the way for success in the African story on food security.

In his remarks to the participants Mr. Gregoire Akofodji, Minister of Agriculture from Benin, said that political leadership is a key instrument for the implementation of the CAADP programme.

Speaking on behalf of the development partners Mr. Jeff Hill, the Director for Agriculture at the USAID Bureau for Africa revealed that the United States was working to develop a strategy and related legislation to address and sustain support for global hunger and food security, built on the L’Aquila principles.

“Through these efforts we will continue our support for CAADP”, he added.  

The 5^th CAADP PP meeting is anticipated to discuss and take important decisions on various components of CAADP implementation including, amongst others: CAADP Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) Governance arrangement; CAADP Monitoring and Evaluation Framework; Roadmap for the follow-up and implementation of the July 2009 Heads of State and Government Summit decisions; Framework for Regional CAADP implementation and regional compacts, as well as the issue of food security and climate change, which are affecting agricultural performance.

CAADP is a shared framework for the development of the agriculture sector in Africa. Its main objective is to help African countries achieve higher economic growth through agriculture-led development, thereby eliminating hunger, reducing poverty and food insecurity, enabling the expansion of exports, and supporting environmental resilience.

For more information contact:

Molalet Tsedeke, Media Center Coordinator, AUC

molalett@africa-union.org

Andrew Kanyegirire, CAADP Communications Manager, NEPAD

andrewk@nepad.org 

Midrand, 1^st October 2009 - The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Secretariat will, between the 9^th and 10^th of November 2009, hold its fifth (5^th) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Partnership Platform (PP) Meeting.

CAADP – endorsed by the African Union (AU) and NEPAD in 2003 – is an Africa-led and Africa-owned initiative and framework to rationalise and revitalise African agriculture for economic growth and lasting poverty reduction results. The CAADP PP Meeting has evolved into a key instrument for peer interaction and sharing among the core institutions and partners’ involved in CAADP implementation. The CAADP PP, in principle to be held every six months, provides for collective multi-partner peer review of the CAADP implementation process including highlighting emerging issues and lessons.

Some of the issues and agenda points for the 4^th CAADP PP Meeting will include the following:

i.              CAADP Implementation at the country-level (roundtables, priorities, compacts)

ii.             Alignment and mobilisation of the development partners resources towards CAADP

iii.            Africa and the Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security 

iv.            A review of CAADP

v.             The launch of the CAADP implementation guide

vi.            Signing of an MOU between NEPAD and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Invited participants are enouraged to bring exhibition materials - flyers, posters, reports, pictures, DVD productions, banners - to showcase their work in support of agriculture-led development in Africa.

Venue: Nicon Hilton Hotel, Abuja, 1 Aguiyi Ironsi Street, Maitama, PMB 200, Abuja

For more information contact:

Tendai Tofa Tendait@nepad.org / + 27 (0)83 563 6249 / + 27 (0)11 256 3641

Rebecca Naidoo Rebecca.naidoo@gmail.com   / + 27 82 559 0322

Keep checking on the CAADP website for the full programme and agenda items