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Released: 9 November 2011

Adequate investment in agriculture by African governments and development partners could improve food security, reduce hunger and poverty, as well as manage the devastating effects of famine and climate change, according to African Monitor’s Development Support Monitor (DSM).

Speaking at the release of the report today (9 November 2011), Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane, President of African Monitor, said that although the agricultural sector was the mainstay for more than 415-million people in sub-Saharan Africa, African governments have largely not met their budgetary commitments to this sector. In addition, development partners continued to support the continent with food aid rather than sustainable investment in the sector.

At the same time Archbishop Ndungane made a strong plea for participants in the COP 17 conference on climate change taking place in Durban at the end of this month to take radical action to arrest the deleterious actions of nations across the world which has a negative environmental impact. He noted that that food production was directly damaged by the negative influence of climate change.

“I hope that the climate change summit will properly look at issues around sustainable farming again and the impacts climate change is having on Africa’s ability to meet its food production needs. Failure to continue to highlight this issue will mean that chronic food shortages will increase for the continent”.

During his tenure as Archbishop of Cape Town, Ndungane earned a nickname of “The Green Archbishop” because of his commitment to environmental issues and his work in this sphere both nationally and amongst various communities.

"I am very pleased that there will also be a faith-based assembly during the conference,” said Ndungane. “I am sure that issues regarding the importance of climate in relation to agriculture and this sector’s importance in reducing the unemployment levels, and therefore assisting in poverty reduction, will be discussed.”

Turning specifically to the findings of the DSM study, Archbishop Ndungane said it had found that even though aid to the agricultural sector from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) assistance committee countries had increased in 2008 and 2009, and recent aid increases were consistent with their aid commitments, food aid continues to account for 59% of the aid disbursed for agriculture and food security.

“Food aid is necessary,” said Archbishop Ndungane. “But investment in agriculture, if targeted at improving productivity and food security, will minimise the need for food aid in a sustainable way and will facilitate the inclusion of grassroots communities in economic activity.”

One of the most notable commitments received from development partners in respect of sustainable agricultural development is that of the L’Aquila Food Security Initiative (AFSI) launched by the G8 in 2009, when US$20 billion was committed for a three-year period.

The report also highlights the marked difference that would be seen in the productivity of this sector if all the governments actually followed through with their commitments at the African Union Summit in Maputo in 2003 regarding the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

The CAADP was developed to achieve food security by 2015. At the Maputo meeting, African governments committed to increasing public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10% of their national budgets and to raise the agricultural sector growth by at least 6%.

In terms of this programme, the governments and their development partners would:

• Invest in economic infrastructure to support small-scale and subsistence farmers;
• Activate initiatives to introduce new technologies to the formal and informal farming sector;
• Actively support grassroots communities to develop capabilities to participate at different points in the agricultural value chain, from production to distribution to packaging to market; and
• Creatively use the agricultural sector to accelerate the achievement of MDG 1, which is to halve the number of those living on less than $1 a day; halve the proportion of those suffering from hunger; and achieve productive employment for all.

Recent data, however, indicates that only seven African countries (out of 45 for which data is available) - Burkina Fasa, Ethiopia, Guinea, Mali, Malawi, Niger and Senegal - are spending over 10% of their total national budgets in the agricultural sector. Another ten are spending 5-10%, with the median expenditure being just 4.1%. But there are 29 countries that spend less than 5% of their total expenditure on agriculture.

The report shows that progress, although slow, is being made with regard to African countries incorporating the CAADP into their agricultural agenda, as 24 African countries signed up to do so in May 2011. These are Benin, Burkina Fasa, Burundi, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Guinea-Bissau, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

According to the DSM report, underperformance in the agricultural sector is still characterised by low agricultural productivity. This underperformance both in terms of agricultural GDP growth and rate productivity can be traced to among other things, limited availability and low usage of agricultural inputs such as fertilisers, improved seeds, extension services, rural infrastructure, agricultural machinery and agro-ecological conditions.

If increased investment is made in this area, these factors would be dealt with which would then improve agricultural productivity and decrease Africa’s dependence on food aid.

The need to support and modernise the agricultural sector was one of the key issues that emerged during African Monitor’s work in a number of African countries.  

African Monitor is a pan-African organisation with continent-wide coverage. It produces the DSM report bi-annually that examines and keeps track of commitments made by African governments and their development partners. Its main purpose is to promote greater accountability by making the commitments more widely known through assessing the extent to which these commitments are being met in real terms as well as the impact on the relevant communities.

ENDS

African Monitor was established in 2006 as an independent continental body to monitor development funding commitments, funding delivery as well as the impact on grassroots communities. It also works towards bringing strong additional African voices to the development agenda.

The Development Support Monitor 2011 is a first in a series of publications that will look at various questions to promote an inclusive agenda to achieve the African Moment for grassroots communities.  Over a period of time, the DSM will seek to answer the following questions:

·    What are the structural economic, social and political fundamentals that will facilitate the inclusion of grassroots communities in Africa’s development path?

·         What policies, approaches and practice changes need to be made for sustainable development?

·     How should development resources be generated and allocated to meet the imperatives for an inclusive development agenda for grassroots communities?

Last changed: Feb 08 2012 at 3:19 PM