As the world grapples with the food crisis, senior policy makers in Africa are developing appropriate policies to achieve a Green Revolution that will rapidly raise agricultural productivity for small-scale farmers in Africa.
More than 90 senior policy makers and leaders from the private sector, academia, civil society and farmers organizations convened early this week in Nairobi to identify priority policies and institutions needed to achieve a uniquely African Green Revolution.
Representatives from 15 African countries, as well as others from Europe, the United States and Asia, participated in the two-day meeting convened by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a partnership-based organization dedicated to improving the lives and livelihood of Africa's small-scale farmers.
"Our goal is to end Africa's perpetual food crisis and to do so by mobilizing the political will and assisting countries in the development of policies that will enable Africa's smallholder farmers to grow exponentially more food and end hunger," said AGRA President Dr. Namanga Ngongi.
"The vision, passion, and strategic directions shared here will help guide the development of these essential policies," the president said.
The policymakers called on African governments to invest in rural infrastructure that will boost agriculture production by smallholder farmers in the continent.
The top African policymakers further called for appropriate policies if Africa was to achieve the green revolution and in eradicating poverty.
They said the continent must address agriculture policies needed to end hunger and achieve food security in the world's poorest continent ravaged by diseases and poverty.
The meeting addressed four critical areas of seed and fertilizer markets; finance and risk management; product markets, strategic grain reserves and regional trade; and land tenure, coupled with other social issues.
It also discussed how to build capacity of African policy analysts and institutions that will support evidence-based policy development, calling on establishment of policy centers of excellence that would develop increased capacity in data collection, statistics and analysis, in close collaboration with African governments.
Such centers, as explained in the meeting, would provide African countries with sound policy frameworks and build trust in policy formulation. "The center of debate on policies for African agriculture needs to shift from Washington to Africa. And African countries, policy makers and stakeholders must lead the way," said Dr. Akin Adesina, AGRA's Vice President of Policy and Partnerships.
"By building African policy development capacity, and working with the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), we are laying the basis for sound evidence-based policies that will rapidly transform incentives for smallholder farmers, the great majority of whom are women working less than a hectare of land," Akin Adesina said.
Underscoring the need for a policy action agenda for Africa, Kenya's Agriculture Minister William Ruto who is also the chairman of the African Council of Ministers of Agriculture said the current global food process should provide a wake up call for the policy makers to devise new strategies for boosting food security.
"The current world-wide food crisis has provided a wake up call for the policy makers to reorient their planning process to provide viable and sustainable solutions.. [for] a green revolution which will dramatically increase agricultural productivity and lift the bulk of our population out of poverty," said Ruto.
The meeting further ruled-out practice of a one-size-fits-all type of policy for Africa, saying each country had its own unique and diverse agriculture system.
"Capacity building to develop appropriate policies for the Green Revolution must be holistic, consider the entire value chain, and take a long-term view," said Dr. Harris Mule, chancellor of Kenya's Kenyatta University, who also co-chaired the meeting.
The meeting also identified issues of access to credit, for high quality inputs and improved land tenure systems, especially for women, as crucial in new policy formulation.
The meeting said further that risk-mitigation policies, such as weather-indexed crop insurance, were needed, given projected negative impacts of climate change on African agriculture.
Among policies also recommended towards successfully realizing a true Green Revolution for Africa, were those that specifically target small-scale farmers and support market development at the very rural base.
Source: Xinhua
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