The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have agreed to strengthen relations to boost Africa’s agricultural transformation by seeking to remedy challenges faced by Africa’s smallholder farmers.
Smallholder farms usually deploy a blend of cash crops and subsistence farming to support single families or slightly larger groups. Though their output is small compared to commercial farms, smallholder farms, collectively, are the key to boosting agriculture output in Africa. It is estimated that there are about 500 million smallholder farms in the world supporting some 2 billion. In developing regions, these farms dominate in certain key crops such as cocoa and coffee.
Both institutions discussed some of the most pressing constraints to the development of African agriculture, including access to inputs and fertilizers, finance and credit, storage, extension, markets and others through improved infrastructure and systems, value addition, market access, institutional capacity and training, public and private investments. In the 50 years of its operation, the AfDB has invested close to US $100 billion in development projects in Africa, $12 billion of which went directly into agriculture.
“Agriculture is at the heart of AfDB’s strategy. We consider agriculture as a vehicle for inclusive and sustainable economic transformation, and eradicating poverty and hunger. I am not just speaking about growth, but quality growth, that is inclusive and which leaves no one behind,” said Aly Abou-Sabaa, AfDB Vice-President in charge of Agriculture, Water, Human Development, Governance and Natural Resources.
According to AfDB, Africa’s smallholder farmers, the majority of whom are women, provide up to 80 percent of food in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, more than 90 percent of agriculture is low-input low-output with most smallholders working on plots of land sized two hectares or less. The dependence on rainfall is overwhelming, also, and this introduces uncertainties in overall output levels. Not surprisingly, because of this trend, the continent is the region with the highest prevalence of undernourishment, with around one in four people under-nourished, and Sub-Saharan Africa being the worst affected.
However, Africa’s agriculture sector is also rife with opportunities including vast natural resources, which if well exploited, could enable the continent not only to feed itself, but also sustain the livelihoods of millions of Africans. This informs the bank’s Strategy for 2013-2022 through which it aims to support a number of broad interventions to address Africa’s agricultural and food security challenges.
The pillars of this strategy entails heavy investments in rural infrastructure, and linking farmers to markets. It is also contributing to the long-term capitalization of the agriculture sector especially benefitting infrastructure development along the value chain for promoting sustainable agricultural production systems. Additionally, the strategy advocates for financing for agricultural research and technology development.
By Emmanuel Iruobe
