Montpellier panel report 2012

Growth with Resilience:
Opportunities in African Agriculture

A Montpellier Panel Report

First published March 2012.

Agriculture for Impact
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This Report should be cited as:

The Montpellier Panel. 2012. Growth with Resilience: Opportunities in African Agriculture. London:
Agriculture for Impact.

Cover page photo credit: ©Africa Rice Center

Contents

Our Vision 5

Summary of Recommendations 6

Food Security in Africa 7

Building Resilience 11

Our Recommendations

Resilient Markets 15

Resilient Agriculture 19

Resilient People 23

Political Leadership for Resilient Growth 26

Conclusion 28

Key References 29

4

Our Vision
We, the members of the Montpellier Panel, believe investment in resilient
agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can achieve sustainable food
and nutrition security for the continent and significantly contribute to the
African and global economy.

As we argued in our 2010 report:

• Food security underpins global security;
• Food trade is central to global trade; and
• Agricultural development is the best route to achieving economic growth
that reaches the rural poor and most vulnerable in low income countries.

As is also evident from the experience of recent years, failure to ensure
universal food security threatens political stability, social welfare and economic
growth. Inclusive, resilient agricultural growth is thus a political imperative.

Resilient agricultural growth doesn’t happen by itself - it needs pro-active
policy design and investment.

The challenge is to generate agricultural growth that produces enough food,
ensures it is accessible to all, is inclusive of the most vulnerable and is resilient,
and hence able to withstand the increasing multiple stresses and shocks that
afflict the world.

To this end, we believe the priority should be supporting the creation of:

• Resilient markets that enable farmers to increase production and generate
income through innovation and taking risks, while ensuring food is available
at an affordable price.

• Resilient agriculture that creates agricultural growth out of knowledge
and innovation, while simultaneously building the capacity of smallholder
farmers to counter environmental degradation and climate change.

• Resilient people who are able to generate diverse livelihoods that provide
stable incomes, adequate nutrition and good health in the face of recurrent
stresses and shocks.

To achieve these goals we will also need political leadership that demonstrates
the necessary vision and will.

5

Summary of Recommendations
The recommendations in this report are aimed at governments, both European donors and African
governments, working in partnership with local and international private sector actors, NGOs
and civil society organisations (CSOs). Figure 1 shows an outline of these recommendations.

Reduce food price volatility

Facilitate private investment Resilient Markets

Build enabling environments
Political Will

Enable resilient and sustainable
intensification

Resilient Agriculture
Growth with
Combat land and water
degradation Resilience

Build climate smart agriculture

Scale up nutrition

Focus on rural women and Resilient People
youth

Build diverse livelihoods

Figure 1. Flowchart of the Montpellier Panel recommendations on how to achieve agricultural growth
with resilience

6

Food Security and Africa
Why act now? window of opportunity for children between
pregnancy and age two.

By acting now we have a unique opportunity to
influence the global food security agenda in 2012 • In October, the second Global Conference on
and beyond. Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD)
will gather farmers, civil society, the private sector
There will be a nexus of global level meetings in and researchers in Uruguay to discuss agricultural
2012 that could agree actions which will help foresight, partnerships and capacity building.
achieve resilient agricultural growth in SSA:
Why Sub-Saharan Africa?
• In May, G8 leaders, under the US presidency,
will meet in Chicago. This also marks the There are many reasons to believe that
end of the three-year L’Aquila Food Security growth in SSA can generate greater food
Initiative (AFSI) commitment agreed by leaders security and more resilient farming systems.
in 2009. They will need to measure progress
on fulfilling their US$22 billion AFSI pledge, to African GDP is growing at about 6% per year. Over the
assess how their commitments have translated past decade, six of the world’s 10 fastest growing
into action and to make further commitments. countries were African. According to the African
Development Bank (AfDB), a third of the population
• In June, Mexico leads the G20 meeting, building of Africa lives below the poverty line, another
on the 2011 efforts to tackle food price volatility 20% lie just above in the band of US$2-$4 a day.
and food security within a framework of Green
Growth. However 20% are ‘middle class’ with
incomes of US$4-$10 per day and a
• Also in June, at the Rio+20 meeting, twenty further 20% have incomes of over US$10.
years after the first Earth Summit, world leaders
will have a platform to debate how green Including remittances from the diaspora, the AfDB
economic tools and improved governance can estimates that over 300 million people, about a third
deliver sustainable agricultural development, of the population of Africa, is now middle class.
food security and poverty eradication.
Nevertheless, the challenges are considerable.
• September will mark the two year anniversary of High growth rates are accompanied by increasing
the unveiling of the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) inequality. Growth is also more volatile in low-income
initiative, a movement to reduce hunger and countries. As a consequence, the sustainability
undernutrition, focusing on the critical of Africa’s current growth is not guaranteed.

High income
Floating class (>$20 / day)
($2-4 / day) 18.8%
24%

Lower middle
($4-10 / day)
Poor (<$2 per
9.9%
day)
36.5%
Upper
middle ($10-
20 / day)
10.8%

Figure 2: African population distribution by
income in 2010
©Africa/freedigitalphotos.net Source:©Africa/freedigitalphotos.net
African Development Bank
7

SSA faces seven major food loss. According to IFPRI, by 2050 average rice,
wheat, and maize yields will have declined
security challenges by up to 14%, 22%, and 5%, respectively, and
food availability in the region will average
1. Repeated food price spikes, creating persistent 500 calories less per person, a 21% decline.
high food prices. Several countries in SSA faced
double-digit increases in maize prices during the
first quarter of 2011. The World Bank estimates Strengths and weaknesses
that globally 44 million people were pushed into
poverty by rising food prices in 2010 to 2011. Agriculture in SSA is characterised by a range
of interacting, socio-economic and biophysi-
2. In 2010, an estimated 239 million hungry people cal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
or 26% of the world’s undernourished lived in threats. These compound the challenge of achiev-
SSA. The food crisis in the Horn of Africa in 2011, ing agricultural growth with resilience (Table 1).
which affected over 13 million people, and the
growing food crisis in the Sahel of western and Today the strengths and opportunities outweigh
central Africa this year will add to these numbers. the weaknesses and threats. Appropriate solutions
to the challenges exist and there are strong
3. Hunger disproportionately affects children signs of a new, distinctively African, agricultural
and women. In Africa, the number of stunted renaissance. As noted, much of the acceleration
children is estimated to have increased from 45 in GDP growth in SSA has been driven by faster
million in 1990 to 60 million in 2010 . Nearly 70% agricultural growth and the potential for greater
of pre-school age children and 60% of pregnant agricultural productivity is very high. In many
women in SSA are anaemic, with 50% of all respects Africa is the last agricultural frontier.
cases of anaemia being due to iron-deficiency.
While only one country in SSA – Ghana – is on track to
4. The need to double food production if the meet Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 1, 13 other
growing population is to be fed by 2050. FAO countries in SSA are on track to halve poverty, and
estimates we should increase food production 10 countries are on track to halve hunger (Figure 3).
globally by 70% above 2009 levels, but we
will also have to create significant reserves to
cope with extreme weather and other events.

5. Increasing environmental degradation and
competition for land and water. In 37 African
countries, 22 kg of nitrogen (N), 2.5 kg of
phosphorus (P), and 15 kg of potassium (K)
per hectare of cultivated land has been
lost over the past 30 years. This equates to
an annual loss of US$4 billion in fertiliser.

6. High fossil fuel and fertiliser prices. The price
of diammonium phosphate (DAP), a commonly
used source of nutrients in developing countries,
rose six-fold at the time of the 2007/08 food
price spike. After a significant fall, the price
of DAP fertiliser has begun to rise again.

7. The increasing threats from global warming.
Increasing temperatures, declining rainfall,
rising sea levels as well as devastating floods,
droughts and cyclones, will significantly reduce
yields, sometimes causing total crop or livestock ©Gordon Conway

8

Table 1 - SWOT analysis for African agriculture
Strengths: Weaknesses:

• The diversity of African agricultural • A lack of coherent, cross-ministerial policies
agroecosystems furnishes resilience although and leadership on agriculture
this heterogeneity also requires sophisticated • Poor incentives for small business investment
and nuanced management • Access to input and output markets is often
• Smallholder agriculture can be highly efficient, weak
producing five or more tons of grain per hectare • Average cereal yields are only one ton per
with appropriate inputs and management hectare
• Farm-level production costs in Africa are often • The predominant rainfed agriculture is
relatively low vulnerable to unreliable and unpredictable
• There is a strong tradition of village-level rainfall
farmer associations providing a basis for growth • Total agricultural R&D spending in Africa
and innovation grew at only 1.9% between 2000 and 2008,
• Acceleration in GDP growth in SSA has been, in although there is wide variability between
part, driven by faster agricultural growth countries
• More organized and concerted African • African soils are heavily degraded and
leadership through CAADP depleted of nutrients
• Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the continent • Tenure over more than 90% of land remains
increased from US$2.4 billion in 1985 to US$55 outside the formal legal system in Africa and
billion in 2010 although most of this was in the is therefore at risk of dispossession.
oil and gas sectors • Agricultural mechanisation is poorly
developed

Opportunities: Threats:

• There is a large agricultural workforce: 65% • 80% of all African farms (33 million farms)
of Africa’s population lives and works in rural are less than two hectares in size, which can
areas increase transaction costs
• The workforce will be predominantly young: by • The success of investments in agriculture
2040, one in five of the world’s young people depends on the engagement of women who
will live in Africa make up 50% of the agricultural labour force
• Large opportunities to improve yields through and have relatively poor access to resources
increasing fertilizer application rates and and services
irrigating more land • SSA has many pests, diseases and weeds
• Fertilisers are applied at average rates of about such as Striga, Black Sigatoka, Banana wilt,
11kg/ ha of arable land (compared to 154kg Cassava mosaic virus, Maize leaf streak,
ha in India and 468kg/ha in China). There is a Maruca beetles, stem borers, downy mildew
huge potential to use local African sources of and locusts that are capable of destroying
rock phosphate fertilizer at affordable costs harvests
• Only around 4% of cultivated land in SSA is • SSA farmers face the lowest agricultural
irrigated. Potentially over 20 million hectares incentives in the world
of land under irrigation • Three quarters of African countries are net
• Already in motion are agricultural growth importers of agricultural products and African
corridor projects in areas with high agricultural trade tariffs are on average 50% higher than
potential that will stimulate investment and comparable tariffs in Latin America and Asia
develop regional value chains • Climate change is likely to reduce crop yields
• Mobile and internet connectivity is growing across much of SSA
rapidly: mobile phone subscribers have risen
from less than two million in 1998 to over
400 million in 2009 and internet users in SSA
between 2005 and 2010 grew by almost 430%

9

Burkina Faso Algeria
Cameroon Angola
Cape Verde Benin
Central African Rep. Botswana
Ethiopia Burundi
Guinea Egypt Equatorial Guinea
Kenya Ghana Gambia, The
Lesotho Mauritania Guinea Bissau
Malawi Mozambique
Mali Namibia
Morocco Sao Tome & Principe
Senegal Tunisia
Swaziland
Uganda

Countries on track for
Countries on track for
Countries on track for achieving MDG1 halving hunger by 2015
halving poverty by 2015

Figure 3: Countries on track for achieving MDG1 based on ‘business as usual’ projections.
Source: ReSAKSS based on World Bank 2009, UN 2009.

Leadership from CAADP
As we recorded in our 2010 report, there has • 20 of the countries have moved on to develop their
been a step change in the way African leaders, agricultural investment plans and are receiving
African regions and African governments approach donor funds including five who have been awarded
agriculture. Since 2003, the African Union’s GAFSP (The Global Agriculture and Food Security
Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program) funding, totalling US$223.5 million.
Programme (CAADP), has provided an official channel
for developing regional and national agricultural • CAADP has set the goals of allocating 10% of
sector policies, strategies, and investment national budgets to the agricultural sector and
programs. Its momentum has been growing: achieving a 6% national agricultural growth rate.

• 29 countries have completed the CAADP • Seven countries are currently meeting the 10%
Roundtable process and signed strategy agriculture spending target. These countries
documents, known as ‘compacts’. met it both in the most recent single year
measured, and on average over the most recent
period (2003-09). Of the countries for which data
was available, 17 countries met or surpassed
the target of 6% agriculture growth in 2009.

10

Building Resilience
What do we mean by growth
with resilience?
Resilience, in the context of this report, is the capacity Stress or shock
of agricultural development to withstand or recover
from stresses and shocks and thus bounce back to the

Development
previous level of growth. As Figure 4 shows, a lack of
resilience may be indicated by gradually declining
agricultural productivity but, equally, collapse may
come suddenly and without warning. Recovery
may be fast, but more often is slow or incomplete.

A stress can be defined as a regular, sometimes
Anticipate Prevent Recover Learn
continuous, relatively small and predictable Survey Tolerate Restore
disturbance, for example the effect of growing soil
salinity or lack of rainfall or indebtedness. Such stresses
or chronic crises are directly damaging but sometimes
slowly culminate to cause a shock or acute crisis.
Figure 4 The range of responses to stresses and shocks
A shock is an irregular, relatively large and
unpredictable disturbance, such as is caused The steps that need to be taken to build resilience
by a rare drought or flood or a new pest (shown in Figure 4) include the anticipation of
outbreak, or when slow onset disasters pass the likelihood and location of a stress or a shock,
their tipping points and become extreme events. through some form of survey. In the case of
extreme weather events such as droughts or floods,
Many stresses and shocks are interlinked, for example, this may involve agro-climatic monitoring, such
energy and input price volatility, extreme weather as informed the Famine Early Warning Systems
events and climate change, growing scarcity of network that in 2010 forecast the likelihood
natural resources and poverty and inequality. Because of the 2011 food crisis in the Horn of Africa.
the planet is becoming more densely populated and
increasingly urbanised, both physical and social The next steps – prevention and tolerance, recovery
interactions are becoming more complex and fast and restoration – involve defining objectives,
moving. As a consequence minor adverse events identifying the various options and then appraising
become amplified and the threats to agricultural them in terms of their outcomes and the relevant
growth are multiplying in frequency and scale. costs and benefits. Preventative measures,
such as building dams or sea walls, may allow
agricultural growth to continue unhindered. But
Strengthening resilience often, the best option is some form of tolerance
that reduces the damage or allows rapid recovery.
Resilience can be strengthened in many different Frequently this will involve some form of trade-
ways, through political, economic, sociological or off, balancing agricultural productivity against
technological interventions. For example drought reducing the risk exposure. Ideally, the answer
can be countered by building irrigation systems, will lie in seeking out and implementing win-
through improved water harvesting techniques, win technologies and processes where they exist.
agro-ecological technologies such as conservation
farming and by breeding new crops or livestock that Sometimes, of course, damage is unavoidable and
are tolerant of or resistant to drought. Resilience the only response is to rebuild or restore the basis
can also be strengthened through more open trade for growth.
policies to facilitate trans-border access to food. Some
approaches are expensive, some more affordable.

11

As a general rule, the more effort put into
anticipating stresses and shocks and into designing
Resilient growth
preventative or tolerant responses the lower
Resilience is not only about acute crises with one-
the likely damage and costs of action will be.
off solutions. We cannot prevent the majority of
acute crises unless we first address the underlying
Finally, building resilience is about learning from
chronic crises. For example, increasing input prices,
past experience. How did a country, community or
soil and water degradation, and global warming
household cope with a severe stress or shock? How
have to be tackled if sustainable food security
can it do better in the future? Almost everywhere
and agricultural development is to be assured.
in SSA local communities are experiencing the
consequences of climate change and learning to
cope (Box 1). At first sight, the goal of resilience may seem at odds
with growth. Indeed there is usually a trade-off. It
is possible to have a highly resilient but stagnant
Box 1 - Farmer responses to climate change growth, or a rapid growth that is destructive and
in Mozambique highly volatile. The ideal is somewhere in between
where appropriate resilience is built into growth
In the village of Nwadhajane in Southern at the outset in a way which exploits the synergies
Mozambique, villagers are experiencing the between growth and resilience. Moreover, growth is
effects of climate change and are taking likely to be unpredictable unless resilience is built in. If
significant measures to counteract the worst growth is steady and assured it will encourage further
impacts. Several farmer organisations have investment, so creating a spiral of development.
been created to reassign a portion of lowland
and highland, which differ in their productivity
to each farmer. On lowland the crops are very
productive, but are washed out by periodic floods
while the highlands produce good crops in the
flood years but poor crops during the droughts.
The farmer associations are also carrying out
experiments with drought-resistant crops.

Some of the technologies and other interventions
needed to build resilience are already available,
but others, for example against devastating pests
and diseases or to protect against drought, need
further applied research. The G20 meeting in 2011
stressed ‘the need to invest more and increase
cooperation in research and development for
climate change adaptation.’ It also recognised
the importance of the work of the Consultative
Group on International Agricultural Research
(CGIAR) and a subsequent first G20 conference
©Gordon Conway
on agricultural research for development
was held in Montpellier in September 2011.

12

Green Growth and the long term aim aim is that basic inputs for industry
will be wholly plant or crop based, that is they will
Bioeconomy be intrinsically renewable. Germany has created
a Bioeconomy Council with the aim of improving
Growth with resilience is at the heart of the economic development, competitiveness, and
theory and practice of Green Growth, presented thus value creation in using bio-based approaches.
by the Korean presidency at the G20 in 2010. It is in this context that a new research
Green Growth aims to achieve both a high level of program for food security in Africa has been
growth and a high degree of resource efficiency. initiated by the German Government in 2011.
It advocates a strategic change to the economic
system whereby the price of natural resources and In February 2012, the European Commission also
services is internalized in market prices creating a adopted a strategy for a sustainable bioeconomy
Green Economy where economic wealth is linked to to ensure smart green growth in Europe. The
ecological sustainability. Korea is chairing the working goal is a more innovative and low emission
group on Green Growth for the 2012 G20 meeting. economy, reconciling demands for sustainable
agriculture and fisheries, food security, and
the sustainable use of renewable biological
resources for industrial purposes, while ensuring
biodiversity and environmental protection.

The plan focuses on three aspects: developing new
technologies and processes, developing markets and
competitiveness, and encouraging policy makers
©Jessie Luna
and stakeholders to work more closely together.

©Jessie Luna Resilience at scale
‘Development at scale’ is a theme that crosscuts
Building a green economy will be at the centre
the growth with resilience agenda. Achieving re-
of deliberations at the UN’s Rio+20 conference
silient and transformational agricultural growth
in June 2012. In the words of the zero draft for
means going beyond small islands of success. Over
the conference, the member states and other
80% of African famers are smallholders, the ma-
stakeholders are urged to ‘renew our commitment
jority of whom are women, cultivating less than
to sustainable development and express our
two hectares of land. As a group they are critical
determination to pursue the green economy in
to achieving widespread and inclusive food and
the context of sustainable development and
nutrition security. But this depends on their links
poverty eradication. We further affirm our resolve
to markets – both markets that buy their produce
to strengthen the institutional framework for
and markets that supply inputs such as fertilisers
sustainable development. Taken together our
and seeds and micro-credit and macro-insurance.
actions should fill the implementation gaps and
achieve greater integration among the three pillars
Development at scale is thus a function of the
of sustainable development – the economic, the
extent of engagement of farmers with markets.
social and the environmental.’ The challenge for the
If these markets are accessible, efficient and
Rio+20 conference in this resolve is the integration
fair - and hence resilient - smallholders will
of environmental and development priorities. Here
increasingly attain food and nutrition security
the paradigm of pursuing resilience with growth
and prosper. We thus begin our more detailed
can provide pointers for analysis and action.
recommendations with the topic of resilient markets.

More fundamentally we need, over the next
few decades, to shift the planetary economy to
one based on a Bioeconomy. Such an economy
is focused on resource efficient technology, and
ecologically sensitive products and services. The

13

Our Recommendations

Our Recommenda-

TITLE PAGE FOR RECOMMENDATIONS

INSERT A4 PHOTO

14
©Jessie Luna

Resilient Markets
Resilient markets enable farmers to increase • Attempt to prevent the imposition of export
production, take risks and generate income through bans; and
innovation, while ensuring food is available at an • Create modest physical grain reserves, for the
affordable price. World Food Program and for African regions and
certain individual nations (especially those that
A resilient market minimises the effects of stresses are landlocked).
and shocks, and is characterised by sound institutional
arrangements, transparency of price formation
and low transaction costs which bring about a
degree of price stability, benefiting both producers
and consumers. Underlying resilient markets are
significant investments in agricultural growth and in
the creation of appropriate enabling environments.

We recommend that governments work
with the private sector to:

1. Reduce food price volatility

2. Facilitate private investments
Figure 5 Recent food price spikes
Source:
3. Build better enabling environments
Figure 5 Recent food price spikes
Source: FAO
1. Reduce food price volatility
Of the 20 highest increases in commodity prices Public reserves can help during food crises in
over the last decade, 12 were for agricultural three ways: first, as domestic price stabilisation
commodities. Most recent has been a food price tools; second, as a source of emergency food
spike in 2007 and 2008 followed by a spike in 2010 for humanitarian aid during crises and third, as
which has been prolonged to the present (Figure 5). sources for food distribution programmes. These
recommendations were initially regarded as
As the 2011 G20 meeting noted such ‘excessive somewhat controversial but are being implemented
volatility not only has negative impacts on by a number of countries, at least at national level.
access to food for the poorest and on many Kenya has tripled its grain reserve in 2011 and
producers, including livestock producers affected Nigeria has adopted a policy that 15% of the total
by the volatile cost of feed, but could hamper annual grain harvest should be held in reserve.
investments and an effective market response
to a long-term increase in demand for food and Food price volatility was a priority for the French
may harm confidence in international markets.’ government’s presidency of the 2011 G20.
Agriculture ministers and heads of states and
For farmers, price volatility reduces confidence governments agreed to support the establishment
and increases risks. Rapidly rising prices also of the Agricultural Market Information System
mean increases in chronic hunger, accompanied (AMIS) in the expectation that better information
by civil unrest and outmigration. In our 2010 will help to dampen price volatility. AMIS seeks to
report we addressed these challenges and improve agricultural market information, analyses
made several recommendations, to: and forecasts at both national and international
levels; report on abnormal price activity; examine
• Explore the regulation of food markets in a manner market conditions, including structural weaknesses,
similar to the banking and financial systems; strengthening global early warning capacity;
15

collect and analyse policy information, promote or another, part of the private sector. The challenge
dialogue and responses, and international policy for smallholders is that the transactions are usually
coordination; and build data collection capacity in small – a few grams of seed, a few kilos of fertiliser
participating countries. and ‘micro’ levels of credit and insurance. And
when they have products to sell it is at most a
As became evident during the G20 discussions, food few hundred kilos. However, the creation of local
price volatility has to be tackled from a variety fertiliser and seed companies and small village
of perspectives. For example, volatility may be agrodealers together with pilot experiments in
moderated if the barriers to trade in grain are reduced micro-credit and micro-insurance are promising
or removed. In some cases tariffs are excessive while ways forward. Many of these involve major
in others, countries have imposed protectionist Africa-based commercial banks, often facilitated
trade policies. There is an urgent need to understand by guarantees to cover loans to small farmers.
the nature and severity of such barriers in Africa
and to devise ways of overcoming them, including The private sector has much to offer African
the establishment of free trade communities. agriculture. As crop value chains develop there are
significant opportunities for wider scale private
We recommend governments and other investments in such aspects as storage, processing,
stakeholders: wholesaling and retailing. The private sector has the
funds to operate at scale and can provide reserve and
a. Build on the G20 momentum and emergency funding to ensure such chains are resilient.
participate actively in AMIS
Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Africa increased
from US$2.4 billion in 1985 to US$53 billion
b. Measure progress and impact of in 2008. But much more is needed, especially
actions taken by the G20 in 2011 with an agricultural focus. In a key report to the
November 2011 G20, Bill Gates explored a range
c. Initiate a review of domestic and of options for raising significant amounts of funds
regional market barriers and from the private sector for development. The
protec ionist policies within
t options include interest on sovereign wealth funds
Africa (SWFs), diaspora bonds and various taxes, on
tobacco, bunker fuel and financial transactions.
d. Explore the creation of free trade for Collectively these could raise some US$80 billion
for a range of health and agriculture investments.
key agricultural products, such as
maize, within regional economic
communities and all of Africa

2. Facilitate private
investment
A key factor increasing food price volatility has been
actual or perceived shortfalls in food production
relevant to actual or potential demand. Global con-
sumption of grains and oilseeds exceeded produc-
tion in seven of the eight years after 2000. By 2007,
stocks were only 14 per cent of use. Thus increased
food production, while it is not the sole solution
to the problem, is a critical factor especially when
combined with better access to markets for farmers.

Agriculture is, by its nature, a private sector
activity. This is true of small as well as large farms
and the majority of smallholders are, at one level ©Gordon Conway
©Africa/freedigitalphotos.net

16

organizations to assist. We also encourage efforts to
We recommend governments should work establish proper investment environments, including
with the private sector, both nationally through improvement of law and regulations.’
and internationally, to:
Much of this investment will have to come from the
a. Build appropriate regulatory private sector, as outlined above, but at a minimum
environments conducive to private public action has to create the conditions that allow
investment decentralised, private and collective initiatives to
flourish. Moreover, markets never work perfectly
so public sector and civil society organisations
b. Facilitate the development of need to provide support to ensure that markets are
profitable and resilient value accessible, equitable and efficient and that social
chains of significant benefit to safety nets are in place when markets do not work.
small farmers, particularly women
Experience suggests that many of the key elements
c. Provide a forum for sharing lessons of an enabling environment for agriculture can
of success and failure in taking only be created through innovative public-private
markets to scale partnerships. The advantage of PPPs is that they can
harness the entrepreneurialism and efficiency of the
d. Explore innovative finance and private sector to deliver better value for money, while
at the same time utilising public engagement to ensure
access to finance: including
the benefits are widely shared both geographically
sovereign funds, diaspora bonds and by social stratum. In this way private sector
and various forms of taxation investment can benefit the many and not the few.

PPPs, which involve government and private sector
3. Build enabling with NGOs, are especially valuable in helping
small farm enterprises and farmer associations
environments become viable entities with profitable connections
to input and output markets. Government input
Food security is partly an economic problem, but
is often crucial to establishing the legal basis of
its solution is dominated by political, technological,
such enterprises, while NGOs can help improve
institutional and behavioural factors. The
management expertise and fair linkages with markets.
operation of market forces alone, whether within
a country or on a global scale, will not create
PPPs also have a role in developing agricultural
food security. Supply can meet increased demand
research partnerships where the technological
but farmers in developing countries, especially
expertise of public and private research organisations
smallholders, find it difficult to respond quickly
are combined with government oversight to ensure
to market signals. The benefits will only flow if
the benefits flow to smallholder farmers (Box 2).
there is an appropriate ‘enabling environment.’

The G20 meeting in 2011 made a commitment to
create ‘an enabling environment to encourage
and increase public and private investment in
agriculture. In particular, we stress the need to
support public-private partnership on investments,
based on a value-chain approach, for services (such
as access to financial services, agricultural education
and extension services), and for infrastructure
and equipment for production (such as irrigation),
for agroprocessing, for access to markets (such
as transport, storage, communication) and ©Africa Rice Center
for reducing pre and post-harvest losses. We commit
to reinforcing capacity building in developing ©Africa Rice Center
countries in these fields and call upon international

17

Box 2 - Water efficient maize for Africa We recommend governments should
collaborate with the private sector and
A highly innovative public-private partnership NGOs, nationally and internationally, to
has been created between the African
develop public-private partnerships (PPPs)
Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), the
International Maize and Wheat Improvement
that;
Center (CIMMYT), the seed company Monsanto
and national agricultural research systems in a. Help to provide social safety nets
the participating countries (Kenya, Tanzania, for times of food crisis
Uganda, Mozambique and South Africa)
to deliver drought-tolerant and royalty- b. Develop the legal basis and
free maize varieties over the next decade. management expertise for small
farm enterprises and farmer
The WEMA (Water Efficient Maize for Africa) associations
project was initiated in 2008 and aims to
increase yields by around 20 to 35% under
c. Create agricultural research
moderate drought conditions. Maize hybrids
are being developed through conventional
partnerships providing
breeding, marker-assisted selection and GM appropriate technologies for
technology and are now undergoing trials smallholder farmers
in several SSA countries. The first varieties
are expected to be commercialised four or d. Provide unilateral and multilateral
five years from now. This could result in an investments in the development of
estimated two million tons of additional food the Trans-Africa Corridor Network
with benefits to 14 to 21 million people.

A key component of an enabling environment for
agriculture is access to markets. This depends, in
part, on appropriate rural infrastructure. SSA has
the lowest density of roads in the world: 204km
per 1000km2 of land area, on average (the world
average is 944km/1000km2). In many countries,
transport costs and insurance take 50% of the value
of exports. One of the biggest challenges is to
help create regional trade networks in agricultural
products, linking small farmers to supermarkets and
exporters throughout their local region. The Trans-
Africa Corridor developed by the United Nations
Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), the Africa
Development Bank (AfDB) and African Union (AU),
will comprise nine trans-continental roads equalling
56,683km that link, or closely pass most continental
African states. It is estimated to generate $250
©CIMMYT
billion over 15 years in overland intra-African trade.

18

Resilient Agriculture
Resilient agriculture creates agricultural growth out Such technologies frequently ‘work’, but may be
of knowledge and innovation, while simultaneously inappropriate or unaffordable for small farmers
building the capacity of smallholder farmers to counter and have undesirable environmental side-effects.
environmental degradation and climate change.
One alternative is to draw on ecological principles
Resilient agricultural technologies and practices to both increase production and make agriculture
build on agroecological knowledge to counter more resilient and sustainable. Examples include
stresses and shocks in ways that maintain various forms of mixed cropping that enable more
sustainable agricultural growth without contributing efficient use and cycling of soil nutrients (e.g.
to significant environmental degradation. intercropping, rotations, agroforestry, sylvo-pasture,
green manuring); integrated and intensive crop-
We recommend that governments in livestock systems, conservation farming systems
partnership with the private sector & NGOs: that use minimum or no-tillage (Box 3), microdosing
of fertilisers and herbicides and integrated pest
management. These are now proven technologies,
1. Enable resilient and sustainable
some of which build on traditional practices, with
intensification numerous examples working at least on a small
scale. The imperative now is to find ways of scaling
2. Combat land and water degradation them up to reach a wider number of farmers.

3. Build climate smart agriculture
Box 3- Conservation farming in Zambia
1. Enable resilient and
A partnership between local government
sustainable intensification bodies and the NGO Concern Worldwide is
investigating the use of conservation farming
There is little likelihood of significantly more arable as a replacement for the traditional long
land becoming available for cultivation in SSA; yet fallow system in western Zambia. Currently
we know that we have to approximately double food the woodland is felled and burnt before
production by 2050. For the past fifty years the only being ploughed and sown to maize. Crops
significant increase in global arable land has been are grown for only a couple of years and the
for crops such as oil palm and soybean, mostly on land then takes several decades to return to a
cleared rainforest or the Brazilian Cerrado. There state where it can be felled and burnt again.
may be land available for clearance in the rain The conservation farming alternative is not to
forests of the Congo basin, but this will incur a major plough but sow the seed in small ‘pockets’ in
biodiversity loss and large Greenhouse Gas emissions. the soil to which have been added two cupfuls
of manure and a soda bottle top of fertiliser.
For the future the solution to food security is to After harvest, the soil is covered with the stems
get more production out of the existing land (i.e. and leaves of the maize and next year’s seed is
increasing land productivity), but to do it in a way sown several months later in the same holes.
that is resilient and sustainable. Such intensification Despite the need to hoe weeds, the labour is
is a significant challenge. It will depend on human much less than in the conventional systems.
ingenuity, in particular in harnessing the benefits of Yields are high – some four to five tons of
ecological processes and modern plant breeding. maize growing new drought tolerant hybrids.

In the 20th century, agricultural production relied The system should allow tree or shrub cover
on technologies developed by the industrialised to remain unburned more or less permanently,
countries. These “conventional technologies” so increasing carbon sequestration and
typically deliver desired products in a ready-to-use maintaining soil carbon levels, creating a
‘packaged’ form, e.g. a bag of synthetic fertiliser more stable and sustainable farming system.
or a drum of synthetic pesticide or a tractor.

19

Another solution is to increase the utilisation of
modern plant and animal breeding methods (including
2. Combat land and water
biotechnology). There have been considerable degradation
successes in providing resistance to various pests of
maize, sorghum, cowpeas, groundnuts and cotton, Land and water for agriculture is in increasingly
to diseases of maize and bananas, and to livestock short supply, is subject to intense competition and
diseases. These can provide relatively rapid gains affected by serious degradation. The causes are
in resilience. More pests and diseases have to be overuse, inefficient use, environmental change
tackled but the continuing challenge is to combine including global warming and pollution. Land
these with biotechnology-based improvements is being degraded as a result of erosion, loss of
in yield through improved photosynthesis, fertility and desertification. According to FAO’s
nitrogen uptake and resilience to climate change. Global Land Degradation Assessment (GLADA)
almost a quarter of the global land area has been
Fundamental to the success of modern breeding degraded between 1981 and 2003, with one of the
is the identification of natural genetic diversity most severely affected areas being Africa south
in crop varieties and in close relatives. The of the equator. Globally, land degradation affects
International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources 1.5 billion people and over 40% of the poor depend
for Food and Agriculture, adopted in 2001, on degraded lands for nutrition and income.
facilitates sharing of plant genetic materials whilst
ensuring the countries such resources originate
in share in the benefits derived from their use.

The two approaches outlined above are not
mutually exclusive. Building appropriate improved
varieties into ecological agricultural systems
can boost both productivity and resilience.

We recommend governments, the private
sector and NGOs should:
©Sara Delaney
a. Scale up proven successful
programmes in conservation farming There is also now increasing information on the
and integrated pest management costs of degradation and its prevention. For example
Niger loses about 8% of its GDP due to overgrazing,
b. Develop agricultural systems that salinity in irrigated rice and soil nutrient depletion
are efficient in terms of use of land, of sorghum and millet lands. It is estimated that
an investment of US$20 million in microdosing of
water and nutrients, including
fertilizers in Niger in 2007 would have saved US$80
modern technologies of agro-ecology million of food aid. More generally there needs to be
an assessment, by locality, of the costs and benefits
c. Enable access to modern plant of rehabilitation versus focusing on lands with the
breeding technologies, including greatest potential. Appropriate investments will
biotechnology, to develop crop depend on financial or other incentives, such as
varieties and livestock breeds that improved land tenure or access to various inputs.
are more productive and resilient
The use of water has always been subject to
d. Conserve and manage local germ conflict, but this is intensifying as a result of
plasm, in situ and ex situ, for future rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, as well
as global warming. Water is, of course, crucial to
breeding programmes
agricultural production and like land is similarly
in short supply, and for similar reasons – overuse,
e. Strengthen local rights over farm inefficient use and degradation through pollution.
land and common natural resources SSA has large untapped water resources for

20

agriculture. Only around 4 to 5% of cultivated
land is irrigated, two thirds of which is accounted
3. Build climate smart
for by Madagascar, South Africa, and Sudan. This agriculture
compares to India's 66 million hectares in 2009.
The potential exists to bring an additional 20mha Agriculture is both a victim and a culprit of climate
or more of land under irrigation but, so far, change. In the longer term, climate change is likely
technical, financial and socioeconomic constraints to have a bigger effect on food supply than any
have slowed this expansion. At the same time, other factor. Moreover, agriculture will probably be
almost a quarter of the African population live in affected more than any other economic sector in
water-stressed countries, and the share is rising. the developing countries. Agriculture is particularly
vulnerable because so many farmers rely directly on
Over much of the continent however, environmental natural rainfall, which in SSA is highly unreliable and
conditions are not suitable for large-scale irrigation unpredictable. Large areas of agricultural land are
systems, and the future lies in small-scale systems already classified as “dryland”, and climate change is
and in the drier regions in ingenious systems of water likely to change rainfall patterns and bring a shorter
conservation based on a micro-catchment approach growing season in the future, expanding drylands
to water harvesting and the use of drip irrigation and over a larger area. Irrigated lands will also suffer
related technologies. The general lesson from the as river flows alter. Many parts of the developing
experiences of the past thirty years is that small, world are already experiencing water shortages
community managed and designed irrigation systems and these may increase in scope and severity.
are more likely to deliver sustainable water supplies.
Many crops are already grown close to their limits
of thermal tolerance. Just a few days of high
We recommend governments, the private temperature near flowering can seriously affect
sector and NGOs should: yields of crops such as wheat, fruit trees, groundnut
and soybean. Recent data from 20,000 field trials
a. Target funding aimed at reducing of maize conducted in Africa between 1999 and
land degradation, emphasizing the 2007 have revealed there is a yield loss of 1% under
optimal rain-fed conditions and a loss of 1.7% under
design of systems of financial and
drought conditions for each degree day spent above
other incentives 30°C. About three quarters of Africa’s maize crop
area would experience a 20% loss for a 1°C warming.
b. Consider joining the international
initiative on the Economics of Land Although much progress has been made in
Degradation (ELD) initiated by UN- developing adaptive farming systems through
CCD, Germany, and EC in 2011 agroecological technologies and by breeding for
drought or submergence tolerance, the applications
c. Support development of major are often small in scope and need scaling up.
irrigation schemes as
appropriate

d. Fund development of innovative
micro-catchment water harvesting
and conservation

©Gordon Conway

21

Agriculture is also a major emitter of greenhouse
gases (GHG): the agricultural sector accounts for Governments, in partnership with the
some 10 to 12% of total global emissions, which rises private sector and NGOs, should:
to around 30% when emissions from agricultural fuel
use, fertiliser production and land use change are a. Support innovative adaptation
included. The principle gases are nitrous oxide, programs being developed by local
originating from applications to the soil of manure, communities
urine and nitrogen fertiliser, methane, which mainly
originates in ruminant digestion, rice cultivation and
b. Fund major efforts to take
anaerobic soils and carbon dioxide which comes from
agricultural adaptation
land clearing, burning of biomass and fossil fuels
used to produce synthetic fertilisers and pesticides. programmes to scale

Some technologies for reducing emissions of GHG c. Develop practical financial
from agriculture are available although considerably incentive programmes for famer
more research needs to be done. There is a high engagement in mitigation at
potential for GHG abatement from agriculture scale
with 70% coming from developing countries.
d. Support a work programme for the
Ideally we need approaches that combine agriculture sector under the
adaptation with mitigation and exploit potential
Subsidiary Body for Scientific and
synergies between them. However the big
Technological Advice at the
challenge is to find ways of going to scale.
UNFCCC COP 18
Some progress was made at the Conference
of the Parties (COP) 17 to the UNFCCC in
December 2011 with agreement for the Ad
Hoc Working Group on Long-term Cooperative
Action (LCA) to make a decision on including
agriculture at COP 18 in November 2012 in Qatar.

©mapichai /freedigitalphotos.net

22

Resilient People
Resilient people are able to generate fruitful, essential micronutrients (for example, iron, zinc and
diverse livelihoods that provide stable beta-carotene, a pre-cursor of vitamin A). However,
incomes, adequate nutrition and good health these foods are often not available or are too costly
in the face of recurrent stresses and shocks. for poor households, especially for the urban poor.

We recommend that governments in Part of the answer lies in improving the nutritional
partnership with the private sector, CSOs value of the foods derived from crops and
and NGOs: livestock grown and husbanded by smallholders.
More emphasis is needed on nutrition education
and on the development of new crop varieties
1. Scale up nutrition with increased micronutrient content, either by
conventional breeding or genetic engineering (Box 4).
2. Focus on rural women and youth
Box 4 - Biofortification
3. Build diverse livelihoods
Biofortification seeks to produce crops with
enhanced nutritional value. Most cereals
1. Scale up nutrition and other staples are deficient in a number
of proteins and other micronutrients. For
195 million children are stunted; a third of all instance, maize is deficient in the amino acids
children in the world who are under five years lysine and tryptophan which are essential
old. In some African countries the proportion of for building proteins in the body. Often the
children stunted is as high as 50%. Overall in SSA, capacity to produce these missing nutrients
the proportion of children under five stunted exists in the plant genome and only needs
is 42% (roughly 50 million). Adequate nutrition the right genetic background for expression.
not only prevents stunting it makes children
resilient in the face of infectious diseases. HarvestPlus, a challenge programme of the
CGIAR, is developing seven crops with enhanced
Sufficient nutrition is critically important during levels of three critical micronutrients – zinc,
the first 1,000 days - (from pregnancy to two iron and vitamin A. In most cases conventional
years old) - of a child’s life. In our special briefing breeding, with Marker Assisted Selection has
we proposed donors should support the Scaling been used. Vitamin A enriched sweet potato is
Up Nutrition (SUN) initiative based on a series of now available in Uganda and Mozambique. Over
well founded and costed interventions aimed at the next couple of years HarvestPlus planned
this window of opportunity. 26 countries have releases include vitamin A cassava and maize, iron
now signed up to the initiative, including Benin, bean and pearl millet and zinc wheat and rice.
Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Malawi,
Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria,
Senegal, Uganda, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

As noted by the UN Secretary General the need
now is for ‘the SUN countries to continue to
receive coordinated and coherent support
as they translate their commitments for
scaling up nutrition into tangible results.’

Many of the staples on which poor people and their
families depend, while usually rich in carbohydrates
and protein, are often deficient in critical
micronutrients that protect against infections.
Ideally children should be fed a varied diet, including
vegetable and animal products that contain the ©Gordon Conway

23

Governments in partnership with the
private sector and NGOs should:

a. Provide coordinated and
coherent support to the SUN
countries as they translate their
commitments for scaling up
nutrition into tangible results

b. Fund school feeding programs ©Africa Rice Center
based on local produce and
support widespread nutrition resilient, able to turn their hands to many different
education tasks and to find ways of overcoming obstacles.

c. Support the scaling up of resilient By 2040 one in five of the world’s young people
and sustainable agroecological will live in Africa. While opportunities for semi-
approaches to dietary variety, skilled low wage employment need to be devel-
oped in urban areas, there is an equal need for
including home gardens
such employment in rural areas. Partly this can
be met by encouraging the growth of larger, more
d. Fund both the development and enterprising farms and partly through develop-
scaling up of appropriate ment of semi-skilled rural business opportunities.
biofortified crop varieties

Governments in partnership with the
2. Focus on rural women and private sector and NGOs should:
youth
a. Launch a concerted Africa-wide
A large number of the poorest and most oppressed initiative to ensure that the needs
people in SSA are women and some of the of rural women, their access to
poorest households are headed by women. They goods and services, to land and
often shoulder a disproportionate share of the other resources are met
workload. Women in the hill districts of Nepal
work around 16 hours a day, compared with the b. Build access to education and
nine to 10 hours men work. Many women are
training for women in to all
hungry as well as overworked, so creating a vicious
development projects from the
circle of discrimination, poverty and hunger.
outset
If women had the same access to productive
resources as men, they could increase yields on c. Support women’s associations that
their farms by 20 to 30%. This could raise total will provide better bargaining
agricultural output in developing countries by power and access to credit, inputs
2.5 to 4%, which could in turn reduce the number and other services
of hungry people in the world by 12 to 17%.
d. Develop small rural businesses of
In practice, women farmers tend to have poor access various kinds suitable for young
to inputs (fertilisers, seeds and water), to extension
unskilled and semiskilled labour
(most extension agents are men) and to markets
for their products. They often have poor access
to land area and quality of land. Yet by force of
circumstance or by culture, women are often highly
24

3. Build diverse livelihoods Governments in partnership with the
Village level analyses in India and Africa have shown private sector and NGOs should:
that the critical element in helping households to
escape from poverty is diversification of income by a. Develop methods for measuring
establishing links with the urban economy. In one household diversity in relation to
village, 73% of households who had escaped from resilience
poverty reported a member who had obtained a job,
mostly in the private sector. In some cases they had b. Support incipient small village
established a craft or trade in a city, while a significant level businesses through
number (36%) had established a small business in microfinance facilities that
the neighbourhood of the village. Examples of the
provide start up, micro credit and
latter included retail shops, butcheries, selling
micro insurance funds
agricultural products, fish and paraffin, trading
in timber, firewood and charcoal, making shoes
and bricks, weaving baskets and brewing alcohol. c. Facilitate the development of
value chains that increase
diversity of incomes

Of the households who escaped poverty, 57%
diversified on-farm income through production of ©Africa Rice Center
cash crops e.g. staple cereals, tea and sugar cane.
Livestock acquisition also played a key role in the
process.

Diversity is key to resilience. For example, income
diversity reduces the vulnerability of livelihoods
by providing alternative incomes. Thus, diversity
of crops and livestock, and diversity of off-farm
income play major roles in building livelihood
resilience, ensuring that the livelihood expands
and grows in a stable and sustainable manner
irrespective of the various stresses and shocks
it may experience. Diversification involves the
development of value chains and the creation of
small rural businesses that provide the key linkages
between rural communities and urban economies.

25

Political Leadership for Resilient Growth
To achieve resilient growth that takes forward increasing export revenues. The critical need
our recommendations we will need to place was – and is – for an agricultural transformation’
agriculture at the heart of international develop-
ment policy in Europe and at the heart of economic In Europe, governments should have a clear
policy in SSA. Political leadership will be crucial to strategic framework for embedding agriculture
achieving this paradigm shift. in their international development work, and
agricultural policies and strategies need to be
At national level in SSA, the challenge is for political explicitly linked to other development plans
leaders to create appropriate enabling environments such as health, nutrition, poverty, food security,
for agriculture and to recognise and act upon the climate change, to take advantage of win-wins.
requisite investments in good governance, namely:
By championing agricultural growth with resilience,
• Appropriate macroeconomic policies European political leaders have an opportunity to
• Significant investment in infrastructure, help put solid foundations in place for improved
research, extension and education food security in SSA, which in turn will benefit
• Security of tenure the wider global community. By leading on this
• No corruption agenda, and providing catalytic support to the
• Efficient and fair markets private sector, they can mitigate shocks and stresses
• Supportive environments for small and medium now, and plan for sustained growth in the future.
enterprises (SMEs)

The outstanding example of such leadership is in
Ghana where agricultural GDP has risen at 5% per
annum for the past 10 years and the country has al-
ready achieved the MDG of halving hunger by 2015.

Food Production per Year
35000000

30000000

25000000
Production (tonnes)

©HarvestPlus
20000000

15000000 At international level, European donors should
continue to play an active role in support of the
10000000
UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS).
5000000
Established in 1974, it is the ideal candidate for the
role of overarching strategic body that is needed to
0 synchronize action in the world food system. It has
1995 2000 2005 2010 2015
recently been reformed with a wider remit beyond
Year
the UN organisations and could become more
Figure 7 Ghana’s food production between 2000 and 2010. effective. At its last meeting in 2011 it focused
Source: FAO on food price volatility, gender, investment in
smallholders and land grabbing. In response to the
In recognition of this achievement the World Food
latter it has drafted a set of guidelines on land tenure.
Prize was awarded to John Kufuor who was President
of Ghana from 2001 to 2009. In his words ‘my
Of perhaps greater importance is the need for
administration aimed to secure a more efficient and
European donors to support the Global Agriculture
productive agricultural base that would become the
and Food Security Program (GAFSP) which was
engine for the economy by providing food security,
set up as a multilateral donor trust fund at the
ushering in industrialization, creating jobs, and
World Bank to follow up on the G8 L’Aquila
26

commitments. Its public sector window focuses
on the delivery of additional funding in support of We recommend that governments in
national and regional strategic plans designed and partnership with the private sector:
implemented by developing country governments
usually as part of the CAADP process. GAFSP also a. Put resilient agricultural policies
has a private sector window designed to provide at the heart of government
long and short-term loans, credit guarantees economic policy in SSA
and equity to support private sector activities.

As part of the Second Call for Proposals for
b. Engage fully in the CAADP process
the Public Sector Window, GAFSP intends to ensuring it is more consistent with
allocate approximately US$180 million to five or a resilience agenda
six proposals. So far only three donors, Spain,
Ireland and the Netherlands are European. c. Support the UN Committee on
Food Security
European governments should work together to
strengthen European Union (EU) policy instruments d. Provide funds to the Global
on food security and agricultural development, such Agricultural and Food Security
as the Food Security Thematic Programme and the Programme and strengthen EU
European Development Fund. We acknowledge the
policy instruments
delivery of the EU €1bn food facility in 2009-11, in
response to rapidly rising food prices in developing
countries, as an example of how European e. Engage with initiatives emerging
funding and support can have significant impact. from the WEF such as the New
Vision for Agriculture and the
Finally, there is a need at international level to Grow Africa Forum
engage the private sector in agricultural growth
with resilience. At the World Economic Forum
in Davos in 2012, the implementation plan of a
New Vision for Agriculture was published. This is
aimed at all relevant stakeholders: those involved
directly in the food value chain and in its broader
environment, including government, industry,
public and private-sector financiers, civil society,
farmers and farmers’ organizations. Emerging
from the WEF engagement in this sector is also the
Grow Africa Forum – a platform to promote private
agricultural financing. Grow Africa in Addis in May
2012, in the margins of WEF Africa, will focus on
pitching investment opportunities and attracting ©Gordon Conway
new private sector partners in to country initiatives.

27

Conclusion

Today we face a range of acute and chronic crises of great magnitude. To cope,
we need to increase food production, perhaps by as much as 100% if we are to
provide widespread, inclusive food security and deliver agricultural growth. The
challenges we face on the demand side are not just rising populations, but rising
per capita incomes and changing diets, and growing demand for biofuels. At the
same time we have to cope with threats to supply caused by rising oil prices,
shortages of good quality land and water, declining increases in the yields of some
staples and, perhaps most alarming of all, the threats posed by global warming.

We also need agricultural growth not only to reduce poverty and hunger
but to contribute to a balanced and vigorous pattern of economic
development in Africa. There are good grounds for optimism. Many African
countries are exhibiting high rates of economic growth and the CAADP
process is encouraging donors to invest in agricultural development.

This year is a crucial year. The sequence of G8, G20 and Rio+20 summit meetings
provides a ready platform for coordination of policies and intensification of
investments that will promote an agenda based on growth with resilience.

As the following exemplifies, the key summits are aware of the challenges
and the opportunities are there to be seized by European and African
governments, the private sector, CSOs and NGOs working in partnership.

‘With its diverse and dynamic membership, the G20 is in a phenomenal position
to help us all think about development in new ways. Ultimately, the goal is
to combine the world’s total resources—public, private, rich, poor, and in
between—in ways that drive development forward. We need to find better ways
to bring private investment into poor countries. We need to help donors keep
their promises by looking for new sources of aid money. We need to reinforce the
dynamism of poor countries, so they can lead their own development. Finally, we
need to tap the rich experience and capacity for innovation of rapidly growing
countries that have recently travelled the development path so successfully.’

28

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The Montpellier Panel
All Panel members serve in a personal capacity

Gordon Conway (Chair)

Professor of International Development, Agriculture for Impact, Imperial College London

Tom Arnold

Chief Executive, Concern Worldwide

Joachim von Braun

Director, Department of Economic and Technological Change,

Center for Development Research, University of Bonn

Henri Carsalade

Chair of the ICARDA Board of Trustees and President of Agropolis Foundation

Louise Fresco

Professor, University of Amsterdam

Peter Hazell

Visiting Professor, Imperial College London

Namanga Ngongi

President, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)

David Radcliffe

Senior Advisor, Agricultural Research for Development

DG Development and Cooperation, European Commission

Lindiwe Majele Sibanda

Chief Executive, Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN)

Ramadjita Tabo

Deputy Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)

Prabhu Pingali

Deputy Director, Agricultural Development, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (Observer)

Camilla Toulmin

Director, International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED) (Moderator)

32

Montpellier panel report 2012

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