Agric offers best escape from poverty- NEPAD CEO

By Jimoh Babatunde
The  CEO of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, has said that agriculture still remains the best sector that offers the continent escape from poverty.
He said of all the challenges that Africa faces, agriculture  is one that transcends and embraces all the other.
"Agriculture, which employs or provides livelihoods to 60% of the population while contributing 20-30% to Africa’s GDP, is the sector that could by itself enable to save the greatest number of Africans from extreme poverty while giving them their dignity back."
Speaking yesterday at the opening of the 12th CAADP PP taking place in Accra, he said  regrettably, agriculture attracts less than 5% of lending from financial institutions on the continent, leaving farmers and agricultural enterprises starved of the capital they need to operate and grow their businesses.
"Our continent today runs the risk of missing a unique opportunity to develop and offer its youth the jobs it has the obligation to provide if it wants to avoid social implosion.
The Meeting  is organised around the theme “Accelerating Implementation of CAADP through Innovative Financing and Renewed Partnership.
Mayaki said the scope for growth is all the more important that the situation is highly paradoxical: "Africa imports the equivalent of $ 50 billion of food every year. Yet more than half of the arable land unexploited in the world are on the continent!"
He said to solve the agricultural equation, "we must join forces and continue our efforts to define a common agricultural policy.
"In 2003, in Maputo, we really started to turn the corner in laying the foundations for pan-African agricultural initiatives. The Heads of State and Government of the African Union then decided to devote 10% of their national budgets to agriculture. "
He added "In 2014, in Malabo, they reiterated their commitment to further increase investment, both public and private, in agriculture.

So, he said innovative financing will be key in unlocking Africa’s Green Revolution.
"Inovative financing is a means of mobilizing additional resources for investment in agriculture or solving long-running market failures that can unlock private investment. Now we should aim at a growth model that is public-sector enabled, and private sector scaled.
"Because of the rural and dispersed nature of agricultural production, where banks and formal financial institutions often lack a presence, mobile technology provides a convenient and low-cost distribution channel to reach farmers and agro-enterprises with electronic payments and information products, as well as savings, credit, and insurance products, among others. It can also help to transfer targeted financial support for small farmers and agribusiness.
Mayaki noted that investments in infrastructure will also help drive increased private investment and production in the agriculture sector. "Often resulting in public goods that benefit a broad base of economic activity, investments in irrigation, transport and market infrastructure in particular are critical to improving economic returns and productivity in the agriculture sector.
"The next step is to put in place a system that ensures the prices and the flow (or storage) of production, combined with a system of variable levies at the external borders of Africa (taxes on imports) protecting productions potential competition from products from outside. This will require innovative financial mechanisms and technologies as well.
He added "a proactive agricultural policy should be common because it requires us to share not only our resources, but also our minds and our wills. It should be common because it cannot be implemented without regional infrastructure, energy and logistics in particular, that will allow our farmers to compete and enter into a process of value creation. We should harness the latest innovations and technologies because Africa has no other option but to leapfrog if it wants to realize its tremendous potential.
In her opening remarks at the CAADP PP meeting, Ms Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission said, the only way to sustainably deliver on African agricultural commitments is to mobilize our own continental human and financial resources. “We need to build strong partnerships for an accountable and efficient implementation of the CAADP Agenda since investment in agriculture makes good economic sense,” she said.


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