Getting Africa to Feed Itself

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Getting Africa to Feed Itself

• James Shikwati
• Director
• Inter Region Economic Network (IREN)
• The Syngenta Lecture
• Basel, Switzerland
• September 21,2006

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(No Transcript)
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About IREN

• Founded in 2001, IREN is a leading think tank
  that focuses on promoting policies that enhance
  economic opportunities, and freedom for people in
  Africa
• IREN activities include -
• Research and Publications
• Public Policy analysis
• Targeted outreach/training programs for policy
  makers, media, students and the general public

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IREN Team of 55!

• Employed full time Staff of 7 based in Kenya, 2
  part time staff based in Tanzania and Uganda
  respectively
• 18 University faculty volunteers for the business
  and entrepreneurship program in 15 universities
• Business Advisory Board of 15 Business CEOs
• Academic Advisory board of 5
• IREN Advisory board of 6, that includes members
  from U.S.A, Europe, and Africa
• 3 Board of Directors

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Key projects at IREN

• Agriculture pilot project in Eastern and Western
  Kenya. Syngenta East Africa original partners in
  Eastern Kenya project
• Health policy publication and pilot anti-malaria
  project in Western Kenya
• Africa Voices Project pilot project through The
  African Executive online opinion magazine and the
  annual Africa Resource Bank conference
• Youth Program Business and entrepreneurship
  program to university students through SIFE and
  annual High School Student debates on development
  issues
• Training events for East Africa media and Africa
  think tank leaders on annual basis

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IREN Mission and Vision

• Mission to advance greater economic
  opportunities and individual liberty in Africa
• Vision to encourage Africans to rely less on
  government solutions to problems they can and
  should solve on their own
• IREN Philosophy A free human mind is capital

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Getting Africa to feed itself
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Getting Africa to feed itself

• Africa is a continent with 54 independent
  countries with an estimated population of 800
  million people
• Small scale farming, which is mainly rain fed,
  accounts for 70 of agricultural activities in
  Africa

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Importance of Agriculture in Africa

• Agriculture accounts for 30 of the GDP in Africa
  
• Accounts for 60 of the employment market
• Over 65 per cent of sub-Saharan Africas
  estimated 750 million people are engaged in
  agriculture
• Improved Agricultural output is what will feed
  Africans

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Famine in Africa

• Number of hungry people has increased by 20 from
  176 million in 1993 to 210 million in 2006 (AU)

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Famine History in Kenya
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Current Situation of Agriculture in Africa

• Dominated by low scale mainly subsistence
  farmers who rely on rain-fed agriculture
• Rely heavily on manual back-breaking human
  labor/Average 80 of Africas subsistence
  farmers time is spend on hand weeding
• Multiple cropping
• Use of farm saved seeds
• 874 million hectares of land are deemed suitable
  for agriculture, but 83 of that area is subject
  to serious limitations such as poor soil
  fertility

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Agriculture situation

• Weak farming extension services
• Lack of capital and access to affordable credit
• High cost of farm inputs
• Pests and diseases
• Low absorption of modern technology
• Lack of good markets / market information (Farm
  produce accounts for less than 20 per cent of
  Africas international trade)

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Agriculture situation cont.

• Generally Africans practice organic farming/
  Their major complain is that they cannot afford
  farm inputs
• But proponents argue that Africa has very little
  land under certified organic use (0.3 million
  hectares) contributing to only 1.3 of the global
  total.

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Agric. Situation cont.

• An average of 11 kgs of fertilizer are applied
  per hectare of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa,
  compared to 69 kgs in South Asia, 71 kgs in Latin
  America ,100 kgs in the developed countries
• African pesticide use is only 2 of the total
  amount used globally

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IREN Media outreach to rural farmers
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Efforts to Feed Africa
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Food Aid and Aid

• Africa spends 18 billion on food imports
• While relatively little food aid was provided to
  Africa in the 1990s, a substantial food aid
  response was made to the 2001-03 emergency
• In 2004 this ranged between 26kg of food aid per
  capita in Lesotho and 4kg per capita in Malawi
• Food aid not a long term solution, distorts
  markets/creates a class of middle-men on African
  development issues
• Food aid undermines long term development through
  its impact on commodity markets

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Aid and food prices
Source WAHENGA BRIEF NUMBER 5 JUNE 2006 5
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Biotechnology

• It is a subject of intense academic inquiry and
  public policy discourse
• Two extremes
• one that perceives biotechnology as the source
  of solutions to many of the economic, social and
  environmental problems that developing countries
  are confronted with
• The other extreme that treats the technology with
  considerable suspicion as a technology that will
  bring more ills to the countries.

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Quest to supply high quality seeds
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Other efforts

• Cooperatives and Farmer Credit facilities
• Credit facilities providers are not friendly to
  farmers
• Agricultural land has low value compared to
  commercial land
• Agricultural Training ,Research and Extension
  services are poor
• Training is job driven not innovative, therefore
  limited job outlets has led to the collapse of
  many agriculture related institutes

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Challenges to Feeding Africa
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Health

• Malaria (9 of global disease burden)  ranks
  third among major infectious disease threats in
  Africa after pneumococcal acute respiratory
  infections (3.5) and  tuberculosis (TB) (2.8)
• HIV-AIDS 24.5 million of them in sub-Saharan
  Africa have AIDS virus, 12.1 million children
  orphaned by AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa
• Huge amount of resources used to combat diseases
  and hence little attention on agriculture
• Man hours lost due to sickness
• Active and mature populations aged between 15
  50 perish due to HIV-AIDS hence starving the
  Agricultural sector of the much needed labor
  force

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Malaria IREN Indoor Spraying project
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Corruption

• Africans are not genetically corrupt. It benefits
  middle men to portray Africans as corrupt
• Africa losses 148 billion on corruption annually
  
• Weak institutional frame- work provides a fertile
  ground for corruption

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Attitude

• Aid mentality/ dependency on external support
• Dietary habits e.g. maize is the only food for
  most people in Africa
• Cultural attachment to agriculture discourages
  scientific applications to farming activities
• Agriculture viewed to be for the illiterate,
  retired or those who have not secured white
  collar jobs

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IREN gets the Youth to Reach out to Farmers
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Other Challenges

• Inappropriate legal and regulatory framework, to
  do business in Africa you need to get licenses
  from 54 countries with different requirements
  regulations and time frames for giving the
  licenses
• Poor infrastructure and hostile business
  environment
• Poor storage facilities and inadequate farm
  machinery

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Challenges cont.

• Water
• Only 2 per cent of sub-Saharan Africa's arable
  land is under irrigation
• Lack of water harvesting and conservation
• Conflicts and wars
• Africa loses over 15 billion in civil war and
  damages
• There are over 3 million refugees in Africa,
  and another 7 million who are classified as
  internally displaced

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Suggested Solutions
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Tap into the youths interest in technology
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Feeding Africa

• Educational outreach on dietary innovation/Engage
  African media
• Provide incentives for modern farming
  methods/Technology/farm inputs/ Diversification
  of agriculture practices
• Encourage Specialization on crop
  production/Africans must engage in efficient
  productivity
• Repackaging of the agriculture products to fit
  the budgets of small scale farmers/ a strategy to
  build middle and upper class farmers

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IREN team in the field
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Feeding Africa

• Encourage Business to be on frontline to feed
  Africa
• Harmonization of Africas business
  policies/taxation/regulation/licenses
• Africa is divided into 5 trading regions - East
  Africa Community (EAC) , Southern Africa
  Development Community (SADC), Economic Community
  of West African States (ECOWAS) Economic
  Community of Central African States (ECCAS)
• Agricultural Education and Extension Services
• Encourage agribusiness companies to have in-built
  extension services

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IRENs Publication on Agriculture
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Feeding Africa

• Need for a radical policy innovation that will
  open up Africa to trade within itself/ ensure
  clear land policy and protection of property
• Putting subsistence farmers on the map to attract
  business and solution providers through farmer
  networks

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Syngenta East Africa MD, Participated in an IREN
farmers meeting July 2005
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IREN Syngenta Cooperation

• Short Term -
• Build on existing Africa Voices project to create
  an annual Africa media event on development
  issues
• Improve and replicate the IREN-Syngenta East
  Africa project initiative in Eastern Kenya to
  ensure seeds and other quality farm inputs reach
  small holder farmers across Africa
• Strengthen and expand the IREN youth farmer
  outreach initiative to include more countries in
  Africa

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IREN Syngenta

• Mid Term-
• Policy studies, evaluation and dissemination to
  facilitate an improved agricultural environment
  in Africa
• Creation of farmer outreach/forums as part of
  strengthening the African voice in agricultural
  related issues

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IREN Syngenta

• Long Term -
• Move the population locked up in subsistence
  agriculture to middle level and upper
• Increase efficiency in agricultural practice in
  Africa and hence lower the percentage of people
  locked up in farming

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Facing the Future with Confidence
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IREN

• Thank You
• www.irenkenya.com
• www.africanexecutive.com
• james_at_irenkenya.org