AGRA: 在非洲争取农业绿色革命胜利.

Achieving the Green Revolution in Africa: The New Development Financing Agenda

Keynote speech delivered by Dr. Akin Adesina, Vice President for Policy and Partnerships, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), at the 34th FAO Conference, Rome, Italy.

His Excellency, the President of Zambia, Patrick Mwanawasa, the Director General of FAO, Dr. Jacques Diouf, honorable Ministers, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and gentlemen. It is a great honor to be invited by the Director General of FAO to address this unique gathering of the FAO 34th Congress. The focus of the conference “Financing of agriculture” is particularly timely. With the release of the World Bank Development Report 2008 and its focus on agriculture, it is clear that new thinking will be needed to develop innovative financing to assist agriculture in developing countries – especially in Africa.

I will be speaking to you today about a revolution: the African green revolution. As an African who grew up in a village, I learnt at an early age that there cannot be an end to poverty until agriculture is profitable for farmers. I noticed that farmers had very low yields for their crops. They do not produce enough to feed their families. The village had high levels of malnutrition and disease prevalence. Many could not send their kids to school. There was misery everywhere. I was just one of the fortunate ones to get an education and make it out of poverty.

As I look back, it is shocking that the situation for the African farmer has not changed much.

What is needed today is a revolution: a revolution of ideas, of technologies, of policies, of market access and incentives – and new thinking on development financing to help Africa achieve its green revolution.

Poverty knows no boundaries. The voices and experiences of the poor are the same everywhere. My experience growing up in the reality of poverty in rural Nigeria is all too similar to that of African children growing up today in rural areas.

Today, wherever I travel in Africa, I am asked: “what will be needed to help transform African agriculture, so that Africans can feed themselves, get unlocked from the misery of poverty and achieve higher incomes and livelihoods”? That question is what we need to reflect on today.

Poverty amongst small-scale farmers is pervasive across Africa. Yet the sector is the most critical for growth. Approximately 70% of total employment is in agriculture and the sector contributes 30-50% of national incomes. Industrial growth cannot occur without significantly raising food production from agriculture.

The low performance of agriculture in Africa is therefore at the heart of its slow economic growth. It is the only region of the world where per capita food production has been declining for the past three decades.

Feeding the majority of the poor and vulnerable populations in Africa, while preserving the natural resource base and the environment, is one of the most pressing development challenges of the 21st century.

This is the goal of AGRA, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. Chaired by Kofi A. Annan, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations, AGRA is working side-by-side with farmers to improve food production in ways that promote equity and protect the environment. The approach is comprehensive—addressing key challenges across the agricultural value chain, ranging from the development of improved crop varieties that can cope with the harsh climates, soil health to improve soil fertility and boost the natural resource base for a sustainable agriculture, development and strengthening of local and regional markets for farmers, development of irrigation and locally adapted water management systems, and improving the extension and technology delivery systems for farmers.

The work of AGRA and its partners aims to make a difference today and in the long run. The challenge for the future is made even more serious because population growth rates have exceeded the productive capacity of the continent’s current food systems. The population of Sub-Saharan Africa is projected to grow from 600 million in 2000 to nearly a billion by 2020 and dire consequences for food security are projected. Unless there is a revolution in African agriculture, the numbers of hungry and poor will soar.

It is not good news for governments: Africa’s annual food imports are projected to rise from the current $ 6.5 billion to $ 11 billion by 2020. The economic, social and political costs of relying on imported food are high.

But agricultural research in Africa has produced significant successes that could end the hunger problem in Africa. New crop varieties such as drought resistant maize, pest-resistant cassava are now available and can dramatically increase farmers’ yield. The New Rice for Africa (NERICA) offers new opportunity for Africa to become self-sufficient in rice – the main food of its rapidly growing urban population. Innovative techniques such as micro-dosing and drip irrigation allow farmers to get more crops for each drop of nutrient and water. Soil health experts know how to revitalize Africa’s soils in balance with the environment.

Africa clearly has potential. But as Dr. Norman Borlaug - the indefatigable Nobel laureate and father of the Asia green revolution - once said: “Africa cannot eat potential”.

The major reason why Africa has not achieved a sustained green revolution is due to lack of bold pro-poor public policies, institutions and financing mechanisms to take the technical gains to scale. Africa is struggling to emerge from the impact of misguided policies, including that of structural adjustment and the unbridled privatization of many of the public sector institutions.

Nearly everything that can help the farmer has been privatized: extension services and financial services among them.  The high interest rates of commercial banks mean that small-scale farmers cannot afford loans to purchase seeds and fertilizer. Farmers must produce without any insurance, yet rains fail and droughts are common. When farmers do manage to produce a surplus they are unable to sell at good prices.  In contrast to farmers in the developed countries, the situation of African farmers is left in the hands of nature and chance.

Inappropriate policies such as structural adjustment and massive privatization - the “Washington Consensus”- have driven global development financing and stripped the African farmer of the support she needs. [Yet she hears that farmers in the EU are paid huge subsidies. Even their animals get $2 dollars per day in subsidy. She lives on less than $1 dollar a day and yet she cannot be assisted with subsidies. But we know that the “Washington Consensus” has not worked. The poverty and food insecurity all around us bear testimony.]

But a new political will is emerging in Africa, as governments have become tired of the “Washington Consensus”. A new approach and policy framework for broad-based and equitable agricultural growth is taking form, and Africans are leading the way. What is needed is an “African consensus”.

African leaders are demonstrating the needed political commitments to revitalizing agriculture and making new commitments. The Maputo declaration of African Heads of State endorsed a new plan “Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP)”. The goal is to increase budget allocation to the agriculture sector to 10% of national budgets, with the target of achieving 6% agriculture sector. The need to transform agriculture is even more urgent with the current high global commodity prices, as demand for ethanol and bio-fuels has driven up commodity prices and fertilizer prices to historical highs. High fuel prices also mean that net-importing countries lack the resources to rely on commercial food imports. Climate change will pose huge challenges of drought, floods and food shortages.

These “pull” and “push” factors are exerting pressure on African countries to re-focus on food self-sufficiency and increase support for smallholder farmers. The solution: an agricultural green revolution for Africa.

That green revolution will be very different from that of Asia in the 1960s. In contrast to Asia, Africa has diverse Agroecological zones and cropping systems. Farming is largely done under rainfed conditions. Less than 5 million hectares or 5% of cultivated land is irrigated in Africa, compared to over 40% in South Asia. The crops are many, compared to wheat and rice that dominate Asia farming systems. One size will not fit all. What Africa needs therefore is a “uniquely African green revolution”.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is helping to catalyze such a Green Revolution. AGRA was launched in 2006, with the initial support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. AGRA’s bold initiatives aim to help millions lift themselves out of poverty and hunger by dramatically improving the productivity, food security and livelihood of small scale farmers across Africa. These initiatives include a $150 million program to develop seed systems: targeted efforts to develop new high-yielding, disease- and drought-resistant varieties of Africa’s indigenous crops and the training of 120 PhD African crop breeders over 10 years.

AGRA will commit $ 29.5 million to supporting national agricultural research institutions. An additional $32.7 million will be committed to help develop small and medium sized local seed companies in Africa.

AGRA will commit $40.5 million to develop a dense network of 10,000 rural agrodealers who can supply agricultural inputs deep into rural areas of Africa. They will help to improve access and affordability of farm inputs for the rural poor.

But more is needed to ensure sustainable productivity growth. Africa’s soils are the poorest in the world. Rapid population growth, extensive agricultural land use systems and very limited use of fertilizers have led to massive nutrient depletion. It is estimated that over 95 million ha of land have been severely depleted. Africa loses an estimated $4.5 billion in soil nutrients annually. FAO estimates that Africa’s deforestation rate is 200% above the global average. For a sustainable green revolution, African farmers need to shift to intensive agricultural systems. AGRA will assist them in their efforts.

AGRA will soon launch a major initiative to tackle Africa’s soil health crisis. Other future AGRA programs will include markets, irrigation and water management and extension and financial services for farmers.

But AGRA is only a catalyst. Mammoth challenges lie ahead and they will require significant additional resources. The big challenge: how to scale up access of poor farmers to agricultural inputs and assure them of markets and good prices for their outputs, to make the adoption of new agricultural technologies profitable.

Emerging lessons from Africa offer new insights into how this can be achieved. Malawi took the bold step to provide its poor farmers with affordable access to seeds and fertilizers using “smart subsidies”. In 2006/2007, the government provided some $60 million in financial support for the poor; but they distributed the inputs using the private sector and rural agrodealers. This was in sharp contrast with previous approaches where it was only the public sector that distributed inputs – a non-targeted approach that often created leakages to unintended beneficiaries.

The result has been remarkable: Malawi produced 1 million MT of maize above its national consumption. It did more: it sold $160 million worth of maize to its neighbor, Zimbabwe, which was experiencing severe maize shortages. Malawi also became a donor nation: it donated 10,000 MT of maize to Lesotho and Swaziland which were also experiencing droughts.

“Smart subsidies” make good economic sense and represent efficient use of public resources: they allow the public sector to target assistance to the poor in a way that is “market-friendly”. Because the assistance is delivered through “vouchers” or “smart cards” redeemable from the private sector, they help to build markets. In a major policy turnaround, the World Bank in its World Bank Development Report 2008 now agrees that “smart subsidies” are needed in Africa.

If Malawi can do it, then all African countries can. But access to inputs is not enough. Equally needed are substantial increases in investment in agricultural research, irrigation, market public goods, strategic grain reserves and price stabilization instruments, roads, and other rural infrastructure.

Achieving such scale of investments all across Africa will require significant new financial commitments by the developed countries. The 2002 International Conference on Financing for Development in Monterrey began a change in momentum for renewed focus on innovative financing for development to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. At the 31st G-8 Summit in Gleneagles, the G-8 committed itself to double aid to Africa. While Official Development Assistance (ODA) has increased, much is still needed to achieve the MGD goals in Africa. Unfortunately, agriculture in Africa has not been prioritized in the G-8 agenda. This needs to change. The failure of the Doha Rounds on Trade continues to pose huge challenges for Africa. The G-8 can start to assist Africa’s development if it reduces its trade distorting domestic subsidies, removes tariffs on agricultural exports from Africa, and provides market access to African farmers.

Multilateral development banks (World Bank and the Africa Development Bank) need to also rise to the challenge. Current lending in agriculture from the multilateral development banks focus on loans instead of grants. Most of what is needed to help Africa rapidly scale up successes in African agriculture is best done through large-scale grants. However, there is no facility that countries can apply to for securing financing to help them take many of their successful green revolution efforts to large scales, including complementary investment in infrastructure, such as much needed irrigation and water management infrastructure.

A new development financing framework for African agriculture is what is needed.

African ministers of agriculture and finance, gathered at the Oslo Green Revolution conference on August 31, 2007, recommended the establishment of such a financing framework: Global Fund for the Africa Green Revolution. There is good precedence. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, established in 2001 at the G-8 Summit in Genoa, Italy, with support from the then UN-Secretary General, Kofi Annan, has been a huge success. It has dramatically increased innovative financing for addressing these pandemics. As of mid-2007, the Global Fund had disbursed $7.7 billion in 135 countries₁.

The proposed Global Fund for the Africa Green Revolution will provide access to large-scale financing for the green revolution to African governments, civil society and the private sector, via grants instead of via loans. The Global Fund for the Africa Green Revolution should complement and work closely with AGRA in assisting African countries to access new sources of financing for the green revolution. The Global Fund should be based in Africa; support the accomplishment of the CAADP goals; support rapid scale up of successful national and private sector approaches in agriculture; and speed up the attainment of the MDG goal on hunger and extreme poverty.

A new dawn is rising in Africa. The agriculture sector, after decades of poor performance, has finally begun to show signs of improvements. Agriculture sector growth rate increased from 2.3% in 1980s to 3.5% in early 2000s. But this is still low and below the 6% growth rate called for by CAADP. This is the time to take bold steps to provide significant increase in development assistance to Africa to help it build on its emerging success.

What is needed now is a coordinated effort to dramatically leverage innovative development financing to assist Africa in its quest for the green revolution. The need for a green revolution is compelling. African farmers and their children can no longer wait for answers or unfulfilled promises. Today, let us take the resolve to help Africa achieve its green revolution. It will usher in a new dawn for all of Africa’s children. They will sing a new song in the new dawn. You will hear them singing on the top of every hill, and in every valley, across Africa’s beautiful landscapes. They will be singing: better at last, better at last, thank God Almighty our lives are better at last!