Geneva 2-5 July 2007

Press statement
By Kanayo Nwanze, Vice-President
International Fund for Agricultural Development
Joint FAO/IFAD/WFP Press Conference
2007 Economic and Social Council

Midway from the Millennium Summit to the target date for achieving the MDGs, it is clear that the road we are currently on will not lead us to the intended destination of halving the proportion of people living in extreme hunger and poverty by 2015. We need to change course.  And although the correct course to reaching these targets is a steep climb, we can make it --  if we face facts, act wisely, and have sufficient stamina. 

Let us start by facing facts: 

• Three-quarters of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas.  This is the case despite UNFPA’s report last week that half the world’s population now lives in cities.  In 2015, the majority of the poorest people in the world will still live in rural areas, according to World Bank projections. 
• A variety of new challenges, especially climate change, may spell opportunity or further impoverishment for small-holder farmers, who need assistance to adapt to changing farming conditions, such as shifting rainfall patterns.
• In Africa, the number of undernourished people has grown to 206 million from 169 million in the early 1990s.
• Agriculture accounts for a third of the economy in sub-Saharan Africa, 40 per cent of its exports, and in most countries it provides between 60 and 90 per cent of the employment.
• Investment in agriculture and rural development, from both national and international sources, has been in steady decline for the past 15 years.  The portion of Official Development Assistance designated for agriculture fell by 70 per cent between 1990 and 2004.

Thus, it is clear, unless agricultural development is given greater priority – and greater resources – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, we will not build a strong enough economic foundation to achieve and sustain progress in other areas. African leaders have, in the past few years, recognized agriculture’s economic potential for their continent.

2003 – Maputo Declaration:

• Endorsed NEPAD/CAADP
• At least 10% of the national budget devoted to the agricultural and rural development

2006 – Abuja Declaration on Food Security

Since then through FAO, 51 countries have developed National Mid Term Programmes and bankable profiles with indicative budgets of USD 27 billion and USD 10.7 respectively.   

Donors are beginning to show signs of the same recognition. What is needed, however, is more concerted action.

Recent agricultural successes in Africa have occurred when there has been political support at the highest levels. Support from national leaders for the introduction and dissemination of NERICA rice, for example, has been a key factor in the success to date of its spread throughout sub-Saharan Africa.  This kind of political support for agricultural development needs to take deeper root among African leaders and extend beyond to world leaders.   

IFAD has long been a supporter of NERICA, a new rice variety that combines the hardiness of local African rice species with the high productivity of Asian rice.

Acting wisely also means collaborating directly with African smallholder farmers and others involved in African food systems – most of whom are women.  They are innovators and holders of vast stores of agricultural and environmental knowledge. 

The success of these farmers often depends on their capacity to work together.  Producer organizations provide resources, training, and the economic and political clout they need to compete in the market. 

A successful African Green Revolution will be one that takes as its starting point the diversity of farming conditions on the African continent and adapts technologies and methods to these realities. 

It also requires a sustained effort. If agriculture is to deliver on its potential for creating economic growth and reducing poverty, a significant portion of new ODA to Africa needs to be targeted to the agriculture sector. 

As, Kofi Annan, now Board Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, put it recently, “The path to prosperity in Africa begins in the fields of Africa’s small-scale farmers…”.   Today, we urge world leaders to walk with African farmers on that path, together widening it into a well-travelled highway that leads to a healthy, prosperous, sustainable future.