On eve of WEF Africa summit, IFAD conference to emphasize investment in agriculture to create business opportunities for smallholder farmers

Rome, 2 May 2011 – The potential for agriculture to contribute to economic growth and development in Africa will be in the spotlight as heads of state, agriculture ministers and experts, and leaders from the private sector gather in Cape Town for the presentation of the International Fund for Agricultural Development’s Rural Poverty Report 2011 in Africa on 3 May.

Tina Joemat-Pettersson, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of the Republic of South Africa, and Jumanne Abdallah Maghembe, Minister for Agriculture, Food Security and Co-operatives of the United Republic of Tanzania, will join IFAD President Kanayo F. Nwanze to deliver keynote remarks at the half-day conference – New challenges, new opportunities: African agriculture in the 21st Century – which will begin at 9.30 a.m. at the Cape Sun Hotel. Hosted by IFAD and the South African Institute for International Affairs (SAIIA), the country’s premier research institute on international issues, the event will take place on the eve of the World Economic Forum on Africa 2011.

IFAD’s Rural Poverty Report 2011, which was initially unveiled in December and will be presented for the first time in Africa at the Cape Town event, notes that profound changes in agricultural markets are giving rise to new and promising opportunities – particularly in Africa – for smallholder farmers to boost their productivity and thereby help lead the way to economic growth and the reduction of poverty in rural areas.

The report calls for policy innovations and increased investments to improve the economic climate for agriculture and rural businesses, help smallholder farmers reduce the risks they face so that they can improve their operations, expand rural education and skills building so as to support a more knowledge-intensive agriculture, and to strengthen the collective capacities of local farmers to manage successful businesses.

During the event, a high-level panel discussion moderated by Komla Dumor of the BBC’s Africa Business Report will feature Agnes Matilda KalibataMinister of Agriculture and Animal Resources of the Republic of Rwanda, who will offer perspectives on the report’s findings and recommendations for reducing poverty in rural areas.

Other participants on the panel will include Pascal-Firmin Ndimira, Professor and Special Advisor to the President of the Republic of Togo; Ibrahim Mayaki, Chief Executive Officer of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD); Akin Adesina, Vice President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA); Kavita Prakash-Mani, Head of Food Security Agenda at the global agribusiness company Syngenta, and Mohamed Béavogui, Director for West and Central Africa at IFAD.

While the report outlines challenges and opportunities, it also notes that there is already progress towards a turnaround in sub-Saharan Africa’s rural areas. The efforts of a number of governments to meet the African Union’s goals of increasing investment in agriculture to 10 per cent of their annual national budgets are a positive sign. In addition, a number of innovative partnerships on the continent are promoting increased use of higher-yielding seeds and fertilizers, strengthened technical training and improved access to credit for African farmers; results that IFAD says are enhancing opportunities for smallholder farmers to become more productive and more prosperous.

The report found that on-farm production remains a particularly important source of income for most African countries, providing more than three-quarters of the income for between 40 and 70 per cent of rural households. At the same time, the report notes that a large portion of Africa’s population remains economically isolated from growing regional and global market opportunities because of inadequate infrastructure, particularly in the power and transport sectors.

Accordingly, “there remains an urgent need…to invest more and better in agriculture and rural areas” based on “a new approach to smallholder agriculture that is both market-oriented and sustainable,” the report says.

The report’s key recommendations are to develop policies aimed at improving the overall environment of rural areas as places to do business, particularly by supporting their infrastructure and services like finance, communications and health care. Additionally, policies and investments should focus on reducing the level of risk that poor rural women and men face in their everyday lives, so that they themselves can make the investments necessary to become more successful and productive as farmers and as business people.

It also emphasizes advancing the individual capabilities of poor rural people – women as well as men – particularly by upgrading educational and training opportunities that are relevant in the rural context. Lastly, it calls for strengthening their collective capabilities and supporting their own joint efforts to manage risks and assets, to learn new techniques and skills, and, if they are farmers, to market their produce.

 

---

Press release No.: IFAD/30/2011

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) works with poor rural people to enable them to grow and sell more food, increase their incomes and determine the direction of their own lives. Since 1978, IFAD has invested over US$12.5 billion in grants and low-interest loans to developing countries, empowering more than 370 million people to break out of poverty. IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialized UN agency based in Rome – the United Nation’s food and agricultural hub. It is a unique partnership of 166 members from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), other developing countries and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).