Report: State of the African Farmer
Heifer International and contributors
October 2014 :: 140 pages
PDF: http://www.heifer.org/join-the-conversation/blog/2014/October/state-of-the-african-farmer.html
In this report, Heifer and other respected contributors go beyond the numbers and data to discuss the farmer as a person, engaging in agriculture, faced daily with both opportunities and challenges. Contributors include Christian Aid & Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, Grameen Foundation, International Development Research Centre, Lutheran World Relief, Michigan State University, ONE and Winrock International.
[Excerpt]
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS – THE WAY FORWARD
CONTRIBUTOR – Pierre U. Ferrari is President and CEO of Heifer International.
The role of agriculture and smallholder farming in the African economy is critical. Agriculture is the sector from which the majority of Africa’s populations draw their livelihoods. A robust and highly productive agricultural sector will undoubtedly increase food availability and lower food costs, which translates to food security. Incomes of farm households will increase, impacting poverty rates. Economically speaking, this will in turn stimulate demand for non-farm goods and services, which is a multiplier effect on the broader national economy. In many African countries, this, however, remains an ideal and an aspiration.

The current reality is that food production continues to lag behind fast population growth, which is expected to double by 2050.1 Farm productivity is still low. An aging population dominates African smallholder agriculture, though Africa has the youngest population in the world. There is massive youth urban migration and an increasing disregard of farming as an enterprise. This has negative implications for the adoption and sustainability of new agricultural approaches.

Women farmers, who are by far the majority, remain on the periphery of most policy initiatives. Research and technological uptake is still the lowest in the world. There are still huge funding gaps for agricultural development. Livestock, despite being a major component of the asset portfolio of most smallholders and playing a key role in crop production, is largely underfunded. Land access continues to be a challenge for many smallholder farmers, especially women and youth. Market access and participation in the entire commodity value chain needs both policy and strategic intervention. There is a need to resolve it in a manner that balances political, social and economic imperatives.

There is hope, however, that Africa’s agricultural potential will be realized. The political will behind the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) is a firm foundation for future development. By committing 10 percent of their annual national budgets to funding agriculture, Africa’s leaders have taken responsibility and initiative to mobilize their own resources to finance agriculture. External resources are also being mobilized around this commitment.

Much more needs to be done to achieve this goal, but an important beginning has been made. By 2013, 34 African countries had signed the CAADP compacts, while 30 of these had developed formal national agriculture and food security investment plans, which have become their medium term expenditure frameworks for agriculture. The net effect has been improved agricultural planning. On average, public agricultural spending has risen by 7 percent per annum across Africa since 2003. Annual agricultural GDP growth has averaged 4 percent since 2003. However, on a country-by-country basis, the picture is less promising. Fewer than 10 countries have achieved or exceeded the 10 percent annual budget expenditure on agriculture. Only 10 countries have succeeded in realizing 6 percent annual growth in agricultural production. In some countries, agricultural expenditure has actually decreased; in fact, it is estimated that there is an annual shortfall of $2.9 billion. The 2012 United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Report states that Africa is 41 percent “off” the first MDG poverty target versus 25 percent in South Asia and 6.1 percent in Latin America.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The transformation of African smallholder agriculture into a viable commercial enterprise is a multi-stakeholder undertaking. It requires contributions from governments, development partners, multilateral development banks, private sector, financial institutions as well as farmers themselves and community associations. Agricultural support ought to take into account the complex interconnectedness of various factors within the whole gamut of the value chain. For example, Information Communication Technology (ICT) promises to revolutionize agriculture through real time transmission of agricultural information across distances. However, the successful application of ICT depends on other factors that address the rest of the value chain. These include access to inputs, finance and training. There is, therefore, a need for a policy and regulatory framework that is consistent, inclusive and dynamic. The program to transform smallholder farmers from subsistence to commercial farming will not be a short-term process of only a few years; it will be a long haul, taking even decades to become sustainable. A number of key areas are at a critical level of change for smallholder farmers and families in order to improve the status quo:

:: Value Addition
There is a need to invest in local processing of commodities. This value addition creates employment both at community and national levels. It helps with preservation of perishable products and reduces post-harvest losses.
:: Improvement of Infrastructure
Poor roads, poor handling and storage facilities and inadequate irrigation infrastructure contribute significantly to both losses and low production. Much of Africa relies on rain-fed agriculture and the development of irrigation systems. Irrigation is a game-changer.

:: Livestock Development
The majority of smallholder farmers in Africa own and depend on livestock, either as pastoralists, or in integrated/mixed farming. In fact, much of crop production relies on livestock (draught power, manure); yet government programs favor crop production over livestock. There is need for comprehensive and meaningfully funded plans for livestock production and development, including research, breeding and marketing.

:: Land
There is a need to ensure equitable access to land by all smallholder farmers, including women and young people. Beyond access, security of tenure will in turn encourage farmers to make long-term investment decisions. Issues around land have to be resolved in ways that balance social, political and economic demands of communities and countries.

:: Climate Change
The devastation in the Sahel is a poignant call to all of Africa to research and plan for both adaptation and mitigation measures. Climate change is a slowly creeping, but deadly disaster. It is a clear threat to humanity and requires urgent attention.

:: Access to Credit
Distance, lack of acceptable collateral and the general perception that smallholder farmers are not creditworthy contribute to the inaccessibility of credit, though many small and large scale interventions have dispelled this myth. There is a need to structure and package credit programs that are user-friendly, with farmers’ groups and associations being key intermediaries within the lending matrix.

:: Farmer Associations
Farmer associations and unions are a major link between farmers and other stakeholders along the value chain. These need to be developed and strengthened as part of the program of transforming smallholder agriculture. The success of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi in spearheading the commercialization of smallholder farming is there and is worth replicating across the continent.

:: Market Access
Governments in Africa have a responsibility to ensure that smallholder farmers have access to all markets locally, nationally and globally. This calls for the harmonization of agricultural policies with trade policies so that the two are mutually reinforcing and not contradictory.

All in all, the program of transforming smallholder agriculture and general agricultural development should overcome sectoral limits and be part of a broader rural and national economic development agenda. In this regard, off-farm economic activities should be actively pursued in tandem with the agricultural ones as the two are organically linked.