Cereal yields in Africa are less than 50
percent of those in Asia or South America. FAO estimates that one in five
Africans is undernourished. Malnutrition,
as measured by stunting affects nearly 40 percent of children in Africa. Moreover, Africa will need to feed an
additional 900 million people by 2050.
Agriculture supports the livelihoods of 80
percent of the African population, provides employment for about 75 percent but
contributes less than 15 percent of GDP. For Africa, sustainable and equitable
growth is inextricably bound to agriculture. Africa’s ubiquitous poverty and
economic decline becomes easily explicable when you take into account the dire
state of agriculture.
Hunger, malnutrition, disease and poverty
present formidable barriers to Africa’s productivity, growth and prosperity.
According to President Museveni, malnutrition impairs educational achievements,
undermines economic productivity and places a huge burden on Uganda’s fragile
public health system. The African Development Bank (AfDB) recognizes that
Agriculture is vital to promoting growth and reducing poverty in Africa.
As an African scholar and public
intellectual, I am scandalized and my pride is deeply wounded by the unending
specter of hunger and malnutrition. It is shameful, beyond measure or pardon,
that fifty years with Africans at the helm, little progress has been made to
guarantee every African child sufficient and nutritious food. I am sure there is
enough blame to go round; the UN system and the multi-billion dollar
international aid honchos are not innocent.
But, ultimately, the burden of
responsibility must rest with people like me, Africa’s intellectual elite.
Stagnation of agriculture has
been the defining feature of Africa’s economic policy over the last four
decades. Spending in agricultural research and development by African countries
declined by 27 percent between 1981 and 2000. Conversely, spending in
agricultural research and development rose by 30 percent in rest of the
developing world; Asia and Latin America.
Egged
by experts the African Union, through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development
Programme (CAADP), has set a growth target of 6% per annum for agriculture and
encourages every country to allocate 10 percent of the national budget to
agriculture. CAADP called for $251 billion to fund investments in irrigation,
infrastructure, education and markets. Today, less than handful countries
allocate 10 percent of their national budget to agriculture and critical
investments in agricultural research and development lag behind other
developing regions.
Like
all areas, which are critical to Africa’s development such as education, energy,
biodiversity conservation and the extractive sector, experts have besieged
agriculture. Africa is drowning in advisors. Invariably, the overabundance of external
advisors diminishes the cachet of local experts. As Bill Easterly argues in his
new book, The Tyranny of Experts:
Economist, Dictators and the Forgotten Rights of the Poor, the appeal of
technocratic ideas persists beyond overt racism and colonialism.
Africa
has been through a multitude of expert-led technical solutions but hunger still
persists. Evidently, agriculture is not a vaccine. You cannot have a
breakthrough in Boston and roll it out in Vihiga. Ultimately, African universities
and national research systems must engage, define the problems and offer
appropriate solutions. But one fundamental question remains, can African
scholars or their institutions deliver the research and development breakthroughs
that have eluded agriculture for more than half a century? And is government
and private sector ready to put their money where their mouth is?
Africa
has a large and growing population of young people. Where will young Africans
currently entering the labor force find employment? Africa has the lion’s share
of the world’s arable land. Agriculture is uniquely positioned to absorb this
young and dynamic workforce. Africa’s youth
dividend will not be credited automatically into the national treasury. We
can harness the youth dividend by
accelerating the transformative change in agriculture.
African
governments and their expert advisors must wake up. There is no such thing as a
dual economy in which agriculture is a passive actor – a low productivity
supplier of food and a subordinate driver of national growth and economic
transformation. Agriculture is the real driver of Africa’s economic growth. There
will be no transition to China-style labor-intensive manufacturing until
agriculture is productive, efficient and profitable.
Our
path to middle income and economic prosperity must be different. Africa must
shun technical advisors beholden to the antiquated linear growth
models – from hunter-gatherer to agrarian to industrial to service and
knowledge. Our research and academic community must re-imagine our unique path
to prosperity.
Well put, Alex. I recently bought pomegranates in Machakos for under 10 shillings (less than 0.1$) apiece. Meanwhile pomegranates from Egypt are retailing at 300 shillings (3.5$) apiece in Nairobi supermarkets. Ditto for peaches from Naivasha vs those from South Africa. Something is seriously amiss. We need more support for farmers in crop production, harvest and storage, and the farmers themselves should be willing to do the extra work that it takes to realize high yields of good quality food and feed, so we can all reap the economic & nutritional promise of agriculture. We can grow a lot of things in Africa but we lack the technology and extension muscle of other regions.
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