News Brief: Week of July 19th 2010

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

KAMPALA 13 July 2010

 

Before 1998, there were no private seed companies operating in Uganda, even though more than three-quarters of Ugandans depend on farming. But currently, there are 23 private seed companies in Uganda that sell between 10,000 to 12,000 metric tonnes of staple crop seeds to farmers each year.

The revelation was made by Hope Mwesigye, the agriculture minister. She was speaking to participants from nine African countries at the recent opening of the Agro-dealer Development Strategic Planning workshop at Speke Resort, Munyonyo.
 
In 2007, Josephine Okot, the founder of Victoria Seeds, was awarded the Yara Prize for Africa's Green Revolution, which recognises individuals who show entrepreneurial excellence and the ability to work at many levels to transform African agriculture.

Okot's innovative marketing and business skills helped to position Victoria Seeds as one of the country's leading seed producers with over 200 production facilities.

Mwesigye said agro-dealers move seed stocks to locations that are close to farmers and sell them at prices that farmers can afford. The workshop convened by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa, which supports rural entrepreneurs, brought together rural African businessmen and women to share experiences about constraints in their businesses and opportunities to tap into Africa's rapidly emerging small-scale and private agribusiness industry.

Participants stressed the need for more training and capacity building in business management, greater access to finance, and higher quality farm inputs, particularly improved seeds. The call was intended to meet increased farmer demand to transform small-scale agriculture from subsistence to business.

 

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

KAMPALA 14 July 2010

 

The Government is soliciting a $30m (about sh67b) loan from the World Bank to research on the cassava brown streak disease.

The disease, according to Bulegeya Komayombi, a commissioner for crop protection in the agriculture ministry, has destroyed 50% of cassava crops in the country, with the central and western regions being most affected.

He added that 30% of cassava crops in the northern and eastern regions have also been affected.

The disease is caused by a virus carried by the white fly. It spreads by planting infected cuttings.

Kamayombi explained that $8.6m (about sh19b) of the loan would be used to develop disease resistant cassava varieties.

"Unfortunately, we do not have any cassava variety which is resistant to this disease. Research is ongoing and we hope to get a resistant variety in the next six years."

Kamayombi made the remarks recently while appearing before the parliamentary committee on national economy with agriculture state minister Aggrey Bagiire to present the loan request.

Bagiire explained that the loan would be payable in 40 years with a grace period of 10 years at an interest rate of sh0.75% per annum.

Stressing the need to fight the disease, Bagiire reminded the MPs of the 1990-1995 famine in eastern Uganda, which arose from the African cassava mosaic virus. He said the Government spent $60m (about sh135b) annually to contain the disease.

"Cassava is a food security crop. Any threat to the crop spells disaster for the people and the economy."

Bagiire noted that the crop had latent commercial potential and was regarded as an excellent candidate for commercial exploitation.

He said northern Sudan-bound traders buy cassava crops before they are harvested, which has contributed to the escalating prices of fresh roots. "This development can escalate famine although it is a good opportunity for households recovering from conflict."

 

 

Source: IRIN News

NEW YORK 16 July 2010

 

The new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women will pump the bulk of its projected US$500 million annual budget into programming to directly benefit the world’s most vulnerable women, but this unprecedented boost may still leave the agency lacking influence and impact, civil society advocates say.

The base funding for this entity, known as UN Women, more than doubles all the resources now available to the four UN gender agencies - UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), the Office of the Special Adviser on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women, the Division for the Advancement of Women, and the International Research and Training Institute for the Advancement of Women (INSTRAW). UN Women will formally come into being in January 2011.

UNIFEM Deputy Executive Director Moez Doraid says $500 million is still “miniscule, compared to our needs, and those are enormous needs.”

“The purpose [of UN Women] is to expand and strengthen UNIFEM’s activities, to broaden them so that they may benefit more women in more countries,” Doraid told IRIN. “It gives us so much hope that it will help overcome these weaknesses that have plagued our work for so long, including problems of under-sourcing, a lack of authority and positioning within the UN system, and a need to achieve key coordination as a whole.”

UN Women’s creation marks a watershed in gender mainstreaming at an internal UN level, but it is unclear how this achievement will ultimately translate into a safer, better life for vulnerable women: globally more than six out of 10 women experience physical violence, including sexual violence, during their lifetime.

“Of course, actions are louder than words and UN Women remains very much a promise of action,” said Elisabeth Roesch, gender-based violence advocacy director of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). “The coming months and years will be a crucial period to see if this agency lives up to that promise and is able to make a difference. Two things that will certainly be essential are strong leadership and resources.”

Budget

UN Women’s proposed $500 million annual budget is intended to increase within five years to $1 billion - an amount the Gender Equality Architectural Reform (GEAR) campaign, an international civil society movement that has been advocating UN Women’s creation since 2006, says is required to sufficiently scale up programming and resources for women.

“In 2008 we found that the existing gender equality bodies at the UN had $221 million, and compare that to $27 billion, the expenditure of the entire UN that year, and it’s less than even one percent,” said Daniela Rosech, the leading gender justice policy adviser for Oxfam International. “This $500 million is still too little, and with the UN’s own working group proposing that by 2015, 15 percent of overall development assistance will be allocated toward gender, why is that not happening?”

Doraid says UN Women’s budget increase will be dependent on member-nation contributions. Several UN countries, including the UK and Norway, have expressed commitments to “double or considerably increase their contributions” to UNIFEM, soon to be morphed into UN Women, in the past few years. Spain donated about $42 million to UN Women on 2 July, the day the General Assembly approved its creation, marking the “largest single” contribution any UN gender entity has received.

As it stands, however, UN Women will still absorb UNIFEM’s country programme offices, which will be better resourced, staffed and widespread than UNIFEM’s were, said Charlotte Bunch, one the GEAR campaign’s co-founders. 

UNIFEM’s largest programme in Afghanistan is “generally well funded”, Doraid says, but its capacity has remained limited in other conflict and post-conflict zones, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, where “a crucial missing link in the chain has been the [functioning] instruments that allow persecution of perpetrators of rape.”

“This has not materialized and it would be a high priority to ensure such tools and instruments are there when they are needed,” he said.

Better laws

Working to enact gender-based violence laws is another major goal for UN Women, Doraid says, noting that more than 100 countries lack specific legislation prohibiting and protecting women from domestic violence.

UN Women’s leadership by an under-secretary general to be appointed this autumn, will “certainly contribute to the status and positioning of this organization” in and out of the Secretariat, Doraid said. Its chief’s “very senior level” will elevate UN Women’s status, granting gender equality programmes and issues an unparalleled level of visibility.

UN Women offices’ many facets “are still being worked out,” said Bunch, who noted that their influence will also expand to UNICEF offices and to the UN Population Fund (UNFPA).

As UN Women solidifies within the next five months, it will ideally bridge the gap between abstract dialogue at the UN Secretariat about fostering a “global voice” for women, and action on the ground, says Rosech.

“We do need a global voice but it’s not just a question of that, because a global voice can be limited to the Secretariat and that isn’t where our main challenges are,” she said. “We also need a strong country-by-country presence and it’s a question of how do we get that done.”

Compromised?

There’s also the risk of a “fragile and difficult political dynamic” that contributed to the four-year lag in UN Women’s creation, weakening its charter’s wording on sexual violence and on reproductive and sexual health, Rosech said. That could make some leading donor countries less willing to support an agency they see as compromised.

“We aren’t naïve enough to think that a women’s structure is going to be free of the pressures that all the UN agencies work with vis-à-vis donors,” Bunch echoed. “The first obstacle will be getting the money and the second will be facing governments with a limited commitment for this entity.”

“Things don’t just happen because it’s a good idea. They happen because people keep putting pressure and monitoring so structures like these can have legs.”

 

 

 

Source: IRIN News

JOHANNESBURG 13 July 2010

 

US taxpayers spend about US$140 million every year on non-emergency food aid in Africa, and roughly the same amount to ship food aid to global destinations on US vessels; money that could have been used to feed more people says a new study by researchers at Cornell University in the US.
 
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has accounted for more than half of the world's food aid every year for decades, but has been "the last and slowest donor to reform its food aid policies", noted Christopher Barrett, a leading food aid expert, and his colleagues, Elizabeth Bageant and Erin Lentz.
 
Their study, Food Aid and Agricultural Cargo Preference (read online here), has come up with the numbers to back a long-standing call for reforms, and goes a step further in showing that the policy designed to "nurture" or subsidise the US shipping industry "under the guise of humanitarian assistance" is not doing either effectively.
 
Most donors have moved towards cash transfers or vouchers to buy food, instead of providing food as aid, but the paper points out that most countries only had agribusiness and some NGO interests to contend with while reforming their food aid policy.
 
Reforms in the US have faced much tougher opposition from "a uniquely effective lobby", referred to as the "iron triangle", comprising agribusiness, the shipping sector and some NGOs.
 
Barrett and Daniel Maxwell, an associate professor at Tufts University, Boston, in the US, who wrote at length about the "iron triangle" in their 2005 book, Food Aid After Fifty Years: Recasting Its Role, estimated that it cost more than two dollars of US taxpayers' money to deliver one dollar's worth of food procured as in-kind aid.
 
Little known shipping subsidy
 
Little has been written about the costs and effects of a policy called the Agricultural Cargo Preference (ACP), which affects the shipping sector of the "iron triangle", and USAID, the world's largest food aid programme.
 
The ACP requires that 75 percent of US food aid be shipped on privately owned, US registered vessels, even if they do not offer the most competitive rates. Some of these costs are reimbursed by the Department of Transportation's Maritime Administration, but ultimately the US taxpayer foots the entire bill.
 
The Cornell researchers used data available for every USAID food aid shipment in 2006, when ACP cost US taxpayers $140 million, "The amount paid above the regular cost of ocean freight on the competitive market," said Barrett.
 
ACP was calculated by taking into account the costs of transporting the food aid on competing foreign vessels plying the same waters, after deducting the ACP costs borne by US Department of Agriculture food aid programmes, and reimbursements.
 
The un-reimbursed cost of ACP to food aid agencies was almost the same as what USAID spent on non-emergency food aid to Africa, which benefited 1.2 million people and was "widely deemed important to preventing food emergencies". USAID declined to comment on the findings of the study, saying the research "spoke for itself".
 
About 20 years ago the US Government Accountability Office (GAO), an independent investigative arm of Congress, looked at the costs of shipping food aid in US-flag vessels rather than using cheaper foreign ships, and estimated that it cost $150 million each year. Another report in 1994 put the cost as high as $200 million a year.
 
Failing shipping as well
 
The ACP was put in place to achieve four objectives: ensure that US vessels remained seaworthy and prepared should a war break out; maintain skilled jobs for American seafarers; maintain the financial viability of US ships; protect US ocean commerce from foreign domination.
 
Barrett, Bageant and Lentz found that "contrary to its national security and 'buy American' objectives", ACP used vessels which were not useful to the military, and most of the vessels used were ultimately owned by foreign corporations.
 
They recommended that the US administration revisit the ACP, and suggested separating security objectives from humanitarian ones, with direct support for the Maritime Security Program.
 
But shipping industry says
 
The US shipping industry, which produced its own study - Impacts on the US Economy of Shipping International Food Aid (online here) - around the same time as the Cornell researchers, argues that eliminating the ACP would shrink the US-flag merchant fleet by 15 percent to 30 percent, with the loss of between 16,500 and 33,000 jobs.
 
Barrett said the shipping industry's study had used "very crude multipliers not developed for this application, and seem to use the total ocean freight costs, not the marginal cost of cargo preference, thereby assuming that every maritime job would disappear. That's a highly questionable assumption that they then inflate, using highly questionable multipliers".
 
The Cornell study's calculations showed that US taxpayers were paying a subsidy of almost $100,000 every year per mariner on an ACP vessel shipping food aid. "That's a pretty handsome subsidy," he commented.
 
"One would hope there would be some economic multiplier. The question is whether that's the best use of those funds, if our objective is to generate US jobs; and if the objective is to generate US jobs, why do so through a humanitarian food aid programme, rather than focusing on generating jobs directly?"

 

 

Source: IRIN News

MODJO 13 July 2010

 

Ethiopia has lifted a two-year ban on the export of cereals such maize and sorghum, following a good harvest which has led to surpluses, according to a government official.
 
"The ban is lifted mainly due to low prices in the market," said Amakele Yimam, corporate communications director at the Federal Ministry of Trade and Industry. "Ethiopia is now producing a lot. Exports will definitely benefit all stakeholders in the export process, especially smallholder farmers."
 
The ban was imposed in 2007 after a sharp increase in grain prices. At the time, the government ordered commercial banks and the Ethiopian Customs Authority to ensure that maize, sorghum, wheat and `teff' (an indigenous staple grain) was not be ferried out of the country.
 
Mohamed Diab, country director for the UN World Food Programme (WFP) in Ethiopia, said WFP would, through the Purchase for Progress (P4P) project buy some of the surplus food from smallholders. "P4P benefits both Ethiopia's small farmers and WFP. The farmers have a secure market and income... and WFP can buy food at competitive prices for people in need in Ethiopia."
 
According to WFP, the five-year P4P programme in Ethiopia, which is due to end in 2014, will purchase over 126,500 tons of food from around 67,000 farmers. An estimated 5.23 million people will continue to require emergency food assistance up to December 2010, according to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network.

 

Source: NEPAD Secretariat

NAIROBI 14 July 2010

 

“The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) recognizes that the partnership with the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa is important in fast-tracking our joint work in the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) at the national level”, the CEO of the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency), Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, said in Midrand, South Africa today.

Dr. Mayaki made these remarks at the end of a meeting with Dr Akinwumi Adesina, Vice President, Policy and Partnerships, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa. The meeting was part of a one-day joint planning session between the NEPAD Agency and AGRA through which both agencies sought to concretise their action plans for improving food security on the continent.

At the meeting, Dr. Akin Adesina announced, on behalf of AGRA, a US$ 500,000 grant to the NEPAD Agency to implement CAADP on the ground.

“AGRA recognizes not just the important work of NEPAD to eradicate poverty and put Africa on a path of sustainable growth but that this is a goal shared by many, including AGRA,” said Dr. Adesina.  “Working together we will have more impact and accelerate progress towards achievement of a Green Revolution.”

 

Stating that both NEPAD and AGRA can work together in helping Africa to feed itself through, Dr. Mayaki declared: “I am convinced that agriculture-led development in Africa will be the result of African efforts at utilizing the African agricultural private sector in ways that are similar to the work that is being done by AGRA in its support towards small-holder farmers”.

During the joint planning session, the two agencies further agreed to work together through CAADP country roundtable processes which plan strategic investments in agriculture.  The roundtables allow all partners, from farmers’ organizations to government Ministries, to identify targeted investments which can galvanize the whole agricultural value chain and accelerate the production of food surpluses to feed Africa.

In November 2009, NEPAD and AGRA signed a Memorandum of Understanding, through which the two organizations agreed to work directly with national governments and partners across the agricultural value chain as part of a comprehensive effort to increase the productivity of smallholder farmers growing Africa’s staple food crops. The two agencies are working closely together to develop high potential breadbasket areas of African countries.

NEPAD works closely with African governments to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), a framework to accelerate economic growth and boost food security through greater investments in agriculture. Endorsed – in 2003 – by African leaders, CAADP calls on African governments to allocate 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture, in order to achieve 6 percent annual agricultural growth.

It is also in this regard that Dr. Adesina called upon the NEPAD Agency to act as a co-convener an annual African Green Revolution Conference through which NEPAD, AGRA and other partners can get to advocate for policies that support smallholder farmers.

AGRA’s integrated programs have already benefited hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers through increasing their access to sustainable technologies; promoting polices of comprehensive support for smallholder farmers; nurturing the growth of a dynamic African agricultural private sector and increasing the availability of affordable loans for small-scale agriculture. These programs will help implement CAADP on the ground, starting with high-potential breadbasket areas with relatively good soil, rainfall, infrastructure and large numbers of smallholder farmers.

About NEPAD-CAADP

The African Union through its programme of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) works to raise the amount and quality of food that Africa produces, in order to make families more food-secure and exports more profitable. To do this, NEPAD brings together all the organisations involved in Africa’s agriculture - and helps them voice their needs and co-ordinate their work. The framework guiding this work is CAADP, developed and led by African nations.

NEPAD works closely with the African Union Commission (AUC), regional economic communities, national governments, research institutions, farmers’ associations to make sure that the pivotal role of agriculture in development is prioritised. In addition, many global development partners who were looking for a champion for agricultural development have rallied around CAADP. For more information, go to: www.nepad-caadp.net

About the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).

AGRA is a dynamic partnership working across the African continent to help millions of small-scale farmers and their families lift themselves out of poverty and hunger. AGRA programs develop practical solutions to significantly boost farm productivity and incomes for the poor while safeguarding the environment. AGRA advocates for policies that support its work across all key aspects of the African agricultural value chain - from seeds, soil health and water to markets and agricultural education.

AGRA’s Board of Directors is chaired by Kofi A Annan, former Secretary-General of the United Nations. Dr Namanga Ngongi, former Deputy Executive Director of the World Food Programme, is AGRA’s president. With support from The Rockefeller Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the UK’s Department for International Development and other donors, AGRA works across sub-Saharan Africa and maintains offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Accra, Ghana. For more information, please visit: www.agra-alliance.org.

 

 

EAC Working on Monetary Union Protocol
Source: AllAfrica.com

NAIROBI 14 July 2010

 

As East Africans embrace the coming to effect of the common market protocol, another objective by the EAC members states set to be established by 2012 is in the works.

Already, the five central banks in the region are working on a protocol that will establish a monetary union with a single currency.

"As we did with the EAC common market, we have to come up with an EAC monetary union protocol that we will negotiate and agree on," Prof Ndung'u, Central Bank of Kenya governor, told reporters in Nairobi on Wednesday after opening the Association of African Central Banks-Eastern Africa sub-region meeting.

During the Sixth Extraordinary Summit of EAC heads of state held in Arusha, Tanzania in August 2007, member countries were directed to among others things, move expeditiously towards establishing a monetary union by 2012.

The Abuja Treaty envisaged integration of the African continent through strengthening of the sub-regional groupings and harmonisation of national policies for eventual evolvement of a monetary union on the continent.

Towards this, an assembly of central bank governors in the continent has been implementing the African Monetary Cooperation Programme, since it was adopted on September 2002 in Algiers.

The objective of this programme is to put in place a common single currency and central bank at continental level by 2021.

Prof Ndung'u said the Eastern Africa sub-region had made commendable progress in implementing the African Monetary Cooperation Programme.

"Most of our active members have been meeting a number of macro-economic convergence targets, as we continue harmonisation and coordination of macro-economic and monetary policies," he said.

The governor said the sub-region recently embarked on Stage III of the programme, whose successful implementation and assessment of macroeconomic perform would form basis for the establishment of a continent wide common central bank.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

13 July 2010

 

Until last year, the Mokgatlhe family in Kgope, a remote village situated 50 kilometres west of Botswana's capital, had been using firewood to illuminate and heat their home. They joined 80 percent of Botswana's rural population in this practice, one that led to the destruction of countless acres of forest.
 
Responding to Botswana's urgent call to introduce alternative fuels and reduce carbon emissions, UNDP and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) have partnered with the Government and local communities to bring an eco-friendly and creative solution to a problem that causes damage to both the environment and health through the introduction of solar power.

The initiative is jointly funded by the Government and GEF and implemented by UNDP. Over the past six months, the programme has been steadily rolling-out solar home systems, rechargeable lanterns, community solar recharge stations and wood-saving cooking appliances.
 
Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), the country's national electricity utility, has been tasked with providing solar energy services to Botswana's rural citizens. In Kgope, the village's development committee is running an energy kiosk, or store, as part of a pilot franchise owned by BPC. The kiosk sells solar laterns, wood-saving stoves and hot bags, specially designed bags that keep food warm and reduce cooking time on stoves.

Serobele Kgadimapa, who was hired by the village committee to run the kiosk, says up to 20 lanterns can be charged in the same kiosk at a time for a modest fee. She also takes orders for solar home systems.

Mrs. Mokgatlhe has watched her family's world change overnight after purchasing their own solar home system.

"It is a changed world for them," she says with a smile.

"They even spend more time reading and finishing their school work these days," adds her husband.

Instead of worrying that the battery powering their lights will run out, Mrs. Mokgatlhe must now make sure that her children get to bed on time. The family is now hoping to buy an upgrade to their system that will allow for the powering of a television and a radio.

BPC has also established solar energy kiosks in the neighbouring villages of Dikgatlhong, Lentsweletau and Medie. The roll-out is expected to gain momentum with time as more rural people use the products and word spreads about their usefulness.

The programme is placing priority on poor and female-headed households, offering a pricing structure that meets their needs, with much of the solar energy packages being offered at very low, subsidized prices. Additional equipment, however, is offered at normal price.

In addition to saving firewood, the programme is saving valuable time for women and girls, the people most likely to do cooking in their households. The wood-saving stove, for example, cooks a four-person meal with only a kilogramme of firewood, greatly reducing the time needed to collect the wood. The hot bags reduce overall cooking time.

When the solar energy products have taken root in these pilot villages solar energy will be rolled out to other rural villages of Botswana. The use of solar energy may finally reduce the depletion of forests and carbon emissions.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

WINDHOEK 14 July 2010

 

The Southern Africa Customs Union (SACU) heads of state are scheduled to meet on Friday in Pretoria, South Africa, to adopt a final stance on how to approach deeper economic integration, especially in light of the outstanding interim Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba is to join fellow heads of state and government of Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa and Swaziland in what is to be the second-ever, but most crucial, SACU heads of state summit thus far.
 
The heads of state and government are expected "to make a final decision based on submissions by member countries [during the Botswana meeting last month] where each state presented its gains versus losses of not signing interim EPA agreements," a statement from Government reads.

Countries have ultimately passed the most important responsibility to the heads of state and government for insight and authorisation of the final position on how to reposition SACU as a vehicle for deeper economic integration, and to determine the final involvement of SACU countries in the interim EPA.
 
It is crucial that the SACU meeting reaches a final, unanimous, decision because the Southern African Development Community (SADC)-EPA negotiations have resumed, with a technical meeting scheduled immediately in Belgium.

New Era understands that SADC ministers have also informed the EU that unlike in previous discussions, they want "to talk directly to European country ministers instead of going through the bureaucratic officials at the EU Commission in Brussels". Technocrats from SADC governments normally handle the technical negotiations with EU Commission officials, while ministers sort out the associated political issues directly with one another.

Meanwhile, a meeting for senior officials is scheduled for September, somewhere in southern Africa.

The current status quo among SACU countries is a collective stance that exerts additional pressure on the EU.

Angola and Mozambique, two non-SACU countries making up the SADC-EPA group, are supporting the SACU countries.

Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique and Swaziland, who signed the interim EPA, have vowed not to implement the interim EPA in their economies until the European Union attends to the grievances raised by Namibia, South Africa and Angola.

All have agreed that there is "need to carefully examine the risks that each member state faces in signing or not signing".

 

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

15 July 2010

 

The United Nations rural development arm is helping to improve agricultural programmes in West Africa's Sahel region, especially in Niger, which is currently in the throes of a growing food crisis.

Recurrent food shortages have impacted the Sahel, a narrow band south of the Sahara desert also including Burkina Faso, Chad, Eritrea, Mali, Mauritania, Nigeria, Senegal and Sudan.

The last severe drought in 2005 resulted in a famine that claimed 1 million lives and affected another 50 million people.

Scant and irregular rainfall since last year has touched off the latest crisis, with Niger - where 7.1 million people, or half its population, is going hungry - at is centre. Nearly 90 per cent of rural households are at risk, including herders, as well as women who head their households and their dependents.

A large number of families in the Maradi region of southern Niger are relying on cereal banks to sustain themselves, according to the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) said.

"We are responding quickly to refill the village granaries, as well as provide inputs such as seeds and small tools to be used for the upcoming planting season to increase the resilience of rural households to deal with a crisis of this scale," said Mohamed Béavogui, Director of the agency's West and Central Africa Division.

Mr. Béavogui recently visited the country to identify what steps need to be taken in the near future, beyond emergency assistance, to address the problems of food insecurity, malnutrition and rural poverty.

"IFAD is working closely with United Nations agencies and other partners to concretize the emerging policy dialogue for a new rural development strategy that will help generate structural changes and stop the recurrence of famine," he said.

Drought, crop failures, pest infestations, rising food prices and poverty have set off severe food shortages, with poor grazing land forcing most rural families to sell their tools and herds to purchase what little food is available.

To support long-term development in Niger, IFAD is helping more than 50,000 women in six communes through cereal banks, traditionally built to store crops immediately after harvest to allow farmers to sell during the dry season when market prices are higher.

But with the food shortages becoming ever more severe, people in rural areas are using the banks now to put on their families' tables to maintain their strength to work on their farms.

Since 2008, cereal production has dropped by nearly a third, according to the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO). Also, food prices remain high, despite a decline from their peak in two years ago.

In the past three decades, IFAD has mobilized nearly $240 million in funding for eight projects and programmes in Niger.

Earlier this month, the UN World Food Programme (WFP) announced that it was scaling up its operations in the country.

"We're doubling the size of our operations and ramping up already significant interventions, to take even swifter action to protect these children," said Josette Sheeran, Executive Director of the Rome-based agency.

WFP, at the Government's request, is already providing vital food aid to some 2.3 million people for the summer lean season, when food is scarce.

The agency is now planning a new emergency operation to assist an additional two million people and specifically targeting more children aged 6 to 23 months to boost their nutrition. It also plans to increase the number of malnourished pregnant women and nursing mothers it is feeding, up from 24,000 to 105,000, and boost assistance at therapeutic feeding centres.

WFP estimates it will need an extra $100 million to scale up its operations in Niger.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

JOHANNESBURG 13 July 2010

 

Local scientists have found two new strains of a deadly wheat fungus, once thought to be confined to Uganda, here in SA, suggesting crops in many more parts of the world may be vulnerable to the devastating pathogen.

The spread of this fungus would have dramatic consequences for SA, which already does not grow enough wheat to meet demand. On a global level, if wheat crops failed, it would drive up the price of the grain and increase the price of staples, such as bread.

The fungus is stem rust, the polio of wheat. It leaves tell-tale red pustules on the wheat stems, and has destroyed crops since Roman times: a healthy crop close to harvest can be reduced to a shrivelled black mass within weeks. It damages the plant's vascular tissue, robbing it of its capacity to transport nutrients.

The last major rust epidemic occurred in the 1950s and spurred a global initiative led by Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug to develop varieties that could resist the wind-borne fungus Puccinia graminis.

Scientists have hunted for genes that defend wheat against rust and bred them into new varieties, a painstaking process that can take years to come to fruition. One of the key resistance gene clusters identified is called Sr31, which until very recently guaranteed protection against stem rust.

It offered an added bonus, as it increased yields, and seeds with Sr31 were rapidly adopted by farmers around the world.

But like all pathogens, stem rust mutates.

In 1999, a new and extremely virulent strain was discovered in Uganda that was immune to Sr31. It decimated local crops. Wheat rust, once regarded as under control, was back on the global agenda.

This strain, dubbed Ug99, quickly spread to Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen and Iran - and has now arrived in SA.

New and more virulent races are emerging all the time, as recent research by Prof Zak Pretorius, a plant pathologist from the University of the Free State, has shown. Prof Pretorius regularly surveys the rust susceptibility of commercial wheat varieties and the most advanced breeding lines under development by seed companies.

In 2007, he found a strain of rust that was impervious to the resistance gene Sr24. Last year he found a variant that knocked out both Sr24 and Sr31.

Both restrict the rust's growth by triggering the death of cells around the site where the pathogen has invaded the plant.

Prof Pretorius found that half the South African wheat cultivars he surveyed were susceptible to rust in the seedling stage, but cautions this is not likely to be the case with adult plants as many resistance genes only take effect once plants are mature. Work is under way to assess the vulnerability of adult wheat strains, and results are expected in November.

South African farmers do not grow wheat containing Sr31 so scientists are not particularly worried about harvests.

But Prof Pretorius's discovery that Ug99 is evolving with virulence for new combinations of genes is causing concern. "It shows the pathogen is mutating and adapting," he says.

Scientists around the world are racing to identify and isolate new resistance genes, hoping to develop new wheat varieties and get them to farmers faster than Ug99 can spread.

Ironically, it is the bread industry that is partly responsible for SA's relative protection from Ug99, says Dr Cobus le Roux, research institute manager for the Small Grains Institute in Bethlehem.

Wheat containing Sr31, a cluster of genes that originally come from rye, yields a dough that is too sticky for local millers and bakers, he says. Nevertheless, consumers could be affected by the potential spread of Ug99 to other wheat-producing regions, such as the Middle East and south Asia, where farmers grow varieties that will be open to attack unless scientists develop new cultivars impervious to attack before it blows there on the wind.

If their crops fail, global wheat prices will rise - with a consummate increase in the price of staples such as bread.

At present SA cannot grow enough wheat to meet its needs, and imports about 1-million tons of the 2,8-million tons it consumes each year, according to Dr le Roux.

Seed companies are keeping a close eye on developments too. Says Pannar's wheat breeder, Dr Willem Boshoff: "No one wants to release susceptible cultivars."

 

 

Source: Xinhua News Agency

KAMPALA 5 July 2010

 

Experts meeting here at a three- day continental meeting on Monday said that Africa needs to address the shortage of seed production if it is to achieve a green revolution.

Joseph DeVries, director of Program for Africa's Seed Systems at the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) told reporters on the sideline of the ongoing meeting of agro-dealers on the continent that currently Africa can only satisfy 25 percent of the demand for seeds.

"This is a major impediment to achieving a green revolution. We have farmer demand throughout the continent which is not being met, " he said flanked by Hope Mwesigye, Uganda's minister of agriculture who opened the meeting on Monday.

He said Africa should be responsible for its own food security instead of importing food from elsewhere in the world.

"The crisis is not only in Uganda, I have demand for rice seed from Benin, Bangladesh, Kenya, and Tanzania. All our neighbors are demanding seed from us. So the demand is global," Mwesigye said.

She said that at the forthcoming African Union Summit scheduled to take place here towards the end of this month, African leaders will be urged to increase their commitment towards increasing agricultural production.

She said the leaders should use the same zeal they had in fighting HIV/AIDS to increase agricultural production.

She said at the summit, the leaders are expected to announce the Africa Food Day as one of the measures of highlighting the importance of improving food security on the continent.

According to the World Bank, agriculture employs 65 percent of Africa's labor force and accounts for 32 percent of gross domestic product.

The global financial institution said that agriculture is essential for sub-Saharan Africa's growth and for achieving the Millennium Development Goal of halving poverty by 2015.

Agro-dealers from Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana and Mali are meeting here to devise means of increasing seed production on the continent.

According to Fred Muhhuku, Program Officer of Agro-dealer Development Program at AGRA, there is need to develop a supply chain of seeds up to the village level where farmers can easily buy seeds instead of traveling long distances.

 

 

Source: GraphicGhana.com

28 June 2010

 

The government has made available GH¢5 million to support cotton farmers in northern Ghana to revamp the ailing cotton industry.

The package includes GH¢3.5 million direct support, which covers land preparation and provision of seeds and fertilisers, and GH¢1.5 million to be used as general subsidy.

The Vice-President, Mr John Dramani Mahama, who made this known when he launched a cotton support programme in Tamale Saturday, said the intervention would increase cotton yield to about 10,000 metric tonnes, with about 4,500 metric tonnes of lint.

By the end of this year, the industry is expected to generate more than $8 million in income.

Mr Mahama said the programme would cover a significant number of the 60,000 cotton farmers in the three northern regions, indicating that in the next four years all the beneficiary farmers would be covered.

The Vice-President said support would be extended to private cotton companies and other stakeholders, adding that “the success of the current support will determine how the government will progress”.

He urged farmers to take advantage of the intervention and start ploughing the land for cultivation, advising that “the money is ready. Don’t wait for it, go ahead”.

Mr Mahama said the vision of the government was to ensure that Ghana became a net exporting country in all sub-sectors of agriculture, adding that it had made significant strides in that direction and was likely to achieve 100,000 metric tonnes of maize surplus this year.

Mr Mahama said, rice importation had reduced considerably from 500,000 metric tonnes to 400,000 metric tonnes this year and expressed the hope that more local rice production would drastically reduce the importation.

For his part, the Northern Regional Minister, Mr Moses Mabengba, noted that the golden age of prosperity in the Northern Region occurred in the 1970s and since then no massive investment in the rice and cotton industries had taken place.

According to him, the dug-out dams built in the 1960s had never seen any rehabilitation, making them easily washed away or silted.

The regional minister stated that the north was struggling to produce sorghum to meet the demand of the breweries, which stood at about 6,000 metric tonnes.

Mr Mabengba expressed the hope that the Savannah Accelerated Development Authority (SADA) would become the vehicle for transforming northern agriculture and the general environment of the area.

He called on the people of the region to turn the seven months of dry season which, hitherto, had been a season of “indolence, hunger and frustration which breed anger, intolerance and violence”, into seasons of productivity and plenty.

He lauded the launch of the cotton season and said it was in recognition of the pivotal role the private sector could play in fostering accelerated economic development and employment creation.

The Deputy Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Mahama Ayariga, expressed worry over the inability of tomato farmers to produce enough to meet the needs of the Northern Star Tomato Factory at Pwalugu.

He said the government was working with all the stakeholders in the cotton industry to design a framework to address their problems.

He called for commitment, honesty and the zeal to direct the inputs for the purposes they were intended for.

The National Chairman of the Cotton Farmers Association of Ghana, Abdul-Rahman Mohammed, said low world market prices and high interest rates had been the bane of the industry.

He commended the government for the package and advised his colleague farmers against the diversion of farm inputs.

 

 

Source: TheCitizen.co.tz

28 June 2010

 

Cocoa producers in Mbeya Region will start selling their produce directly to markets in the US starting this crop season instead of doing that through middlemen, the minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Shamsa Mwangunga has said.

This positive development is the result of efforts by Tanzania’s goodwill ambassador to the US, Mr Douglas Pitt, to link local farmers to US factories.

Mr Pitt, a young brother of American actor Brad Pitt, was appointed goodwill ambassador by President Jakaya Kikwete last April.

Ms Mwangunga told reporters during a press conference, also attended by Mr Pitt in Dar es Salaam at the weekend, that the goodwill ambassador has arranged with some chocolate factories in the US to buy cocoa directly from farmers in Mbeya.

“Mr Pitt has been a tourism stakeholder for a long time….we hope his appointment will benefit the country in promoting Tanzania’s tourism and investments potentials in the US,” she said.

She noted that Mr Pitt’s work in developing a collection of photos taken during his several visits to Tanzania has been valuable in the promotion of tourism, trade and investments.

Mr Pitt said he felt honoured by the Tanzanian government’s decision to appoint him to a honorary position and he will not disappoint President Jakaya Kikwete and his government.

“Visiting this country I have observed several business opportunities that can attract American investors. I have also see ways that we can link Tanzanian entrepreneurs with their US counterparts,” He said.

He pointed out that he has convinced many US traders to buy cocoa from Mbeya instead of letting middlemen to profit from the farmers’ sweat.

 

 

Source: State.gov

14 July 2010

 

ADMINISTRATOR SHAH: Well, Madam Secretary, I think you can see why we’ve all been just so excited and grateful for the opportunity to spend time with each other, be inspired by each other’s ideas, and try to work together to craft what I believe would be a very transformative agenda not just for any single agency or even for any single government, but changing how a community of people that care about eradicating extreme poverty, who care about improving the condition of the world can do that in a way that is – that you can get your arms around as solvable and fundamentally inspires us to do more. And with that, I have the honor of introducing the person who has inspired so many people around the world.

I always find it very difficult, Madam Secretary, to introduce you, -- (laughter) -- because of course, you need no introduction. But in addition to just being a source of inspiration and being a leader that we all admire and follow and the person who pushed us to think this way about rethinking development as fundamentally a problem of innovation and thinking and acting differently, I will just share that probably when I started with the Gates Foundation and was out in Senegal sometime in the early 2000, 2001, or 2002, I walked into a little hut that was the office of a small microfinance program run by an NGO called Tostan and by a woman named Molly Melching. And I went in and saw on the wall a photograph of Secretary Clinton, who had visited the program and supported Tostan.

And then a number of years later, we had the chance to meet in your Senate office, because a colleague had suggested that you might be interested in our work in microfinance. And so I met with – I had studied for days, weeks -- (laughter) -- as you would to go meet Senator Clinton and talk about microfinance. And I thought, well, here I am, technocrat, student, ready to go. And I went in and shared what we were doing. And Secretary Clinton asked probably 15 minutes into the conversation, “Well, have you seen the study that Brookings just did on microfinance and how they’re thinking about that?” And I just couldn’t believe that there was a study out there that she knew about that I hadn’t read -- (laughter) -- or studied or been able to reference. But it gives you a sense of her tremendous commitment to development and her insistence that we actually elevate development as a fundamental part of our foreign policy. And it’s what gives us the opportunity to think this way about thinking differently and acting differently. So, Secretary Clinton. (Applause.)
SECRETARY CLINTON: Oh, good evening. Well, I am truly the only thing standing between you and the rest of dinner. (Laughter.) So I want to start by saying, I am a friend of science and -- (applause) -- I am delighted to be here with all of you, especially in a room named for Ben Franklin, our first public scientist, and to hear the enthusiasm from the speakers and a few others of you whom I have seen about how this gathering has already motivated you. And for that, I am excited and grateful.

I really want to thank Raj, because I am thrilled that he is leading USAID at this moment in history, bringing to the work of development his experience and his intellect and his passion and bringing all of you together, because I am well aware of the fact that he has, through his own personal intervention and the help of his extraordinary team, convinced you to come. And I hope we can convince you to stay involved and also, perhaps, to agree to a semi-regular, once-a-year-or-so meeting to catch up, to hold ourselves accountable. Because it’s going to be, unfortunately, a short period of time where we’re going to be judged on whether or not this effort is producing results. Because one thing I know for sure about Washington is if you think change is hard anywhere else in the world, join the bureaucracy. (Laughter.) And find out for yourselves how difficult it truly is. And therefore, this meeting, which we would have loved to have had even earlier, is so timely.

And I want to thank the co-chairs, Dr. Holdren, who couldn’t be here. But Rick Klausner, thank you so much for being willing to give of yourself in this effort. Alex, thank you for your commitment. Harold, welcome back to Washington. You are a glutton for punishment. (Laughter.) But we’re happy to have you back, my friend. I enjoyed working with you in a prior life in the 1990s and am happy to see you here. I also want to thank the members of Congress who are here, because this has to be a partnership. In order to do what we hope can be done with development, it has to be a partnership on many levels. And one of our most important partners is the Congress, and particularly Congressman Brad Miller and Congressman Rush Holt and Congressman Brian Baird. We really appreciate your willingness to work with us and to help us make the case that we need more investment in science and technology in development, that we have to make quantum leaps in what we are doing in order to have the results we seek.

And it is important no matter what the global challenge you decide to pursue; scarcity of food, or water, or climate change and lack of energy and electrification, or health and disease, whatever it might be. We need to create these partnerships and get as many people in both the public and the private sector working together. I was so pleased when Raj said yes to our offer when I asked him if he would consider being the administrator for USAID because I knew that he would bring that sense of adventure to the work -- (laughter) -- of USAID. (Applause.)

Innovation, science, technology must again become fundamental components of how we conduct development work and the only way we can do that is with your help. We want your ideas, we want your guidance, and we want every so often a prod if we’re not producing what you think we’re capable of producing. I’ve said many times that while talent may be distributed universally, opportunity is not. And the reality of the world we live in today is that technology and innovation are the great equalizers and can be used to create opportunity where there is very little of that commodity.

Over the last 17 years and particularly in the last year and a half, I’ve seen that happening. I’ve seen it happening in Kenya where farmers have had their incomes grow by as much as 30 percent since they started using mobile banking technology. In Bangladesh where more than 300,000 people, which is just unimaginable – but 300,000 people, Paul, had signed up to learn English on their mobile phones. In Sub-Saharan Africa, women entrepreneurs are using the internet to get microcredit loans. And in many countries, text-based tip lines are providing unprecedented access to expert advice on everything from agriculture to healthcare. And we need to replicate that progress and take it to scale in the lives of the billion people at the bottom of the world’s economic ladder.

Innovation and technology can do for human development today what the Green Revolution did for agriculture. And we can generate significant yields from very modest inputs. One recent World Bank study showed that in a typical developing country, a 10 percent increase in the penetration rate of mobile phones led to an almost 1 percent increase in per capita GDP. And that’s something, as Megan’s story reminds us, children get right away. They know that there’s opportunity waiting with that mobile phone.

We’ve had so many of you here as you’ve been talking who are doing really extraordinary work. And we need to recognize that although we won’t have all the answers, we need to act on the best answers we can come up with. We can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. We also need to nurture organic and locally produced solutions.

And here in the government, we are studying the most successful models of mobile banking and working with NGOs, financial institutions, and governments to explore new applications. We’re pushing to expand internet access across the world. In January, I spoke about the freedom to connect when I laid out our internet freedom agenda. And we are committed to standing behind that agenda.

We also see innovation as a tool for building civil society not only to help organize people, but to hold governments accountable. The more we can move toward E-government, the more we can reduce corruption. Because if someone can sign up for that business license by going online, that is far fewer hands that money has to pass through. So it not only brings the actual positive outputs we’re seeking, but it does hold out the potential of changing the process by which people see themselves as citizens and consumers. We’re exploring new mechanisms for promoting innovation, such as prizes and competitions that encourage more people to put their own intellectual capital to work. And we’re strengthening our bilateral partnerships through science diplomacy. It’s one of President Obama’s goals which is to have science envoys, and some of you either have been, or I hope will be, among our science envoys to break down political boundaries.

So all of this work is important and it’s a great start. And I’ve heard the word “transformation” used a couple of times in just the past hour, but it’s not enough. We have to have more accountability. And this is not only a goal that we have, but it permeates everything we are trying to do in the State Department and USAID. We really want to know if what we’re doing works, because if it doesn’t, let’s try something else. Let’s not just keep doing the same thing over and over again because it’s what we’ve always done. That is a matter of literal life and death in our development work.
So what we hope is that we can develop accountability measures, and I love the idea of using mobile technology to report data back. So it’s not just giving out information; it is a means for acquiring information and doing the analysis that flows from that. We did it before. The Green Revolution is the most cited example for a good reason, because it was USAID-funded discoveries in agriculture that really turned the tide on hunger in so many places and provided support for local farmers. It is also true that as we look at the challenges in development today, we have to constantly be assessing the consequences of what we consider to be development.

Just a very quick story. All those 5 billion cell phones, well, there are, literally, people in villages in Africa and Asia who have cell phones but don’t have the money to send their own children to school. So now, clearly, they’re willing to pay for the cell phone, but they’re not going to pay the school fees that a society and a government demand. So we have to try to figure how we have a matrix of development needs that are recognized as intersecting and interacting, so that we cannot have more unintended consequences than we should expect to have. And I think that’s the constant question that those of us who are looking at this from a big scale of where we are and where we need to go have to ask ourselves.

Raj and I spend a lot of time worrying – or he worries and then tells me, and then I worry, too – (laughter) – about the markets we need to create in a country like Haiti. Too much direct food delivery destroys the market that existed. So, yeah, we’re feeding people, and then all of a sudden, within a year or two, the systems that existed before an earthquake or a conflict have been paralyzed, if not destroyed. We did what we thought we needed to do at the time, but the consequences are ones we have to cope with.

So every step along the way, we have to ask ourselves a lot of hard questions. But that’s why we want you all to be involved because we need your ideas, we need your experiences, we need your encouragement, we need your constructive criticism, because we want to maintain the excitement that has come from the last 24 hours and translate it into the positive work that development in the 21st century requires.

So thank you. Thank you very much for being part of this grand adventure to meet the grand challenges of our time.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

13 July 2010

 

Last month, the World Bank started a comprehensive programme to restructure its strategy in Africa, hoping to recapture its relevance in the changing economic landscape.

For the World Bank, the realisation that its traditional engagement policy with developing economies, especially Africa, has failed to bring the expected benefits must be a humbling experience.

This has pushed it to ditch its previous Washington-led approach to engaging Africa for a newer approach that will allow its economic policies to be determined through country participation.

The new method is expected to provide the region with an opportunity to prioritise its needs, hence align resources to critical areas such as infrastructural investment - a departure from its previous uniform programmes which were to be implemented across the continent.

"Africa has undergone tremendous changes over the last decade and our engagement needs to be in line with the new realities hence we seize this unprecedented opportunity and adjusts the strategy to best support Africa's development challenges," said Shantayanan Devarajan, the Chief Economist of the World Bank's Africa Region.

The new strategy is expected to be realised through an ongoing continental consultative forums undertaken by the World Bank with participation from the governments, multilateral development institutions, the private sector, scholars, experts from think-tanks and other non-governmental organisations.

In 1990s, the World Bank and its affiliate body, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), introduced the infamous Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs) - a set of economic policies which were meant to pry open Africa economies.

The SAPs policies advocated for a free currency exchange regime, free foreign exchange policy and the introduction of cost-sharing in the provision of social services such as education and health.

"The introduction of the SAPs had major challenges to the Sub-Saharan Africa economies as they were not prepared to handle the new open and competitive economic policies of liberalisation," said Prof Njuguna Ndung'u the governor of the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK).

Prof Ndung'u attributes this to the fact that the governments were largely involved in economic activities and limited the presence of a robust private sector.
 
Whereas the opening up of these economies has allowed foreign direct investment to flourish, the introduction of cost-sharing led to massive disruption of the social fabric as access to services was largely determined by ability to pay.

With a majority of the population living below the poverty line, the policy denied a majority of the people access to services.

The results were increased school dropout, low transmission rates from primary to secondary schools and rising incidence of disease.

By the time the countries ditched the SAPS at the turn of the century, the damage was far-reaching, with high levels of illiteracy and diseases.

Since 2005, the World Bank and its affiliate have engaged Africa on the basis of the African Action Plan (AAP), which largely operated on the basis of aid and grant provision for implementation of its projects.

But the new approach has been faulted for failing to recognise the use of internally-generated resources for the growth of the economies.

A number of African countries are, however, using internally generated resources to finance their national budgets following the resurgence of their economies through rising demand for primary commodities and improved global commodity prices.

For instance, Kenya is financing 95 per cent of its domestic budget from internal revenue and local borrowing, a shift from the past where the budget was largely financed through aid and grants.
 
"African economies have been growing at over five per cent a year over a decade, with the growth being widespread as 22 non-oil-exporting countries sustained better-than-four-per cent growth leading to the fastest decline in poverty levels, high primary school enrolment and increase usage of mobile telephony for communication and financial transactions," said Obiageli Ezekwesili, World Bank Vice- President for the Africa Region.

In 2002, donors at Monterrey, Mexico, pledged to increase aid levels to Africa significantly, committing to provide 0.25 per cent of their annual revenue as aid to Africa.

The 2005 G-8 Summit at Gleneagles, Scotland, renewed the commitment of the world's richest nations to support Africa's development and signalled the intention to move beyond the Monterrey pledges to more development assistance and debt relief.

At the Gleneagles, G-8 countries agreed to mobilise 100 per cent cancellation of the debt owed to International Development Association (IDA), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the African Development Bank (AfDB) by the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPCs) majority of which are in Africa.

At present, 14 completion point HIPC countries in Africa are eligible for relief under the G-8 proposal, and the number will increase as more of the 32 HIPC countries reach their completion point.

In addition, strong macro-economic policies such as prudent fiscal and monetary policies have strengthened these economies, enabling them to weather the recent global economic and financial crisis.

"While the global crises hit the continent badly through reduced global demand for commodities, falling commodity prices and decline in remittances, African policy makers have continued to pursue prudent macroeconomic policies and growth is expected to rebound to a forecast five per cent this year," said Ms Ezekwesili.

Growing interest by emerging economic power houses such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) has also contributed to the soul searching by the World Bank.
 
The increased accessibility of grants from the BRIC nations, which is being provided with less conditionality compared to the World Bank and the Western countries' bilateral aid, has forced Sub-Saharan Africa nations to re-orient their engagement from the West to the East.

During a recent visit to Africa, World Bank president Robert Zoellick indicated that the involvement of the BRIC nations in Africa growth was a positive development as it would allow the economies to access affordable technological know- how suitable to their needs.

"China has the potential to influence the adoption of appropriate technology as its development mirrors what is happening in Africa, hence the model can be replicated with a lot of success," said Mr Zoellick.

The AAP programme was initiated as aid to Africa increased sharply following the drive to implement the seven Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

But with less than three years before the target date of 2015, there are huge disparities on the progress across the continent on the seven MDGs.

Ms Ezekwesili reckons that nearly 400 million Africans still live on $1.25 a day, the massive infrastructure deficit leaves only one in four people with access to electricity, and even fewer have access to clean water and sanitation.

According to Mr Devarajan Africa need an estimated $94 billion to address its infrastructural deficits.

However, with donor pledges proving difficult to net, the focus is turning to the use of internal resources and implementation of regional projects through cost -sharing.

The drive to implement regional projects in power such Bujagali in Burundi which will provide power to Rwanda and Dr Congo, roads such as the Great North corridor linking Cairo Egypt to Cape Town through Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania and railways such as the Kenya-Uganda railway line is gaining acceptance.

The new engagement is expected to lead to a review of how the World Bank and its affiliates such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC), International Development Association (IDA) will engage Africa.

"Africa is increasingly opting for home grown solutions to its myriad of challenges and the World Bank is cognizant of these new reality hence the need to consider how to be most effective in supporting the progress taking place and the long term development challenges still remaining," said Mr. Devarajan.

By harnessing and scaling up the forces that brought the decade-long growth and poverty reduction--which include external resources (aid, debt relief, private capital flows, remittances), prudent economic policies, and a more open and vibrant civil society that is increasingly holding governments to account, and achieving results, Africa is expected to shed off the tag of 'the hopeless continent' once described by the Economist.

 

 

Source: The Guardian UK

JOHANNESBURG 11 July 2010

 

Ten years ago the Economist pulled no punches in a cover story about Africa with its headline: "The hopeless continent." Now Africa is leading the way with a "spectacular" recovery from the global recession thanks to decades of market reform and strong trade ties with China, the African Development Bank's (ADB) chief economist said last week.

Mthuli Ncube, predicted a growth rate of 4.5% for the continent's economies this year. The bank expects more than 5% growth next year, then a return to the average of about 6% Africa enjoyed between 2003 and 2008 before the recession bit.

"Africa is leading, believe it or not, global economic recovery in the sense of being such a strongly recovering zone compared, for instance, to Europe or the US," Ncube told the Observer. "If you look at the ranking, it's China, India, then Africa and then Brazil. That is the untold story about Africa."

He predicted that China will double its investment in Africa in the next few years, with the establishment of manufacturing parks likely to be the next big development: "At the moment East Africa is the shining zone: Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania. These are countries that basically rely on agriculture and services."

The Ethiopian famine that inspired Bob Geldof's Live Aid concert 25 years ago this week was the defining image of a war-torn continent, eternally hungry, helpless and dependent on foreign aid. But the ADB is the latest voice to argue that Africa is poised to become a serious global player. Many argue that, after failed socialist experiments, it is now embracing capitalism and reaping the rewards.

A report last month from consulting firm McKinsey & Company concluded that "global business cannot afford to ignore the potential" of Africa and lauded its governments for acting in recent years "to end political conflicts, improve macroeconomic conditions and create better business climates".

Africa has huge mineral reserves, underexploited farmland and a booming young population. Trade and foreign investment have increased fourfold in a decade. Numerous problems, including entrenched poverty, political instability and an Aids epidemic, still cast a shadow, but Ncube estimates that one in three Africans is now part of a burgeoning middle class: "We do worry about the bottom of the pyramid in Africa, but there's something to be said about the middle of the pyramid. We say very little about the African middle class.

"These are your consumers and they want the same things. They want mobile phones, they want to travel, they want to send their children to the best schools. The issue now is capacity to live out and achieve those aspirations."

From hopeless to hopeful continent, symbolised perhaps by the first African World Cup that ends today. But there is still a very long way to go.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

KAMAPALA 19 July 2010

 

THE African Union Private Sector Forum will convene an investors meeting on July 22 as a curtain raiser for the African Union (AU) summit. The investors' meeting will precede the AU summit which 53 African heads of state are scheduled to attend on July 25.

The investors forum is expected to engage in conversations about creating new business opportunities. Knowing that the continent is still grappling with infrastructure and energy deficiencies, obsolete human capital, poor governance systems and food insecurity, the investors forum is vital.
 
The urgency of the above investments will guarantee jobs, create an efficient and competitive private sector and dramatically transform the African continent. However, Africa has to urgently address its energy needs and ensure food security.

Africa's population growth is at 2.4% per annum, meaning that everyday, there are more energy needs. Yet according to the International Energy Agency the average electricity consumption per capita for Africa in 2007 was estimated at a paltry 578 kWh.

For African countries to reach middle level classification, Africa should increase its electricity consumption on average by over 3000KW per capita which translates into 900,000MW.

Countries with higher electricity consumption per capita also have higher growth rates and their populations flourish. From the foregoing, the AU summit should come up with a clear roadmap of financing the energy sector.

Secondly, the summit must find ways of addressing the food security problem. The increase in Africa's population means more mouths to feed everyday. Is Africa producing enough?

The World Food Programme estimates that 80 million people in Africa go to bed hungry and six million children die from malnutrition before their fifth birthday.

Food security has three aspects, food availability, access and adequacy. Achieving food security remains a major challenge for the African continent.

To attain food security and create strong agriculture-led economies, African governments and the private sector must finance strategic areas like production and productivity.

To increase the productivity of land, labour and capital, financing should be directed towards core areas like technology development, research and advisory services.

There should also be increased financing for disease and pests, vector control, proper management of land and water resources.

As a means of promoting development and labour saving technologies, there should be appropriate mechanisation, improved access to high quality inputs, stocking materials and promoting food security crops at country level.

Improving access to and sustainability of markets is another core area governments must consider. Productivity growth without improvement in marketing is an opportunity lost.

Farmers on the continent need to be assisted to participate in higher value-added market chains than they can at present.

Therefore, Africa must finance major public works like roads, railways and telecommunications. Therefore, the private sector and the AU heads of state at the summit should seize the opportunity and put the continent on a transformational path. It is up to the African people to shape a prosperous destiny for themselves.

The successful hosting of the World Cup in South Africa reaffirmed that everything good can happen in Africa. That Africa has indispensable organisational capacity and ability to tackle its challenges. We should not let up the momentum. We should transmit the World Cup glory into African business. The hope of Africa must never burn out.

The writer is the secretary general of the Uganda National Chamber of Commerce and Industry

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

NAIROBI 19 July 2010

 

The Swiss food giant Nestle has announced that it will invest $138.32 million in East, Central and Southern Africa over the next three years to enhance its competitiveness in the food industry.

The firm wants to increase the proportion of sales in emerging markets from the present 35 per cent to 45 per cent over the next 10 years.

"With 400 million people and an emerging middle-class and ever-rising purchasing power, this region has major potential for Nestlé products," said Nestlé CEO Paul Bulcke.

The investment will see up to 30 million Swiss Francs ($27.66 million) go toward doubling production capacity in its Nairobi factory, which will supply the East African region, Malawi, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

A similar amount will be spent on building a new factory in Mozambique to meet rising demand for beverage products in the country and its neighbours, especially coffee.

The decision to inject more funds in Kenya comes against the backdrop of other multinational manufacturers pulling their production activities out of the country.

Nestle directly employs 750 people in the region and plans to double the figure by 2012.
 
The consumer goods sector has undergone significant changes regionally.

Colgate Palmolive and Unilever have closed down their factories in Kenya and relocated most of their manufacturing plants to other countries like Egypt, citing the high cost of doing business.

Other consumer goods manufacturers who have left include Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and Reckitt & Benkiser.

The largest share, $36.88 million will be used to set up a factory to process dairy, coffee, and other beverages in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Harare's factory has been allocated $23.36 million for expansion and it will in turn supply the Zambia and Mozambique markets.

The company is also set to build new factories in Angola and Mozambique and open 13 new distribution facilities in the region.

It is focusing on local partnerships to penetrate the local market and distribution networks.

In Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, Nestlé has signed a partnership with the East African Dairy Development Board.

In Uganda and Tanzania, it has partnered with the Uganda Coffee Development Authority and the Tanzania Coffee Research Institute in enhancing productivity of the coffee sectors in the two countries.

Mr Bulcke said the East African Common Market launched on July 1 will aid Nestle's business expansion.

"As business grows, we will seek to open firms in other East African countries."

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

KIGALI 20 July 2010

 

The Government of Rwanda has received additional funds from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) to support several agricultural projects in the country.

Finance Minister John Rwangombwa and the IFAD President, Dr. Kanayo Nwanze, yesterday signed an agreement which will see the world body provide additional funds to the Strategic Plan for the Transformation of Agriculture (PAPSTA) and Kirehe Community-based Watershed Management Project (KWAMP).

The 7-year, US$28m PAPSTA project received an additional US$1.78m from IFAD termed as Standard Drawing Rights (SDR) which will be allocated to several PAPSTA accounts on top of a grant of US$1m from the Department for International Development (DFID).

The project, which is supposed to create a shift from subsistence farming to market-based farming in the districts of Bugesera, Gakenke, Kirehe, Ngororero, Nyamagabe and Nyanza, is co-funded by IFAD, DfID and World Food Programme (WFP) among other donors.

IFAD provided a loan of US$8.2m, a supplementary grant of US$3.0m as well as a grant US$200.000. The project is expected to benefit more than 10,000 households.

The KWAMP project which is expected to end in 2016 will cost US$49.3m of which IFAD is providing US$26.8m and an additional SDR of US$3.95m.while the Government of Rwanda will provide US$9.3m.

It will benefit over 23,000 households in Kirehe District in the Eastern Province. It intends to promote diversification as well as supports farmers to shift from subsistence to intensified market-based farming.

Among others it supports marshland land development ad rice farming in the Eastern Province.

Speaking during the signing ceremony, Finance Minister Rwangombwa noted that IFAD has been crucial in supporting agricultural development in the country, and in turn has directly benefited thousands of families which depend on agriculture.

"These two projects have impacted on the lives of our population and it's in this regard that we want to thank IFAD for the part it plays in the development of our country."

"As you might know IFAD is a key partner particularly agriculture and rural development, building the capacity of our farmers as well as supporting the strategic plans for agriculture development," Rwangombwa said.

Dr. Nwanze noted that IFAD is committed to continue supporting agriculture development in Rwanda because it is one of the few African countries that have shown a positive trend in agriculture growth as well as value for money.

He noted that IFAD has financed over 13 rural development projects to the tune of US$150m a double the figure with co-financers. He said that currently IFAD is funding five projects in the country.

Earlier before the signing, the UN official had been to Bugesera District where he visited several household agriculture projects, interacting with farmers and also inaugurated the Community Innovation Centre.

He commended the Government programme of one cow per one family programme, defining it as "very successful" in improving standards of living.

 

 

Source: IRIN News

DAKAR 20 July 2010

 

IRIN consulted the heads of some of the largest NGO networks on what they thought should be the top priorities of the incoming UN Emergency Relief Coordinator (ERC) and Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Valerie Amos, who is expected to take up her role within two or three months.

Those consulted include:

The International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA), an advocacy alliance of 75 humanitarian and human rights NGOs.

Interaction, the biggest alliance of US-based international NGOs focused on humanitarian and development issues.

The Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR), which brings together eight of the major international humanitarian networks, including CARE International, Oxfam, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Save the Children Alliance.

The Humanitarian Policy Group of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in the UK, an influential team of researchers that helps shape and inform humanitarian policy globally.

Here are some of their views:

Advocate independence of humanitarian action. One of the continuing, pressing dangers is that humanitarian action will be co-opted by broader stabilization and counter-terrorism objectives, said Sara Pantuliano, head of the Humanitarian Policy Group at the ODI.

Robert Glasser, the SCHR chair, agreed that "Amos must advocate for the independence of humanitarian action and resist the instrumentalization of relief or development to foreign policy ends."

Amos would also have to tread a careful internal line at the UN. "Political or military objectives frequently dominate the UN's missions, calling into doubt its motivations to also be a humanitarian player ... The perception in some parts of the world that humanitarian agencies are part of a Western agenda must be contradicted," ICVA commented in its June newsletter.

Fight for humanitarian access. "It is critical the new ERC makes garnering greater access to people in need a top-most priority," said Samuel Worthington, head of Interaction. "[Compromised] humanitarian access to communities in need of protection and assistance ... cripples well-intentioned programmes."

ICVA said this would involve hard-hitting negotiation with governments - the forced closure of 13 humanitarian agencies in Darfur, Sudan, in 2009 was evidence that "Many states push sovereignty and non-interference arguments in crises."

Fight for humanitarian staff security. Some 260 humanitarian workers were killed, injured or kidnapped in 2008, the highest yearly toll on record, according to the latest security report by the Humanitarian Policy Group.

Continue to improve coordination: One push behind the humanitarian reforms was to make response more effective through improving coordination: hence the introduction of clusters.  ICVA questions if coordination for coordination’s sake has now been overdone. More broadly, the inability of the humanitarian system to respond fast and adequately to increasing levels of natural disasters is a key problem, says the HPG. “Haiti is a test case and things are not going so well at the moment”.

On the other hand, "The question is whether the 60 or so coordination meetings that take place in Port-au-Prince [Haiti's capital] each week help create an effective response strategy," said ICVA head Ed Schenkenberg van Mierop. "Has [coordination] not been overdone? ... The real issue is leadership of the clusters and ... of the humanitarian coordinators."

Find good leaders: SCHR and ODI said the coordinators, who led the UN humanitarian response in emergencies, often came from a diplomatic background and had little experience in the emergency field. 

Interaction stressed that leadership throughout the UN humanitarian system needed improvement. "The Haiti earthquake response highlighted the lack of senior, experienced UN humanitarian leadership available to deploy on short notice."

Make humanitarians "less white". "The international response model must be re-oriented to place local organizations and capacity at its centre, with the international community helping them," the SCHR suggested.

ICVA agreed. "Relationships between international organizations, including NGOs and national or local agencies, must be improved. There is a broad sense in the humanitarian community that it remains too white [at its power base]. Creating local ownership by "flipping the system" should see national and local actors in the driver's seat of humanitarian response.”

Schenkenberg said Amos could help shift this perception by ensuring that the humanitarian community followed through on the many lessons from recent evaluations of humanitarian response, such as the Tsunami evaluation report, rather than ignoring them. LINK

Lobby for more attention to disaster preparedness. "Disaster preparedness - not to mention disaster risk reduction - continue to be the orphans of the humanitarian community. Despite clear evidence that there will be a significant return on investments in these areas, it ... [is] difficult to get adequate funding for disaster preparedness," ICVA pointed out.

Advocate in the Security Council on behalf of affected people. John Holmes repeatedly advocated humanitarian concerns in the Security Council and negotiated on behalf of the people hit by emergencies, and Amos must continue this, said the SHCR.

Amos should also strengthen the dialogue with non-state actors in countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia to broaden the understanding of humanitarian principles and help expand humanitarian space, the Humanitarian Policy Group recommended.

Reform the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): ICVA noted that OCHA had developed a new strategic framework but had not implemented the institutional change needed to carry it out.

Amos should instigate this process, realigning OCHA around field coordination and advocacy, clearing up the divide between the New York and Geneva offices, and addressing problems of high level staff turnover at top positions, which "makes it more difficult to build up institutional knowledge or instil a sense of corporate identity in OCHA staff".

 

 

Source: SciDev.net

14 July 2010

 

Drought-tolerant crops could improve food security — if researchers take downstream adoption challenges seriously, says Travis Lybbert.

Few aims have attracted as much attention and investment from private, public, academic and philanthropic sectors in recent years as drought tolerance (DT) in agriculture. In the past decade, more than US$1 billion has been spent on DT research and investment shows no signs of letting up.

With climate change, growing water insecurity and renewed concerns about food security in the wake of recent price spikes, the potential welfare gains from effective DT crops are enormous.

In rainfed regions of Australia and North America, investments in DT are expected to bring large private profits. Among the poor in developing dryland areas, gains from DT could make the difference between survival and starvation. During a drought, DT could limit catastrophic losses and help households recover more quickly.

Many proponents argue that adopting DT varieties may also allow poor farmers to become more entrepreneurial and diversify their livelihoods.

All these prospective DT benefits not only hinge on transferring lab results to farmers' fields, but also on farmers being able to see these benefits for themselves — which may be particularly tricky for smallholder farmers.

Tough to test

Public institutes and private firms release DT varieties only after they have proven themselves in experimental trials. Even in very controlled settings, breeders struggle to stress their test varieties with the right amount of drought at the right time, but the difficulties don't end there.

A breeder may be satisfied that a DT variety outperforms conventional crops, but poor farmers in difficult growing conditions will, rightly, insist on comparing varieties themselves.

Yet smallholder farmers — who typically face poor soils, erratic weather, and limited or no access to irrigation and other inputs — often lack the control over conditions required to perceive subtle differences between competing varieties.

This is precisely why private firms often can't afford to target smallholders as their clientele: this 'background noise' can make it tough for them to see the difference between a new variety and an old one.

Traits that confer truly dramatic benefits can outcompete this background noise. Bt cotton, for example, has been rapidly adopted by poor farmers in India because its benefits are almost impossible to miss (even with counterfeit Bt seeds in circulation). This is particularly true in extreme cases — indeed, the higher the bollworm pressure the more exaggerated the relative performance of Bt cotton.

In contrast, the relative benefits of DT peak in just the right drought conditions, then quickly fade with increasing drought pressure. These benefits are also much less uniform and observable as they depend on microclimates, rainfall timing, and soil topography and composition.

Accelerating adoption

In a recent paper, we modelled the differences between farmers' decisions to adopt Bt and DT. Our model predicts that the diffusion of DT will be four times slower than Bt crops. [1]

The model also shows that vulnerable farmers — the professed target clientele of many public or public–private DT research efforts — take four times longer to reach 90 per cent diffusion than their less vulnerable peers. This is because the vulnerable farmers are highly sensitive to extreme drought. DT crops do not fare well in extreme drought: when the rains fail and households are really suffering from the broader impacts of drought, DT yields may also fail to deliver.

Furthermore, although DT research is often motivated by impending climate change, the more frequent extreme events predicted by most climate models may actually slow DT adoption.

These learning complications are surmountable, but downstream challenges must be taken seriously.

Bundling DT with other improvements that offer unconditional benefits, such as early maturation, could speed adoption. A functional agro-services sector and regulatory environment could also alleviate some of the learning problems by improving the flow of information to farmers through effective extension, variety labelling and certification.

And pricing will be key. DT diffusion is likely to be especially sluggish among vulnerable farmers if they have to pay a premium for DT seeds, highlighting the importance of royalty-free, humanitarian uses of intellectual property in existing and future public–private partnerships.

DT certainly has the potential to help poor rural households cope with and recover from drought but developing effective DT traits in laboratories and test plots is only part of the solution.

To clear the path to widespread adoption among poor farmers, we must take seriously the quandary of a smallholder farmer in drought-prone Africa trying to figure out whether his neighbour's DT maize really did better than his own.

Travis J. Lybbert is assistant professor of agricultural and resource economics at University California, Davis in the United States.

 

 

Source: WorldBank.org

SINGAPORE 15 July 2010

 

“Africa is turning the corner and I can say that it is on the path of an economic rebound.” So said World Bank Vice President for the Africa Region, Ms. Obiageli Ezekwesili, during the inaugural Africa Singapore Business Forum held in Singapore on July 14.

“If I had been invited to speak to you a few months ago,” Ezekwesili told the gathering of representatives from Asian and African businesses and governments, “my remarks would have been greatly influenced by the adverse impact from the food, fuel, and financial crises on Africa.”

But, Ezekwesili said, “I believe that the continent is perhaps at the about the same point now as where India was 20 years ago and where China was 30 years ago, just before their economic booms set in.”

This Business Forum, organized by International Enterprise Singapore and the Singapore Business Federation, comes at a time when there is increasing interest from Asian countries, beyond just China, in the myriad of opportunities opening up in Africa.

“Africa is the future of the global economy; and Singapore is, among all ASEAN countries, the largest investor in Africa in terms of cumulative FDI with US$3.5 billion invested across a broad range of industries,” Ezekwesili said. “Singapore is a trading nation and a vital node in global trade flows as the physical gateway to Asia.”

Having reached US$7.49 billion last year, Singapore-Africa trade still only represents 1.45 percent of Singapore’s total trade volume. According to participants at the event, much work is needed to increase awareness of the huge potential that exists in many countries in Africa and to facilitate greater interaction between the regions.

The “Economic Lion”

Just ten years ago, The Economist dubbed Africa “The Hopeless Continent”. This year, The Economist in recognition of the huge dividends that Africa is reaping after some tough choices—mobilizing domestic resources, redirecting wasteful spending, investing in basic education and health, reforming public utilities, and reducing protectionist policies—named Africa the “economic lion” ready to take its place beside the Chinese dragon and the Indian tiger.

Ms. Ezekwesili highlighted the success stories that have helped to open the eyes of the world to a different Africa from one of conflict and tyranny to one of reform and economic stability. Among the successes: Mali’s export sector led by the mango industry, “Nollywood”, Nigeria’s film industry, and Rwanda’s focus on tourism, which is helping boost its economy. Ms. Ezekwesili noted in particular the efforts of women in Kenya to bring Kenyan cut flowers on to the world market.

“These are stories that paint a robust picture of a continent that is clearly on the move,” she said. “Similarly, ICT has had a transformational impact on the continent by enabling access to finance, and enhancing the dynamism and efficiency of the markets.”

Many challenges do remain in Africa, and Ezekwesili pointed out infrastructure as a critical bottleneck.

“Less than 25 percent of the population of Sub-Saharan Africa has access to electricity,” she said. “This compares with 40 percent in other low income regions of the world.”

According to Ezekwesili, energy will be the key sector for future growth in Africa, with a huge deficit to fill. Filling the energy gap alone would increase GDP by two percent, she said.

Regional integration also is expected to support trade and infrastructure development in the continent.

Singapore’s Minister for State for Trade & Industry Lee Yi Shyan noted at the opening of the Forum that as Africa moves forward, Singapore’s experience has a lot to offer the continent.

“Singapore’s experience is a case study of relevance,” Yi Shyan said. “Our public and private sectors have accumulated knowledge in areas of mutual interest.”

One such area is in building and managing urban infrastructure.

Dr. Mo Ibrahim, Chairman of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation headquartered in London, also highlighted the importance of learning from such success stories. It is key, he said, that businesses coming into Africa ensure that they play a positive role in the sustainable development of the region; conduct business in an open and transparent manner and respect the environment.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

KAMPALA 21 July 2010

 

The Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa has expressed concern over the low level of land utilisation for agriculture.

In a statement to Daily Monitor last week, Mr Sindiso Ngwenya, the Common Market for Eastern Africa (Comesa) secretary general, said despite the region having greater agricultural potential for growth, the sector, which is the engine of economic growth is lowly utilised.

According to statistics, less than 9 per cent of arable land is under cultivation and only 4 per cent of available water, is used for agriculture. Statistics also suggest that the region's main source of export earnings is accumulated from the exports of agricultural commodities and products.

Government support

Popular exports that earn tangible income for the region include; coffee, tea, maize, tobacco, ground nuts, cotton, fruits and flowers. Mr Ngwenya said the vast potential of the region must be supported by the region's governments through the increase in agriculture investment and adopting supportive policies.

In a recent Comesa Agriculture, Environment and Natural Resources ministerial meeting in Lusaka Mr Ngwenya, said: "It is quite evident that over the years, there has been less investment by both governments and development partners in agriculture." He added Comesa member states should embark on agricultural modernisation through mechanisation to be part of the green revolution.

Shifting bargain

According to Mr Ngwenya, the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), a tool aimed at helping the region achieve food security, sustainable growth in agriculture and sector competitiveness is a key factor in shifting the agricultural bargain from a peripheral player to a major economic stimulus.

The Comesa secretariat has worked with member states on undertakings like the launching of CAADP, conducting the stock-taking exercise in the agricultural sector, conducting evidence based analysis to identify investment plans in a bid to improve agriculture.

So far, six countries have signed the CAADP pact, which include: Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, Swaziland and Malawi. The Lusaka Meeting also noted that conservation agriculture is increasingly being seen as a promising alternative for coping with the need to increase food production on the basis of more sustainable farming practices.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

NAIROBI 20 July 2010

 

Agriculture Minister Sally Kosgei has called for the suspension of the waiver of import duty on wheat just three weeks after the East Africa Common Market took effect.

Dr Kosgei asked the House Committee on Agriculture to order the EAC minister, Mr Amason Kingi, to renegotiate the waiver and have it back at 35 per cent, and not 10 per cent as had been prescribed in the Budget Speech.

"I do not want to hear this thing that we're being told that the deal was negotiated in Arusha...it is not cast in stone. This economy cannot progress on the Common Market alone," the Agriculture minister said.

She said the suspension can take between three and five years as the government gets ready to give wheat farmers subsidies.

"Why are we acting as if we've just invented this Common Market?" asked the minister. "The country should have a policy of assisting wheat farmers on the input. If we help them a little more, they'll produce more."

Colleagues flip-flopping

Dr Kosgei's protest at the protocol arose after she was left in the dark during the discussions that led to the implementation of the Common Market.

The minister said it "was not rocket science" for Kenya to appeal the waiver to go back to the status-quo and added that there was a lot of "flip-flopping" among his colleagues when the matter came up for discussion.

"It is absolutely scandalous to see our farmers on the streets. We'll not proceed if we don't have the public coming with us," said the minister.

Committee chairman John Mututho (Naivasha, Kanu) together with members Erastus Mureithi (Olkalou, PNU), Lucas Chepkitony (Keiyo North, ODM) and Peris Simam (Eldoret South, ODM) said it was sad that the Treasury was sitting back while farmers in the country were exposed.

Mr Mututho said his committee would book a date with Mr Kingi and Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta, so that they shed light on how the regional deal was struck without the input of the Agriculture ministry.

"They have to come here and say exactly why they never saw it fit to consult," said Mr Mututho.

Dr Kosgei said the Treasury just ignored the ministry and it does not mean "that the (Agriculture) ministry went to sleep."

The minister said she had taken the fight "higher up" and hoped that there will be more money to buy the wheat from the farmers.

But given the zero allocation to the purchase of maize from farmers in this year's Budget, the minister said it was unlikely that the Treasury would provide more money.

Mr Mututho said: "We have to make decisions based on professionalism and not politics."

The wheat issue is likely to be top on the agenda when the Budget Committee meets the Finance Minister today (Wednesday) to respond to queries raised by ministries in this year's budget.

The Cabinet ruled that the matter ought to be put on ice to allow for more talks. MPs say wheat farmers were disadvantaged by the tax cut given that millers were buying local wheat at Sh1,900 a bag while the imported wheat cost Sh2,500 per bag.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

DAR ES SALAAM 20 July 2010

 

Cassava, one of Tanzania's staple foods, has potential of raising farmers and creation of millions of jobs and accelerating the country's economic growth.

The Director General for the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Mr Peter Hartmann said the crop, in addition to providing food security in drought-prone regions, is a source of industrial raw material for wide range of home and industrial products.

"Under the government's Kilimo Kwanza initiative, cassava may have a big impact on the fight against hunger and poverty," he said, pledging IITA willingness to work closely with the government.

Dr Hartmann made the remarks when he paid a courtesy call on the Prime Minister, Mr Mizengo Pinda, in Dodoma last week. Welcoming the institute's expertise, Mr Pinda said indeed his government was keen to promote cassava not only as the food security crop but also as an income earner.

"It's time we stopped looking at cassava as a poor man's crop that people look for when they have nothing else to eat. Yet it is a rich source of industrial raw material such as starch and ethanol that we can exploit," he said.

He said the country would gain a lot of mileage in improving the livelihoods of the small-scale farmers from agro-processing of crops such as cassava, maize, cashew nuts, and ground nuts.

"Cassava would especially make a difference as it was drought-resistant and performs well where other crops such as maize fail. It is also grown in many places all over the country," he said.

Giving Nigeria as an example, Mr Hartmann said IITA had worked with the country's government to promote diverse uses of the crop that saw it rise to become the world's number one producer of cassava and can do the same for Tanzania.

He further said Nigeria's success was a result of the support and commitment of the country's leadership under a presidential initiative on cassava established by the then President Olesegun Obasanjo in 2002, the use of science-based technology and involvement of the private sector. Between 2004 and 2007, Nigeria's cassava production increased by 10 millions tons according to FAO statistics.

Dr Hartmann further told the premier that the country would also require skilled manpower to run the cassava processing plants and therefore would need to invest in technical trainings especially in agribusiness --another area IITA can support.

On his part, the prime minister said he had noted the success of cassava in Nigeria and was eager to learn the measures Tanzania needed to put in place to also develop its cassava sector. He also welcomed the idea on skills development saying there was need for additional training so the existing manpower would perform better to support the agro-processing industries.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

20 July 2010

 

Most East African Community countries, with the exception of Burundi, announced good food harvests due mainly to the recent adequate rains.

Much of the harvests are staple foods cultivated by the poor rural smallholder farmers, using the traditional hand hoe and not the best farm inputs in terms of seed and/or fertilizers. For them to have achieved thus far, is a big credit. What would have happened if the farmers cultivated big farms, used mechanized technologies, improved seeds, fertilizers and kept their harvests pest free?

Tanzania and Uganda have announced they are swimming in this bumper harvests atmosphere. Apart from its semi-desert north-eastern section, Kenya, likewise has positive news from other areas. And so did Rwanda, but alas for Burundi, it suffered food deficits.

The advantages of the East African Community Common Market abound in this sector because now food deficits can be a thing of the past within the economic bloc instead of waiting to import rice from Indonesia or India, or maize from Brazil and United States. It is also less expensive and faster to transport to save suffering from hunger in the region.
 
However blessed the peasants were, we think there is need to introduce 'focal crops' where small holders would be directed to spare at least half of their farm land to the 'best grown' - be it beans, carrots, cabbages, maize, cotton, coffee, sisal and the rest of the land is left for other favourite food crops.

This will ease government's efforts to focus on the people's best choice, and since every crop is a 'cash crop' it will ease marketing and transportation to the wider regional market. This shouldn't require committees to determine which crops because farmers know the crops.

The current practice whereby small farmers grow food crops without a coherent plan makes it difficult for governments to make accurate estimates of food supplies at any given time, and to prepare itself to serve their populations by way of preparing transport and roads at harvest times.

To the small farmers, it will help them access financing because the institutions will be assured of crop production.

It will likely also encourage insurance firms, that shy away from farming insurance, to consider the area as lucrative and worthy of insurance.

The sisal industry in Tanga region of Tanzania, especially farms under Katani company, have been leasing 20-hectare farms to individuals, but they only ask the leasee to grow sisal on only one quarter of the land. The rest is put to other crops, mostly food crops.

It works in Tanga and it can work anywhere else in the EAC for the benefit of the small farmers, the Government and providers of farm inputs and sellers of farming machinery, and large crop buyers.

 

 

Source: AllAfrica.com

20 July 2010

 

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) today said it is boosting the delivery of aid to Niger, where up to eight million people are experiencing severe food shortages as a result of a prolonged drought that has caused crop failure and livestock deaths, leaving communities destitute.

"The drought in Niger is an unfolding catastrophe for millions of people and we are struggling against time to scale up quickly enough to reach the escalating number of hungry," said WFP Executive Director, Josette Sheeran, who arrived in the West African country today on a fact-finding mission.

"I want to see for myself the scale of the needs in Niger and the challenges in WFP's huge ramp-up of hunger operations - especially those targeting vulnerable young children," she said.

The food and nutritional crisis in Niger has worsened since the last harvest in September 2009. Results of a national nutrition and child survival survey released in June showed that young children are under particular threat from malnutrition.

"We are massively scaling up special nutritional help for children under two years of age, whose brains and bodies face permanent damage from acute malnutrition," Ms. Sheeran added.
 
WFP has been working with the Government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to expand its operations aiming to feed 7.9 million people until the end of this year. Rations being delivered to Niger include highly nutritious food supplements such as enhanced corn-soya blend and Plumpy'doz - a paste made of peanuts, oil, sugar and milk fortified with vitamins and minerals to help meet the nutritional needs of young children.

"For young children in Niger, the food we are providing is literally a life-saver," Ms. Sheeran said. "But we are also taking measures to provide for the wider families so that nobody goes short, and the special nutritionally enhanced products we are providing for the very young can pack the optimum nutritional punch," she added.

WFP needs $213 million for the scaled up operation in Niger, but only about half of the funds are available. While some food supplies can be purchased from neighbouring countries, the normal lead time to deliver food that is procured further afield is between two and three months, according to the agency.

"To meet the needs of the people of Niger, we are looking for urgent and immediate cash contributions from our donors," Ms. Sheeran said. "The months of August and September are critical, and I am urging our supporters to help us mobilize the resources we need to feed the millions of hungry in Niger," she said.

 

 

Source: IRIN News

DAKAR 20 July 2010

 

Eastern Chad is well known as one of the most challenging settings for emergency relief in the world due to the spillover from Sudan’s Darfur conflict and internal strife, but far less attention is being focused on western regions where 1.6 million people are facing crop failure and food shortages ahead of the October harvest, according to WFP and the government.

Food prices in the west are at least 35 percent higher than the five-year average, according to the US Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), and there are major logistical challenges in terms of food aid delivery.

“Now that we are entering the rainy season, it will become extremely difficult to reach remote populations,” said the director of the National Food Security Office, Ali Adou Djorou. “We tried to preposition stocks before the rains as much as possible, but we will still face major problems with getting food to where the people are.”

Importing food into the region is costly and time-consuming and trucking routes even from neighbouring Cameroon are arduous.

“Everything needs to go through the congested port of Douala [in Cameroon]. Operations to bring in assistance for refugees [in the east] and affected populations [in the Sahelian belt] are competing. It easily takes four to five months for food to reach beneficiaries in Chad,” said World Food Programme (WFP) deputy country director Moumini Ouédraogo.

“Historically, the focus has been on [internally displaced people] and refugees [from neighbouring Darfur],” said the head of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Chad, Ute Kollies. “There are some 70 organizations responding to needs in the east, but this is a different operation, requiring a different expertise.” Logistics and funding delays are slowing the operation down, she said.

In the absence of established NGOs, WFP had to mount food distributions itself in the central regions of Batha and Guéra in early June. “We usually work with implementing partners, but when it was time to distribute, there were none,” said Ouédraogo. “NGOs are now arriving and will conduct the next food distribution [from now to the end of August in western regions].”

WFP short of food

WFP has received less than one-fifth of the 46,000 tons of food it says is needed to prevent hunger from worsening before the next harvest. In late 2009, the government, UN agencies and FEWS NET reckoned 80,000 tons of cereals were required to cover the needs of the affected population. The government has made 32,000 tons of cereals available at subsidized prices.

Local procurement could also have been quicker, “but countries are not always willing to export their products,” said Ouédraogo. In May, the Permanent Interstate Committee for Drought Control in the Sahel (CILSS) called on governments not to impose barriers on regional trade in cereals, stressing that overall cereal production in the Sahel and West Africa had decreased by only 2 percent compared to last year’s harvest.

“The advocacy has worked,” said Ouédraogo. “If we secure more funds, we now have been told that we could buy in Nigeria. [The transportation from there] should take between a month and 45 days.” For the first time, WFP was able to buy 1,000 tons of beans from Burkina Faso this year.

But some in western regions cannot wait that long. People are starting to leave their homes in search of food, said OCHA’s Kollies. “We have already seen some 600 people moving from their place of origin to Moussoro [in the western region of Bahr El Gazel] where they wait for support. We are looking at a possible displacement due to hunger.”