Mr. PHILLIP KIRIRO. President Eastern African Farmers' Federation (EAFF)

8/3/2019 Mr. PHILLIP KIRIRO. President Eastern African Farmers' Federation (EAFF).

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Contact detailsPhilip. Macharia KiriroPresident - EAFFVice patron KENFAPP.O.Box 13747 00800

Westlands, NairobiTel: +245-20-4451691Email: [email protected] [email protected]

WORLD RURAL FORUM: FAMILY FARMING WORLD CONFERENCE

Theme: Feeding the World, Caring for the Earth

Venue: Bilbao, Spain

Date: 5 th to 7 th October 2011


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now in excess of $17.2 billion per year. This level of dependency on food imports andfood aid in a region (COMESA) of 400 million inhabitants with a population growth of 2 to 3% per year is not sustainable and poses a serious food security concern.

WHY FOOD INSECURITY IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA \ COMESA REGION

Reasons for inability of SSA and COMESA region to feed itself are known. The majorfactor is stagnant production, worsened by rapid population growth, increasedurbanization and rising incomes, character of agriculture which is small scale and poorlyorganised and supported, drought (over 60% of the land), conflict, policies aroundagriculture and land all worsened by low investment in agriculture by NationalGovernments. Unless action is taken immediately it will be difficult for SSA and COMESAwith the current low production levels and an increase in population (2.5%) to break itsdependency on imports and food aid.

POSITIVE TRENDS

There is goodwill now and actions aimed at supporting the agricultural sector indeveloping countries. This is not only driven by desire to support agriculture indeveloping countries, but the global food crisis as witnessed in 2008 and futureprojections of food demand. It is estimated that by 2050, the world population will beapproximately 9.1 billion and to feed this population, agriculture will have to grow by70%. There is also the expected growth in commodity markets in Africa. Thecommodity trade is expected to rise to $60 billion by 2030. The export trade potentialto farmers will be on average $4.5 billion whereas growth in domestic and cross-bordertrade in Africa will be $30 billion per year.

Goodwill and support to agriculture has improved. African Governments through theComprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) have committedthemselves to investing in agriculture. As a principle, they are committed to anagriculture led-economic growth as their main strategy of achieving the MillenniumDevelopment Goal No1 on hunger and poverty reduction. Under Maputo Declaration of 2002 the African heads of States and Governments committed themselves to a 10%national annual budget allocation to the agricultural sector and agreed to exploreregional complementariness and cooperation to boost growth to at least 6% on averageannually. Development partners have also aligned their cooperation with the AU onagriculture with the CAADP agenda. A number of multi-donor funds have beenestablished to support agriculture in Africa. This is in line with the Paris and Accradeclaration on five principles of AID effectiveness.


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FARMER ORGANIZATIONS

Although for many years agriculture has been a priority for governments in developingcountries, agriculture has not worked for the small farmer.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, developing countries in Africa were subjected toStructural Adjustments dictated to them by IMF and the World Bank. The reforms werehostile to the agricultural sector. This led to total collapse of the Agricultural sector andwere all faced with a terrible situation with over 1 billion people hungry and starvingand all of them below poverty line. The SAPs did not resolve the equity problem that has been getting worse overtime.

In all our development efforts, the point we missed is the organizations of producersand especially the small farmer. We never bothered to properly understand thecharacters of our agriculture and an understanding of the people involved beforeputting together policies in agriculture and rural development.

It is now evident that producers have been able to organize themselves at National leveland within the countries themselves through networks that link farmers at all levels.Through organization farmers are now recognized as key players in food security anddevelopment.

With the establishment of the regional economic communities (RECs) such as ECOWAS,COMESA, SADC, EAC discussion issues and even policies around agriculture startedchanging location to regional level. With policies formulated and approved takingpriority over National policies. Farmers organizations meeting in Tunisia in 1994,recognized and even commended governments for taking regional integration seriouslyby putting together regional economic communities to expand trading space andenhance political solidarity. Through Tunisia declaration farmers committedthemselves to establishing regional farmer networks to enhance the voice of farmers.We now have regional farmers organizations i.e ROPPA for Western Africa, PROPAC forCentral Africa, SACAU for Southern Africa, UMAGRI for Northern Africa, and EAFF forEastern Africa. On November 27 th 2010, all these networks were able to come togetheraccompanied by AU and launched the Pan-Africa Farmers Organization that will bebased in Nairobi, Kenya.

We have witnessed benefits emanating from organization of farmers. We have beenable to contribute to policy formulation and implementation. The CAADP Agenda hasnow been well established at the AU level and National level.


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Most of the National governments agricultural policies and strategies are alreadyaligned to CAADP. Formulation of regional agricultural policies aligned to CAADP is oncourse.

Although our producer organizations previously mainly targeted lobbying andadvocacy, there has now been a shift in their operations dictated by the current changesand trends in the Agricultural sector. As producer organizations, we have committedourselves to modernization and transformation of small scale agriculture. Our goal inaddition to lobbying and advocacy is to address law productively in agriculture throughtrade.

Our focus is now on Regional Markets and commodity trade. Commodity trade isexpected to expand tremendously in Africa between now and 2030, significantly beyondexport markets. There are reforms and harmonization processes taking place in regionsto facilitate regional trade i.e customs union, common markets (EAC), monitory unions,and policy processes to address standards and other trade barriers.

The regional farmer networks are working closely with Regional EconomicCommunities to address these issues. We farmer organizations now have to assist ourfarmers and especially small holders understand and engage in all processes aroundregional trade and regional integration and in addition, help them overcome challengesand identify opportunities.

To participate in commodity trade, our farmer organizations have to organizethemselves and even operate differently. We have to instill entrepreneurship in oursmall farmers for them to do agriculture/farming as a business. This implies that organizations that have been involved in lobbying and advocacy and campaigns have inaddition to provide economic services as a capacity to members for them to besuccessful entrepreneurs. We should also not only encourage, but also demanded that our farmer organizations establish business clusters within themselves to enable themaddress the current challenges in production and trade in commodities. Our memberswant to see tangible benefits coming from their organizations. Benefits that will helpchange for the better their economic situations and improve their livelihoods.

We have also put our development partners on notice regarding this reality and all theprojects we are negotiating in support of farmer organizations at National and Regionallevels are on institutional development, policy and economicservices/entrepreneurship. Our second phase of our project with EU- IFAP Agricord,Agriterra will be in these areas. Taking the case of EAFF, we are providing capacity toour members to enable them ensure that our farmers produce along commodity linesand ensure that they become key players by strengthening their position along value


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chains. This is the only way we can ensure that farmers have power at the market placeand access profitable markets.

On business clusters, EAFF has developed a MODEL regional policy framework oncooperatives that will ensure their autonomy. A reform in the producer cooperatives at all levels will enable farmers establish credible business clusters. EAFF is thereforeseriously involved in Agribusiness clusters establishment. In identifying commoditychains and undertaking full analysis we are profiling the entire chain both input andexport i.e business development services, financial and insurance series, logistics etc. Inthe process we identify missing gaps i.e missing chain actors, capacity challenges,infrastructure and policy issues. Overall we identify where we farmers should bestrategically positioned along the chain to ensure that we are strongly positioned asopposed to our current linkages which is at the bottom of the chain.

CONCLUSION

I would like to thank all those that have provided support to producer organizations,through financial support and capacity building. Government bilateral i.e TheNetherlands, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Germany, USA, British, Canada, and France theirthrough the development agencies. I also acknowledge our National governments andRegional Communities for their goodwill and support. Regional institutions such asFARA, ASARECA, other international Institutions EU, IFAD, FAO, AU, UN etc. The Ari-Agencies Agriterra and many others through Agricord. Development NGOs i.e VECOOXFAM, ACTION AID, ACORD, CSA, EU-AFRICA etc and professionals who have providedus with enormous capacities and even assisted us implement programs.

Now we are organized, our challenges is to continue strengthening ourselves, manageour members expectations and be current on their demands.

Our approach to business must change. Our long term focus on problems created by theWorld Bank, IMF, through SAPs must change. These institutions including ourgovernments and development partners have already taken stock of their previousactions and acknowledged failures. They have reformed themselves to be able toaddress current realities and issues and better focus on wayforward. We farmersorganizations have to do the same to be relevant and of benefit to our membership. Wedefinitely need a lot support to succeed.

Finally I thank the organizers for this opportunity to make this presentation.

Philip M. KIRIROEAFF President

Documents

Mr. PHILLIP KIRIRO. President Eastern African Farmers' Federation (EAFF)