SHARED SUCCESS - AGRA · 2017-02-03 · to changing the reality of agriculture in Africa, from farming as a solitary struggle to survive, to farming as a business that thrives. CAPACITY

SHARED SUCCESSYEARS OF

IMPROVED AGRONOMY Since inception, AGRA has focused on improving access to inputs, chiefly high quality seeds and properly formulated fertilizers—mineral and organic—that are the foundation of a successful farm.

AGRO-DEALERSAGRA has trained and certified more than 25,000 agro-dealers in technical & business management in 12 countries in Africa.

FARMER GROUPS9900 groups have been trained in governance, group dynamics, leadership and business development since 2006.

FARMERS SOLUTIONSAGRA is building on its experience, expertise and partnerships to help farmers confront local constraints to production and emerging threats such as climate change.

TECHNOLOGYWe support innovative approaches that connect smallholder farmers to information for production, post harvest management and access to markets. This includes investments in technology enterprises to deliver the necessary in scale solutions.

FINANCEAGRA is committed to unlocking financing for small agricultural businesses by pursuing initiatives to overcome financiers perceptions of risks and returns from agriculture in Africa.

INVESTMENT FUNDSMore than 9000 new agribusinesses have emerged from funding given by the African Enterprise Challenge Fund - a partnership between AGRA, DFID, Australian Aid, SIDA, DANIDA, The Netherlands, IFAD and C-GAP

YOUTHUnlocking Africa’s agricultural potential will also unlock its development. Engaging Africa’s youth bulge is integral to this. AGRA is empowering youth involvement in Agriculture value chain enterprises and investment in providing markets for farmer produce.

WOMENThe focus of our work is in growing and sustaining the economic potential of family farmer households with women playing important and significant roles as catalysts for the intented transformation.

AGRA is an alliance founded by:

AFRICAN LED We understand that African farmers need uniquely African solutions designed to meet their specific environmental and agricultural needs to sustainably boost production and gain access to rapidly growing agriculture markets.

FARMER CENTRED AGRA invests in our continent’s family farmers—millions of hardworking men and women typically farming on less than a hectare of land. They are the heart of African agriculture, our economies and our future.

PARTNERSHIP DRIVENAll of AGRA’s work is conducted through partnerships—with farmers, farmer organizations, agricultural researchers, national governments, businesses, civil society groups, philanthropies and donors

ENTERPRISEAGRA is dedicated to changing the reality of agriculture in Africa, from farming as a solitary struggle to survive, to farming as a business that thrives.

CAPACITY BUILDING623 specialists in plant breeding and soil management have been educated at MSc- and PhD-level to support national research organizations and to build capacity for agricultural systems across countries.

MARKETSAGRA is developing market opportunities and access to enable hard working farming families to lift themselves out of poverty by opening functional and reliable revenue streams from their high yields.

RESILIENCEAGRA’s focus is helping farmers use environmentally sustainable practices. We are integrating our interventions, implementing them simultaneously for targeted groups of farmers in targeted countries, with the goal of fundamentally transforming their lives.

AGRA’s Package of Interventions InputsAGRA is supporting and partnering with both the public and private sectors to develop the systems that ensure sustained availability, delivery and adoption of improved seed and fertilizers, with a particular focus on getting these inputs into the hands of women farmers. AGRA believes that once a farmer can profitably invest in seeds, fertilizers and associated good agronomic practices, the market becomes the real driver of agricultural transformation.

Through Farmer Solutions, AGRA is building on its experience, expertise and partnerships to develop new crop varieties and new soil and crop management techniques, to help farmers confront local constraints to production and emerging threats such as climate change.

Agriculture Enterprise & FinanceAGRA is working to develop the capacity of local agri-businesses to access markets, support local and national financial institutions to provide more affordable financing to common groups of smallholder farmers and local SMEs and transform their farms and businesses into sustainable and profitable enterprises. In its interventions AGRA catalyzes public investments impact in supporting farmers and leveraging private sector investment in agriculture to build sustainability and contribute to overall economic development.

Critical to this is the participation of both in providing solutions for Public Private Partnerships in the agriculture sector. AGRA has a clear role in catalyzing and facilitating the realization of public and private investments in specific value chains where the private sector has shown interest by helping to get these value chains functioning efficiently.

PoliciesAt the heart of our approach is the technical support to the implementation of The Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) goals, helping countries hold themselves accountable to their farmers. This includes assisting countries in the harmonization of national agriculture development plans and effective national level engagement to drive agriculture transformation.

As agricultural development is significantly influenced by national level policies, investments, and institutional arrangements, AGRA has developed custom-tailored business plans for individual countries and within each agro-ecology. By Analyzing and advocating for critical policy reforms, AGRA is working with governments to strengthen national capacities to deepen and sustain the gains made through policy decisions and encourage significant investments of public resources into the agriculture sector.

Process, Storage & MarketsAGRA is promoting interventions that enhance the resiliency of the production system to climate change and climate variability. This includes developing more efficient marketing systems, introducing post-harvest technologies to close yield gaps and ensure farmers can sustainably sell quality product to consumer markets.

Over the last two years AGRA have been on a journey steering towards being a preferred partner for agricultural transformation in Africa. We have since developed a new strategy and 11 country business plans in line with this ambition.

A clear break from our posture over the last 10 years is that AGRA’s new strategy if fully integrated - internally as we embark on delivering programs and externally as we engage with our partners. This may sound like jargon, but in fact it is looking at our work from the point of view of smallholder farmers.

In the agricultural development community, there are good reasons to divide our work up into categories like inputs, markets, and public policy. But farmers don’t live their lives in categories. To a farmer, it doesn’t matter if she can buy locally adapted seeds if she can’t also buy fertilizer and receive training to manage her soil.

As far as she’s concerned, a bumper crop from healthy soil doesn’t do her any good if that crop rots because she can’t store it or transport it. And even if she has access to a market where she can sell her produce for a good price, she needs access to financial services to buy her inputs in the first place.

In 2017 we launch a new 5-year strategy that takes all the tools and systems and models our partners havedeveloped over the years and integrate them into a single package that changes the lives of farmers in their fields—and, ultimately, changes the futures of entire countries.

As an alliance, AGRA depends on our partners. Besides the farmers themselves, our most important collaborators are the governments of the countries where we work. These governments have developed national agriculture investment plans, and our work aligns with those plans. At the ground level, we help farmer organizations and small businesses working directly with farmers to do the day-to-day work described in those national plans. At the global level, we help research institutions, foundations, and donor governments support those plans in the most effective and efficient ways possible.

That’s another kind of integration: integrating a large and diverse set of partners around a shared goal. For individual smallholder farmers, that goal is a better life for themselves and their children. For the continent, it is an Africa transformed.

Dr. Agnes KalibataPresident, AGRA@Agnes_Kalibata

President’s Note

Photo CreditsAGRA, ARETE, Solidarity Centre,Capenterbox.com, GIZ, ROAR & National Geographic

PrintingEcomedia Ltd.

Art Direction, Layout & EditingDavid Maingi

Contributors Calestous Juma, Hedwig Siewertsen, Mark Irungu, Simon Crump, Paulo Mole, Boaz Keizire & David Maingi

Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa

Head Office - KenyaWest End Towers, 4th Floor, Kanjata RoadP.O. Box 66773-00800, Nairobi, KenyaTel: +254 (20) 3675 000, +254 703 033 000Web: www.agra.orgEmail: [email protected]

IMPACT is a quarterly publication by AGRA. The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

Many African governments have put agriculture back to the top of the development agenda, and from a growing revenue base, they have increased the proportion of their national budgets going to this vital sector. Private

companies have invested heavily in Africa’s agriculture value chains in recent years, paving the way for a renaissance in Africa’s agri-food systems that multiplies the options for farmers in terms of the seeds they plant, the fertilizers they use, the markets they can now tap into, and the information services now available to help them manage their farming activities.

These glimpses of success offer an inspiring new vision of a future Africa in which farming as a struggle to survive gives way to farming as a business that thrives. The process by which an agri-food system transforms over time from being subsistence-oriented and farm-centered into one that is more commercialized, productive, and off-farm centered is taking place in Africa.

This message is especially important for the many countries of sub-Saharan Africa where agriculture remains the predominant sector of the economy, accounting for 25 percent or more of gross domestic product (GDP). A key issue for these countries, one that is hotly contested in recent years, is what strategies are most appropriate for their agricultural development.

Some have questioned whether it is possible to achieve a Green Revolution in sub-Saharan Africa based largely on dramatic increases in grain yields. What we have learned together over the last 10 years is that production is one piece of the puzzle.Farmers across Africa need better access to finance, markets, and an enabling policy environment that affords them the social protections many of us across the world take for granted.

Much more remains to be done to truly drive the agricultural transformation needed for Africa’s development, and to ensure a better life for all of its people as laid out in the Malabo Declaration and in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

David Maingi, MCIPRHead, Communications, AGRA@commsdamu

Editor’s Take6 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition

Editor’s Take

8 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition Contents

AgBigBriefs Pg10Important wins were notched up for African agriculture in 2016

Pg18

Pg202016 in Review

Pg28Redesigned Focus on Blended Finance to Unlock Africa’s Agriculture Potential

ICT for Agriculture - A long way to go! Pg30Healthy Soils, Healthy People Pg32

ImpactSource Pg34Threshing equipment in women’s hands key to reducing postharvest losses in Mozambique

Pg44

Contents

Luminary Ghanaian seed business is thriving through

Pg45

AGRA building effective competitive commodity chain in East Africa

Pg46

Can Africa Feed itself?

Significant milestones in seed and fertilizer

Pg48

Pg50

AgBigBriefs10 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition

Partnerships

US$30B Pledged for Africa’s AgricultureAt the 2016 African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) African leaders came together to advance agriculture policies to secure investments and ensure a better life for millions of Africa’s farmers and families

Leaders pledged more than US $30 billion dollars in investments over the next 10 years to increase production, income and employment for smallholder farmers and local African agriculture businesses. This is the largest single package of financial commitments ever delivered to African agriculture. It is backed by the broadest coalition ever assembled to support a transition from subsistence to income-earning agriculture in Africa.

Also launched was the “Seize the Moment” campaign, a decisive push for the political, policy, and financial commitments essential to transforming Africa’s agricultural sector.

September 2016

Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and OCP Group sign agreement for fertilizer productionThe ministry of agriculture and animal resources and the Moroccan OCP Group, the largest phosphate producer in the world and a leading global fertilizer player, have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on an industrial investment in blending units in Rwanda for the production of fertilizers adapted to the local soil and crop needs.

The MoU aims at stronger cooperation between the two parties to meet productivity targets and address sustainability challenges along the whole agricultural value chain. The investment will include the development and implementation of a blending facility in Rwanda, focused on supplying quality fertilizers, and promoting innovation and product development. It will also contribute to strengthening local marketing and distribution systems, and strengthening the agricultural extension system. The Ministry said that by strengthening local blending capabilities, and providing local farmers with adapted fertilizers to their soils and crops, the agreement will provide considerable added value to local communities.

October 2016

Work starts on new $1.5 billion Mtwara fertiliser plant in TanzaniaTanzania has moved closer to setting up a $1.5 billion fertiliser plant after allocating land for the development to Helm AG of Germany along the coastline at Mtwara. Energy Permanent Secretary Justin Ntalikwa said 400 hectares had been assigned after land owners were compensated.

The local authority is already upgrading infrastructure at the site. The plant is expected to produce 2,200 tonnes of ammonia and 3,850 tonnes of urea using natural gas as the raw material. Tanzania Petroleum Development Corporation (TPDC), Ferrostaal Industrial Projects of German, Haldor Topsoe AS of Denmark and Fauji Fertiliser Company Ltd of Pakistan will jointly own 20 per cent of fertiliser plant.

TPDC is in the process of registering Tanzania Mbolea and Petrochemical Company as a joint venture firm for Ferrostaal, Fauji and Haldor to implement project.

October 2016

AgBigBriefsAccolades

2016 Africa Food Prize laureate is Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze President, IFAD

Rarely are the titles scientist, President of a United Nations agency, inspirational leader, and advocate for the poor used to describe one person. This unique honour belongs to Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, an innovative agriculture researcher who helped revitalize rice production in Africa and now serves a President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Dr. Nwanze was feted as the Inaugural winner of the 2016 Africa Food Prize.

The Africa Food Prize is the preeminent award recognizing an outstanding individual or institution that is leading the effort to change the reality of farming in Africa—from a struggle to survive to a business that thrives. The US $100,000 prize celebrates Africans who are taking control of Africa’s agriculture agenda. It puts a spotlight on bold initiatives and technical innovations that can be replicated across the continent to create a new era of food security and economic opportunity for all Africans.

Four awareded the 2016 World Food PrizeFor the first time, the esteemed award, dubbed the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture, was given to four recipients: Maria Andrade of Cape Verde, Robert Mwanga of Uganda, Jan Low from the U.S., and Howarth Bouis, also from the U.S. The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity, or availability of food in the world.

Three of the laureates – Andrade, Mwanga, and Low – work at the International Potato Center where they developed the single most successful example of micronutrient and vitamin biofortification: the vitamin A enriched orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP).

Bouis founded HarvestPlus at the International Food Policy Research Institute, where he pioneered the implementation of a multi-institutional approach to biofortification as a global plant breeding strategy.

September 2016

October 2016

Cellulant wins the “Best Payment and Transfer Company” at the 2016 African Fintech AwardsThe agricultural sector and the financial sector are the two hot pitches in Africa of today. Merging the two sectors together with a pinch of technical flavour is what truly defines Cellulant, the company that was feted as the Best Payment and Transfer Company in Africa.

The award which is endorsed by world’s leading technology company IBM and CFO is the Fintech Award is the ost coveted feting for any financial technology company. The award recognized Cellulant as an outstanding contributor and provider of a technology platform that revolutionalizes the agricultural sector in Africa The platform, Agrikoa popularly known in Nigeria, Liberia and other African countries as e-wallet platform has enabled an ecosystem that connects governments, donors, financial institutions, merchants, mobile network operators and the consumer to create a single one-stop shop for a seamless digital payment experience.

October 2016

12 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition

Innovations

G-soko trading platform sells cereals worth US$300,000

Drone to monitor crops in Rwanda

South African teen bags Google prize for orange peel innovation

The US Agency for International Development (USAID), through its Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth Project (PSDAG), is partnering with AgriLift to pilot the drone-based crop monitoring technology. It will serve 2,000 potato farmers affiliated with 20 potato cooperatives in the Imbaraga Cooperative Federation, located in Nyabihu, Burera and Musanze districts in Rwanda.

With USAID support, the drone takes overhead images of growing crops at specific intervals. The images are then analysed with an open-source computer model of plant growth, which was specifically developed for potato farms. The drone technology can identify the optimal maturity of potato plants for farmers, and can also spot nutrient deficient or diseased crops.

Produce worth $300,000 was traded in October and November after the launch of G-soko, a new grain trading platform linking cereal buyers and sellers in East Africa. At least 1,120 metric tonnes were sold online and 50,360 MT traded off-line through certified warehouses linked to the platform that was created to promote structured food markets like the Kigali-based East Africa Exchange (EAX). Traders and agro-processors have cited scattered smallholder farmers and buyers, lack of market information, poor storage facilities and unpredictable weather as key barriers to food commerce in the region. G-Soko lseeks to ensure that farmers growing maize and beans in East Africa can sell their produce across East Africa through regionally certified warehouses. This could address unstructured markets challenges such as post –harvest handling, eliminate middlemen and increase farmers’ income.

AgBigBriefs

December 2016

December 2016

A 16-year-old South African schoolgirl won the grand prize at Google’s science fair for using orange peel to develop a cheap super-absorbent material to help soil retain water.

Kiara Nirghin beat students from around the world for a $50,000 scholarship with her “fighting drought with fruit” submission. Her work was in response to the recent drought that has hit South Africa . Ms Nirghin, a student at the Anglican Church-founded St Martin’s High School in the main city Johannesburg, said three experiments over 45 days resulted in her coming up with the “orange peel mixture” as an alternative to expensive and non-biodegradable super-absorbent polymers (SAPs). The student, who was awarded the prize at the annual fair in California, said she hoped it would help farmers save both money and their crops.

October 2016

AgBigBriefs


Investments

Tanzania agriculture gets $94 million boost from African Development Fund

USAID supports AGRA with $10 million to boost agro-economy in GhanaThe United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has disclosed it will invest some US$10 million in financing seed sector development in the country. The funds will be deployed in strengthening the production and distribution of quality seeds available to the agriculture sector for major crops in the Early Generation Seed (EGS) program.

The EGS is a five-year plan initiated by AGRA to grow four major crops such as rice, maize, soya beans and cassava in the Northern and the Brong Ahafo Regions respectively. The initiative is in collaboration with the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA), the USAID and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundationand will ensure the supply of quality seeds to farmers at all times.

The Board of Directors of the African Development Fund (ADF) has approved a loan of $93.51 million for on-lending to the Tanzania Agricultural Development Bank (TADB).

The funding will contribute to supporting Tanzania’s agriculture sector and achieving the country’s development goals, the African Development Bank (AfDB) said in a statement. The ADF is the concessional window of the AfDB Group which providing concessional funding for projects and programs, as well as technical assistance for studies and capacity-building activities.

AgBigBriefs

November 2016

November 2016

IFAD resumes funding Zimbabwe, approves $26 million for irrigation supportZimbabwe has received a $25.5 million grant from the United Nation’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) to support irrigation projects in the country, Zimbabwe has been a member of the 178-member fund since independence, receiving technical and financial assistance for several smallholder irrigation projects in the rural areas, but IFAD cut off support in 2006 because of non-payment of arrears.

The grant marks a resumption of relations after IFAD approved a proposal by Harare reschedule a $23 million debt owed to the UN agency. The project is targeting 4,000 hectares of smallholder irrigation schemes in communal and old resettlement areas in Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South and Midlands provinces. The objective of the programme is to sustainably increase diversified production, productivity, income and improve resilience of households in the selected areas.

November 2016

Rajiv Shah, former USAID administrator, named as next Rockefeller Foundation president

US Congress Passes the Global Food Security Act (GFSA)

Policy

AgBigBriefs

the Global Food Security Act (GFSA) achieved final passage in Congress in July. Congress’ approval of GFSA continues U.S. leadership against world hunger. This initiative began in response to a spike in world hunger in 2008, and it has helped to put the world back on track toward ending hunger. It requires the US administration to develop a global food-security plan and sets up formal conversations in 2017 and 2018 between Congress and the next administration about how this plan is being implemented and developed.

By passing GFSA, Congress provides formal, bipartisan authorization ($3.8 billion a year for the next two years) to continue and further improve this highly successful initiative of help and opportunity for many of the world’s most desperate people. GFSA will provide agricultural and nutrition assistance to many millions of poor, rural families and locally purchased food assistance to help cope with the current surge of displaced people

GFSA provides the tools needed to end global hunger and malnutrition in our lifetime. Specifically, the GFSA calls for the development and implementation of a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to combat hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

The strategy will focus on increasing sustainable agricultural development, reducing global hunger, and improving nutrition through such agricultural development programs like the Feed the Future Initiative. The legislation promotes country ownership and accountability, including improving monitoring and evaluation practices that would ensure U.S. taxpayer investments are implemented transparently, efficiently, and effectively.

In addition, this legislation authorizes the continued use of the International Disaster Assistance (IDA) account to respond to natural and man-made emergencies across the globe. IDA is used to provide emergency food, clean water, and health and sanitation needs.

July 2016

Dr. Rajiv Shah, a former administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, will be the Rockefeller Foundation’s next president, the U.S.-based philanthropic organization announced on Wednesday. He will replace Judith Rodin, who has held the role since 2005, and begin work on March 1.

At 43, Shah is the youngest — and first Indian-American — to serve as the foundation’s president. He oversaw work at USAID from January 2010 to February 2015 and led responses to various humanitarian emergencies, including the Haiti earthquake of 2010 and the spread of Ebola in West Africa.

Dr. Shah is a graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and the Wharton School of Business.

December 2016


Food Security

A Food-Secure 2030: A Global Vision and Call to Action Launched

AgBigBriefs

September2016

During the African Green Revolution Forum, “A Food-Secure 2030” was launched calling on donors to be bold and do their part to achieve a world free from acute hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. The U.S. Government has already invested more than $6.6 billion in global food security and nutrition efforts through the Feed the Future initiative.

Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, has pioneered a comprehensive approach to ending global hunger that draws on partnerships across sectors, country leadership, and a focus on achieving results. With an emphasis on supporting smallholder farmers to strengthen global food security and nutrition, Feed the Future is building on early success to drive real change at a large scale.

The momentum to achieve the long-term vision of Feed the Future – a world where the scourge of hunger, poverty, and malnutrition no longer threaten the peace and prosperity of millions – is strong.

In 2015 alone, Feed the Future worked with over nine million farmers and producers to boost their incomes by more than $800 million and reached nearly 18 million children under five with nutrition interventions. In several areas where Feed the Future works, childhood stunting has dropped between 12 and 32 percent and poverty has decreased between 12 and 26 percent over recent years.

The U.S. Government’s continued, bipartisan commitment to ending poverty and hunger around the world was codified in July 2016 with the enactment of the Global Food Security Act (GFSA), the largest development-related authorizing legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in a decade.

Building on the momentum generated within the global community by the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the success of the World Humanitarian Summit, and the passage of the GFSA in the United States, the government declares that it is time to champion a vision of a food-secure 2030.

Persistence of severe drought is likely to push the number of hungry Kenyans beyond the 1.3 million already considered “food insecure, the FAO warned in December. “Based on the latest predictions, the impacts of the current drought in the southern part of the country will lessen by mid-2017, but counties in the north — in particular Turkana, Marsabit, Wajir and Mandera — will steadily get worse,” the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation said.

“Production prospects for the current crops are highly unfavourable and households are expected to enter the next lean season much earlier than usual,” FAO added in an alert covering parts of Kenya and other East African countries.

In Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, a total of nearly 12 million people are currently in need of emergency food assistance, FAO calculated. It included 5 million Somalis in that number, along with 5.6 million Ethiopians.

Hunger set to spread in Kenya and other East African countries, UN warns

December 2016

US$30B Pledged to 2021 for Africa’s Agriculture

AgBigBriefs


Last year was big for agriculture in Africa with some notable “wins” across the continent. One of the most important gains was the increased use of emerging

technologies beyond the traditional use of mobile phones in agriculture. The range includes precision agriculture, sensors, satellites and drones.

For example FieldLook is using satellite images in the Gezira irrigation scheme in Sudan to provide information about crop growth, humidity, and nutrient needs of plants. This is then conveyed to farmers using mobile phones.

In Nigeria drones are being used to map the potential for expanding rice cultivation. The UK-based GrowMoreX Consultancy Company, for example, operates drone-based farming services. It conducted a survey of 3,000 hectares of land suitable for irrigated rice farming in New Bussa, Niger State. The area is 700km away from the capital Abuja. It has limited access to roads, electricity, clean water and other amenities.

Innovation gains in 2016 are just one aspect that was captured in a new study released by the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) this year. The 2016 Africa Agriculture Status Report also noted that African agriculture is finally taking root, showing how long-term policy commitments and funding were key to the sector’s growth.

The gains reported in 2016 went hand in hand with overall growth in Africa over the last two decades. According to the AGRA report, “GDP per capita increased in Africa from an annual average of US$987 in 1995-2003, to $1,154 in 2003-2008, and even higher to $1,289 on 2008-2014.”

Many sectors such as communication, transportation, wholesale and construction contributed to the growth. But more remarkably, agricultural value addition grew by “5.2% in 2000-2014 compared to less than 3% (in) previous decades”. Manufacturing’s share of total value addition grew, while agriculture’s did not.

These trends are in line with historical patterns in Asia

and other regions where productivity in agriculture was a key driver of long-term economic transformation. This shows that agriculture is more than just producing food. It is a driver for overall economic growth.

There have been some clear “wins” worth highlighting from the past year.

Free trade area

2016 was a critical year in Africa’s negotiations to create a Continental Free Trade Area. This is scheduled to be finalised in 2017. The free trade area is expected to significantly expand Africa’s trade in agricultural products by building on current growth in the sector.

The talks are building the Tripartite Free Trade Area. This is a proposed African free trade agreement between the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and East African Community (EAC). It has created a market of more than 620 million people in 26 countries valued at $1.5tn.

The Continental Free Trade Area will cover more than a billion people in 54 countries with a combined GDP of over $3.5tn. It is also expected to create opportunities for trade in agricultural machinery and associated services.

Overcoming ecological hurdles

In many parts of Africa agriculture has been pursued at the expense of the environment. This has largely been due to the lack of training in new methods that take the environment into consideration. Such skills would reduce agriculture’s ecological footprint and make it more resilient to climate change.

An example of promoting ecological food production is an effort by Somalia to rebuild fisheries after decades of conflict. The initiative, supported by Norway and the Food and Agriculture

Important wins were notched up for African agriculture in 2016

By Calestous Juma

Complex agricultural economies

Leaders need to upgrade their capacity to govern increasingly complex agricultural economies if they’re to sustain the gains seen and reported in 2016. Modern agriculture involves decisions on topics such as the impact of climate change, nutrition, improved seed and agricultural inputs, emerging technologies, infrastructure, research and extension and financing.

Countries around the world have responded to the need for up-to-date information by creating offices of science and technology advice to complement the work of other presidential advisers. African presidents and prime ministers need to have similar knowledge support offices. Otherwise they risk making decisions that are not supported by the best possible available advice.

Calestous Juma is a Professor of the Practice of International Development, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard University.

Organisation, includes new methods of drying and storing fish. This would reduce post-harvest losses.

To begin to address this, a programme was launched in which more than 200 young men and women will receive training and mentoring support in the handling and processing of fish and fish products.

“Given the importance of fisheries and aquaculture in food security in Africa, other countries… can draw on the experiences of Somalia to develop national sectoral development plans and build partnerships to improve the sustainable intensification of their fisheries sector,” a report from the Food and Agriculture Organisation notes.

Infrastructural wins

The AGRA report also highlighted the importance of investment in rural infrastructure – particularly transportation, energy, telecommunications and irrigation. It says a “10% decrease in rural transport cost can generate a 25% increase in the quantity of food traded.” This year in Kenya’s Rift Valley, rural roads were revamped. This reduced the cost of transporting food.

Transportation is only one aspect of infrastructure. Reliable energy is also key for the creation and growth of agro-industries in rural and urban areas. More importantly, the use of renewable energy can help African countries generate energy more sustainably. A good example is the launch of East Africa’s largest solar plant in Soroti, Uganda.

Similarly, irrigation is essential for crop production. Only about 4% per of African agriculture is irrigated, whereas the share is 45% in Asia and 18% for global agriculture. African countries are increasingly using solar power for irrigation. In 2016, for example, Rwanda launched a $13 million solar-powered irrigation scheme in collaboration with the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Another key highlight of the 2016 AGRA report is the importance of including nutrition in overall agricultural strategies. Nourishing people is just as important as feeding them. In 2016 Ghana launched a new project aimed at improving maternal and child nutrition by encouraging the consumption of milk. In addition to improving nutrition, the project seeks to support income generation along the dairy value chain.


2016 in Review: Emerging Agricultural Transformation 2016 in Review: M

aputo to Malabo

Source : African Development Bank

Recent cross-country data from Africa suggest that at least some aspects of the agricultural transformation process are well underway. After decades of stagnation, much of Africa has enjoyed sustained agricultural productivity growth since 2005. Signs are emerging that poverty rates are declining in many countries such as Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Burkina Faso, but not in others.

Africa’s workforce is shifting, in some cases quite rapidly,from farming to off-farm sectors, similar to Green Revolution in Asia. The number of medium- and large-scale farms is increasing rapidly and account for a sizeable and rising portion of total farmland in many African countries. Agribusiness and downstream food systems are responding dynamically to population growth, urbanization and changing food diets associated with income growth. In many countries, agriculture remains the predominant sector of the economy, accounting on average for 25 percent of the GDP in SSA and well above this level for many countries. The sector makes up close to half the GDP, on average, considering the broader agribusiness sector—including input supply, processing, and market access. Therefore stronger agricultural growth can act as a powerful multiplier for economic growth.

2016 in Review: Emerging Agricultural Transformation 2016 in Review: M

aputo to Malabo

CAADP is an unparalleled framework for agricultural transformation that has raised the political profile of agriculture

and investments in the sector. About 80 percent of African countries have embraced the CAADP agenda by adopting

its principles, targets, and processes, and 30 countries have elaborated evidence-based agricultural investment plans

that are guiding program implementation and investments.

CAADP is having positive effects toward greater food security in countries that have implemented the CAADP process.

Besides the need to continue the progress towards eliminating hunger and undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies

and overweight and obesity must also be addressed. Africa’s food systems must become nutrition sensitive to create a

nutrition revolution. Evidence and human capacity is needed to inform policies and programs to stimulate and sustain

food systems that promote health and productivity.

Given the upcoming CAADP biennial reviews, mutual accountability processes need to be expanded to more countries

while existing ones are strengthened to ensure that they are comprehensive, regular, and technically robust. Although

they have increased recently, agricultural expenditures and investments need to be increased further to help meet the

ambitious goals under the 2014 Malabo Declaration.


African countries spent $35 billion on food imports . The share accounted for by intra-African trade was less than 5%. If Africa’s farmers increased their productivity and substituted these imports with their own produce, this would provide a powerful impetus to reducing poverty, enhancing food and nutrition security, and supporting a more inclusive pattern of growth. The World Bank predicts that African agriculture will generate 1 trillion dollars by 2030 and produce 10% of the global food supply—provided the sector is transformed, becomes more e cient, productivity is raised to global levels, and post-harvest losses currently running at around 40% are drastically reduced.

To drive economies, Africa must enhance agricultural productivity through yield improvement; upgrade value chains; improve infrastructure and access to energy; and exploit local, regional and international demand. Further there is need to increase use of modern technology; encourage innovation; and vastly expand knowledge-sharing outreach to bring African farmers up to speed with their counterparts elsewhere in the world and promote effective and innovative financing, and stimulating private participation. Lastly, the sector needs to be restructured to become a business opportunity to attract youth who currently tend to shun it as a dead end. The sector has the potential to create eight million new jobs by 2020—14 million if transformation is accelerated.

Source : Feed the Future

2016 in Review: Driving Economic Transformation

Smallholder farmers in Africa are failing to take advantage of existing and emerging opportunities because of many

market-related constraints that require urgent attention. Post-harvest losses, which may affect quantity or quality,

are substantial and the proportion of the added value that goes to the farmers is small. Quantity losses threaten food,

nutrition and income security while quality losses lead to inferior nutritional value, food borne health hazards and

economic losses when the produce loses market appeal.

Adoption of improved technology is critical to raising crop yields and reducing post-harvest losses. It is also a

requirement for establishing sustainable and competitive agricultural sectors. Increased investment in technology

must be accompanied by serious investments in research and extension. Prioritizing public investment in rural roads

can produce tangible benefits which can transform production and post-harvest activities. Further, there is need to

create/maintain incentives to promote private investment in storage, marketing and processing infrastructure,

reducing the fiscal burden associated with such investments.

Direct interventions in output markets can weaken private incentives for investment in activities at post-harvest

level including storage, trading and processing. These actions also tend to squeeze producer margins and create even

more uncertainty in output markets. Therefore, creating a predictable and rules-based enabling policy and regulatory

environment are critical to successful transition from pilots to mainstream marketing, financing and market-based risk

management instruments.

2016 in Review: Post Harvest to Market

2016 in Review: Driving Economic Transformation

2016 in Review: Financing Africa’s Agriculture


Africa’s agriculture sector today attracts less than five percent of the lending from formal financial institutions, leavingfarmers and agricultural enterprises starved of the capital they need to operate and grow their enterprises. Inadequate financing of agriculture has been a major impediment to the sector, especially for smallholder farmers, their organizations, and small and medium agro-enterprises which lack basic financial services. The unmet demand for finance in agriculture, which cuts across all the agricultural value chains in Africa, is pushing for a search for new ways of financing the sector. Innovative financing approaches and instruments are being designed to mobilize additional resources and to address market failures or institutional barriers.

Private-sector led approaches to mobilizing resources are becoming increasingly important and show great promise for improving access to capital in African agriculture. After years of neglect, banks, private equity funds,impact investors, and microfinance institutions and financial cooperatives are bringing new capital to African agriculture.

America’s Existing Farmland Africa’s Arable Land

2016 in Review: Financing Africa’s Agriculture2016 in Review

: Innovation and Digital TechnologyThe International Monetary Fund (IMF) forecasts that Africa will be the second fastest growing region in the

world between 2016 and 2020 with an annual growth of 4.3 percent, up from 3.5 percent in 2015. Investment in

infrastructure has doubled over the last decade and currently stands at 3.5 percent of GDP, mobile technologies

and services generated 6.7 percent of GDP in 2015 and in most countries GDP growth per capita registered at 4.2

percent in 2015 as a result of improved competitiveness and strong trade performance in continental and regional

markets Advances in digital technology are transforming the agricultural sector, quickly aggregating farmers and farm level

data that is helping boost financial inclusion for smallholder farmers. Emerging technologies are also being integrated

with mobile technology that is pervasive in SSA to scale and replicate success across the agricultural sector. This leads

to networked value chains that have helped increase productivity at farm level, facilitated access to markets, and

created cost efficiencies across value chains.

Smallholder farmers and farmer organizations are still facing challenges with information flow and management due

to limited financial resources and technical knowhow for applying technologies needed to mitigate effects of climatic

change. New technologies are also too complex and sophisticated for smallholder farmers to use, which has limited

their adoption and impact. Governments and decision makers are intervening in the development and promotion

of digital technology in the agricultural sector by fostering multistakeholder partnerships to promote the use of

sustainable and climate smart ICT models so as to improve resilience to climate change and foster financial inclusion.

Source : Africa Progress Panel

2016 in Review: Achieving Food Security & Nutrition


The poverty rate and prevalence of undernourishment declined in sub-SaharanAfrica (SSA) between 1990–1992 and 2014–2016. However, the total number ofundernourished people continues to increase with an estimated 217.8 million in2014–2016 compared to 175.7 million in 1990–1992.

There is a need to adopt an integrated approach—which comprises sustainedimplementation of a mix of complementary and comprehensive food securityand nutrition policies and programs—to effectively impact hunger, foodinsecurity, and malnutrition in SSA.

Lessons for improving nutrition through agriculture include: efficient and effective production of diversified, highly nutritious and (bio)fortified foods; enhancing value chains to improve nutritional quality and food safety; effective participation of all stakeholders; involvement of the private sector in strengthening linkages within agricultural supply chains; setting up effective accountability systems; and better policies and investments.

2016 in Review: Achieving Food Security & Nutrition

The paradox of scarcity amidst plenty best defines the modern day reality. This is especially true for agricultural financing and investments. Although

myriad investors and financiers are increasingly channelling resources into agricultural development, farmers, particularly the smallholders and the small and medium enterprises servicing them (SMEs), rarely access these resources. And, when they do, they lack the capacity to absorb them into their businesses in ways that deliver tangible and long-term profits .

As noted by the World Economic Forum, private flows to developing countries are already increasing, reflecting increased attention on investment opportunities in global growth markets. However, they often struggle to make inroads into the projects, sectors and countries where they can have the maximum development impact.

Enter blended finance, which is generally defined as the approach to development finance that employs the strategic use of development finance and philanthropic funds to mobilize private capital flows to emerging and frontier markets. In most cases, technical assistance for banks, farmers and SMEs is provided alongside blended finance to enhance uptake and impact of financial instruments.

Applied correctly, blending development finance or philanthropic funds with private capital de-risks the agricultural sector thereby infusing private financiers and investors with confidence to channel their investments into the sector.

Ultimately, the private investors and financiers secure viable returns while the farmers receive requisite funds to transform farming into thriving businesses. Development funders, on the other hand, magnify the impacts of small amounts of public sector support to leverage larger amounts of private finance into the sector

Despite the well-meant intentions of this approach and the attendant increase in finances available in the sector, these resources are still not reaching the critical end users - farmers, their associations, business enterprises and banks. AGRA thinks one of the reasons is the lack of relevant technical assistance which should help to close the gap between the banks and borrowers. The design and implementation of the technical assistance facilities largely remain as ‘orphans’ in the blended finance mechanism.

Redesigned Focus on Blended Finance to Unlock Africa’s Agriculture Potential By Hedwig Siewertsen


That is why AGRA is calling for more focus and a rethinking on the design and implementation of TA facilities linked to the blended finance mechanisms to ensure that more beneficiaries are impacted sustainably. We are aiming for more effective technical assistance facilities

At the moment, most attention in designing blended finance instruments goes to the structuring of the financial instruments including a variety of debt and guarantee mechanisms that are managed by investment funds or banks. The structuring of the technical assistance (TA) is in most cases less thought through and left to non-permanent structures to implement.

TA is mostly outsourced to a wide range of consultants and therefore remains uncoordinated and ad hoc. Consultants hardly have ownership of the design process or the incentive to make TA permanent and sustainable. This hampers SMEs and farmers to continuously access affordable and appropriate financial services and banks to continuously provide relevant services.

To improve the effectiveness of the technical assistance and therefore of the blended finance instruments the following should be done: Ensuring tight coordination of the various TA facilities linked to blended finance instruments to avoid unnecessary duplication and overlap, obtain economies of scale and derive common learning; Make the investment readiness and financing of SMEs and farmers the key measure of success of TA provision by linking payment for TA provision to development of the agricultural finance portfolio; and Ensuring that TA responds to a real need of agri-SMEs and farmers by fully incorporating their voice

Hedwig Siewertsen, is Head of AGRA’s Financial Inclusion for SmallholderFarmers in Africa Project (FISFAP). The project implemented in Ghana, Kenya and Tanzania is funded by MasterCard Foundation.

The growth of small-scale agriculture in

developing countries is being held back by critical underfunding

Less than one-quarter of the

financing needs of smallholder farmers

in developing countries are met

The annual financing gap is more than

US$150B

The bulk of financing requirements is in local markets that trade in crops such

as wheat, maize and cassava.

This year will not deliver a grand revolution in ICT for Agriculture (ICT4Ag); most of the players in this space have it all wrong. The past two years have seen

the introduction of terms like “cool” and “sexy” in a strong bid to woo the millennials into agriculture. Unfortunately, we have all accepted ICT as the avenue to “cool” and “sexy” agriculture. I argue that it is not. In fact, I do not believe in cool /sexy agriculture. But that is a debate for another day.

Growing up, I spent my holidays in the village and I remember when I had to walk into a dark room knocking my toes on tables, pots and pans before getting to the flashlight that my uncle left at the other end of the room. I wasted a lot of time and picked up a few injuries while at it. Think of ICT as the “nicer” uncle who leaves the flashlight by the entrance. See ICTs will NOT change how we farm; the hard work required couldn’t be sugar coated – but they can help farmers work more efficiently.

There are currently over 150 perceived ICT4Ag “solutions” on the continent ranging from Market information apps to Weather, Transport and Produce aggregation yet the continent still grapples with inadequate food supply and over reliance on imports. The youth are still crowding the urban centers while the rural lands wait their turn for the “ICT –Sexy/Cool injection”. I bet the youth being wooed wouldn’t mind an app that sends seeds to the ground!

A recent study by AGRA’s financial inclusion program titled the digital harvest describes the 150+ solution scenario as one that presented initial signs of success but is now showing signs of “post harvest losses”. The report concludes that flawed business models are the main cause of underperforming solutions.

I lead the digital function of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and as a digital native and Software developer - who hasn’t hang his boots, I appreciate that software developers are not businessmen/women and in this case not Agri-Business men /women.

Majority of software developers belong to the INTP

ICT for Agriculture - A long way to go!By Mark Irungu

Mark Irungu is the Associate Communications Officer - Brand & Events at AGRA.


(introversion, intuition, thinking, perceiving - Keirsey referred to INTPs as Architects one of the four types belonging to the temperament he called the Rationals ) and INTJ (introversion, intuition, thinking, judgment - According to Myers-Briggs the INTJ represents “The Mastermind”) personality types. They are known for their brilliant theories and unrelenting logic. In fact, they are considered the most logically precise and technically sound of all the personality types. They are also the quite rare. This sounds great, right? However, it presents a major loophole for analysis paralysis.

ICT4 Ag ventures not paired with an Agri-business mind or institution for that matter tend to be over thought and when extended over a long timeframe, such processes tend to detract from the tool’s value-creating portion. They eventually loose sight of the client and the ultimate goal to build a solution that contributes to an agriculture driven revolution in the continent.

AGRA’s 2016 Africa Agriculture Status Report puts a strong case for digitalization. There is no denying that digitalization, overall, has created inclusion, efficiency and opened up doors for innovation. Putting these great ideas to work is where the work is. Creating a solution that meets the daily needs of farmers has got to be a deliberate, well thought out process and not just prize money handed out after a 4-day hackerthon.

All is not lost; there are many lessons in failure. I hope we chose to learn and maybe start again. For now; the good old methods in policy, seed company development, fertilizer, aggregation centers, extension services and the farmer – who understands little or nothing about digital platforms will continue feeding majority of African households.

Farmers are the traditional innovators in agriculture, and actively engage in communication about innovation. The key for development actors is to understand the traditional process of farmer innovation in order to succeed in bringing ICT in line to support this.

Farmer-led documentation is at a point in the innovation process where ICT can be effectively used to document innovation processes and generate knowledge, especially local agricultural content.While African youth have shown

insufficient interest in agriculture, and their engagement have not been sufficiently supported, the emerging trend of applying ICT solutions to agriculture are attracting an increasing number of youth (back) to agriculture..

Source: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation


Last month, soil scientists and policy makers from East and Southern Africa met in Rwanda to solve a critical problem facing smallholder farmers: how to make decisions about the type and amount of fertilizer to apply to their soil.

Years of poor agronomic practices including continuous cropping with little or no fertilizers means Africa now has some of the poorest soils in the world. This decline in soil fertility, coupled with a growing population, continues to leave Africa nutritionally insecure.

Part of the problem is that farmers are applying the wrong type of fertilizer. A lack of information, knowledge, and money means many farmers will apply a general fertilizer, often lacking the nutrients they actually need.

Let’s look at zinc as an example. While it is considered a micronutrient, it is critical for helping plants grow. When a soil lacks zinc, plants struggle to grow, as the nutrient is vital constituent for many enzymes and proteins. It is also important for internode elongation and production of growth hormones. But it isn’t just soil that needs zinc. The human body requires zinc to stabilize blood sugar levels, prevent depression, and boost the immune system. But because our soils are low in zinc, the grain we harvest is deficient in zinc.

To overcome this challenge, we need to do more than apply more fertilizer. We need to encourage farmers to adopt the right fertilizers, those that contain all the nutrients our soils, and bodies, need. But getting farmers to adopt more specific fertilizers has been hard, because they didn’t know they needed them.

That’s why, for the past decade, AGRA has supported the development of appropriate fertilizer recommendations that not only focus on the key nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus but also lesser known micro-nutrients like zinc, iron, and magnesium.

Through this work, we funded research to get a better understanding of soil fertility levels within a country, and then

used these findings to develop appropriate fertilizer blends. In Rwanda, we worked with the Rwanda Agricultural Board

to develop more appropriate fertilizer recommendations for maize, beans, rice, wheat and Irish potatoes – important foods for many Rwandese. By having these recommendations, farmers know the exact type of fertilizer they need to apply.

Because of the project, over 6,500 farmers are now using blended fertilizers. Some of these farmers who are growing maize have seen yields triple to over three tons per ha (t/ha), while farmers growing beans have increased their yields to 1.7t/ha up from just 0.5 tons.

Spurred by the results and impact of this work, the Government of Rwanda has provided additional funds to fine-tune the recommendations and establish an additional 1000 demonstration sites, to show the benefits of using fertilizer blends to even more farmers.

The new demand for blended fertilizers has also encouraged a local investor to start making and selling fertilizer blends for beans, rice, maize, wheat and potatoes.

Finally, the project has laid the foundations for other work in the soil nutrient space. The recommendations out of the project were used to support the IFDC and CABI-led Optimizing Fertilizer Regulation Project in Africa, which developed soil nutrient maps for Rwanda. This means extension staff, farmers and others now have even more detailed information on what nutrients their soils lack, so they can make better decisions about the type and amount of fertilizer they actually need.

Healthy Soils, Healthy People

By Abednego Kiwia

Abednego Kiwia is the Coordinator of Farmers’ Solutions Program at AGRA


Innocent Jumbe, 26, is a symbol of where African agriculture is heading. He is young, educated, entrepreneurial, and driven.

Innocent is the production manager in the family business, Peacock Seeds, where he oversees the company’s seed production activities from planting all the way to distribution and sales. Started by his father, Felix, in 2007, Peacock Seed has grown to become a major player in Malawi’s seed sector, selling quality seed including maize, pigeonpea, beans, and chickpea — crops grown by Malawian smallholder farmers.

“At first I hated the idea of moving into the family business,” Innocent says. “But I have this thing where I love maize. The math, the science I love it … and that’s what got my interest,” he says. “After I was done with school in 2012, I thought, ‘Why should I work for someone else, when there is money here, and I can help the business to move forward’?”

In a country where the average age of a farmer is 65, Innocent is a noticeable exception, but he is not alone. Shane Phiri, 26, is another young entrepreneur doing impressive things in Malawi’s seed sector.

“I come from a business family, and that has probably influenced my

Two young agripreneurs shaking things up in Malawi

decision to stay in business. Everyone in my family is doing business,” Shane says. Shane is the managing director of Global Seeds, a business that he set up with his mom, Meria, in 2012. Global Seeds is one of the few companies in Malawi producing foundation seed; this is the seed that seed companies, like Peacock, use to grow the products they sell to farmers.

“There is very little supply of foundation seed in Malawi. It’s a big problem and is a bottleneck for the whole industry,” Shane says.

These two young men are perfect examples of the cheetah generation, a term Ghanaian economist George Ayittey uses to describe the new generation of Africans that are ‘taking their futures into their own hands, instead of waiting for politicians to empower them.’ Many of Africa’s cheetahs can be found hunting in the technology and digital domains; however, Innocent and Shane are a great exception, focusing their efforts on chasing opportunities in agriculture.

These opportunities are well known. Africa has a growing agricultural sector, with an increasing demand for its products, which are needed to feed not only the rapidly growing urban population on the continent

Shane, 26 yrs, is the Managing Director and part owner of Global Seeds, a small seed company in Malawi that grows and sells foundation seed.

Shane has studied both locally and internationally, earning a Bachelor in Agribusiness Management from the University of Malawi and a Masters in Agronomy from Mississippi State University.

On his personal goal for the future, Shane says: “I want to teach at the university level. You can inspire a lot of people in a classroom. And my goal, as my business grows and develops, is to become a lecture and take some of those experiences [of starting a business] and pass them on to whoever is ready to learn.”

SHANE PHIRI

Innocent, 26yrs, is the Production Director for Peacock Seed Company in Malawi. After studying a Bachelor of Science and Technology majoring in environmental management, Innocent joined the family business and has played pivotal role in the company’s growth.

On what needs to happen to encourage more youth into agriculture, Innocent says: “What we need is more action than talk. You can talk to 100 young farmers and say you need to get into agriculture and give them all sorts of testimonies, without understanding what those young farmers want. If they say they need capital, and you’ve simply talked to them, I don’t think you’ve assisted them. If they need capital, talk to them about how they can get capital.”

INNOCENT JUMBE

but also the burgeoning world population. The potential is so great that the Zimbabwean entrepreneur and businessman Strive Masiyiwa often says that if he had his time over again, he wouldn’t go into mobile phones, he would invest in agriculture. “Twenty years ago, the idea that people could have their own phone was almost as ludicrous as the idea that Africa will feed the world. But 20 years from now, this continent will feed the world,” he said.

Both men sense this opportunity. “We are in a country where everyone needs food—you can’t go wrong with farming,” Shane says. However, it is not all fair game.

Earlier this year, the Government of Malawi declared a state of disaster after a failed season wiped out 12% off the country’s maize production, making an estimated 6.5 million Malawians food insecure. The El Niño-induced drought that affected many parts of Sub-Saharan Africa has reinforced the need to make adaptation to climate change a priority if African agriculture is going to feed the world. While no farmer can ever fully defend against drought, with the right tools and techniques, they can be in a better position to minimize its effects. In a year like this one, this may be the difference between having no food or having enough to make it to the next harvest.

MH34 is one example of the tools that can help farmers counter the effects of climate change. The fast-maturing drought-tolerant maize variety, produces more food per hectare and is also tolerant to diseases like maize steak virus, that reduces maize yields.

However, while it was officially released in 2013, farmers have difficulty finding it in the shops. “MH34 is a typical example of how

with no companies in Malawi producing foundation seed, farmers can’t buy the variety in their local shop,” Shane says. However, things are changing.

In 2015, both companies received funding and support from the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Africa, an initiative by USAID and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa that seeks to increase farmer access to transformative tools like new crop varieties. Through the funding, Global Seeds is multiplying foundation seed, while Peacock Seed is growing certified seed to sell through agro-dealer shops in the country. Both companies run campaigns to reach farmers on the availability of newer crop varieties.

While both entrepreneurs are successful and have received widespread recognition, they admit being an entrepreneur can be a lonely path. “I’ve got a few friends that admire what I do,” Innocent says. “Of course they hate the fact I’m not available to chat with them, but at the end of the day, I’m getting my job done. I’m getting what I want.”

Lonely or not, they agree more young people should be following their lead. “More youth need to become entrepreneurs, as that’s the way we are going to develop this country,” Shane says. However, to do that, he adds, you must jump when the opportunity comes. “Probably the biggest struggle of why we don’t seize opportunities is an internal thing. You have to decide within yourself to do something, and that’s half the job,” he says.

The other half, it seems, is accessing credit. “There are a lot of people with good ideas, but where you do get the money? High interest

rates – currently exceeding 40% – are inhibiting entrepreneurship,” Shane says.

At the African Green Revolution Forum in September, Kenya’s President, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced a US$200 million program to give at least 150,000 of the country’s young agricultural entrepreneurs access to markets, finance, and insurance. While the specific details of the initiative are not known, it is an acknowledgment of the challenges young people face when entering agriculture and a commitment to help overcome them.

When people think of agriculture, they tend to focus on the farm, forgetting the other jobs that exist. As someone whose role is more than just a farmer in the field, Innocent urges people to look at the whole sector. “We have a whole value chain in agriculture, including producers, processors, and transport. If everyone comes to the farm, the rest of the agricultural value chain will suffer. For me, my part is the farm, but someone else they might buy maize and process it into cornflakes. That’s still agriculture,” he says.

While a lack of access to credit is one reason why many entrepreneurs shy away from agriculture, another might be how agriculture is viewed. Ask many young people, and they will tell you agriculture is a drudgery for old people and punishment for misbehaving children. No one becomes a farmer or goes into agriculture for ‘a career’.

“Some of the people I studied with are still not employed. They are out there waiting for a white collar job because they don’t want to touch dirt,” Innocent says. “I think it is a matter of differences of perception. I look at the soil as where the money is; they look at the money being in offices.”


What are the best approaches for encouraging farmers to adopt improved soil health practices?

The answer is more than just creating awareness. Without access to finance, inputs, and markets, farmers will be reluctant to embrace any new methods or technologies.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), has published a book, outlining the key lessons from its ‘Going Beyond Demos’ initiative. While development efforts often center on awareness activities like demonstration plots, Going Beyond Demos combines raising awareness with access to inputs and markets giving farmers the knowledge, tools, and markets they need to adopt improved practices. And it’s working, with almost two million farmers adopting the promoted practices on over 1.34 million hectares.

“The program learned early on that while creating awareness of new technologies through on-farm demonstrations was important, more had to be done,” AGRA’s President, Dr. Agnes Kalibata said.

“We had to find innovative solutions to the systemic challenges that stand in the way of smallholder farmers adopting soil health technologies.”

The Going Beyond Demos to Transform African Agriculture: The Journey of AGRA’s Soil Health Program book documents the motivation behind establishing the Going Beyond Demos initiative and provides case studies and success stories on its implementation.

“We hope that this book will help all those who are working to take soil health technologies to scale across Africa,” Dr. Kalibata said.

Farmer cooperatives have become a vital resource for farmers; without them, many farmers would

struggle to find markets, access finance, or be able to buy inputs. But in countries like Senegal, where the seed sector remains severely underdeveloped and struggles to produce enough seed to meet demand, farmer cooperatives are working to fill this gap.

The Senegalese Network of Farmers and Livestock Breeders’ Organization, better known by its French acronym RESOPP, was formed in 2005 as a union to help farmer cooperatives in Senegal provide members with better access to finance through savings, banking, and agricultural services.

Since then, RESOPP has grown to represent over 38 cooperatives across eight regions in Senegal; combined, these cooperatives serve over 35,000 farmers.

In 2014, RESOPP received funding from the USAID-supported Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Africa to produce and market over 700 metric tons of quality seed of improved varieties to farmers in the Bassin Arachidier region in Senegal.

As one of the lead farmers, Nadjeumbe Mandieumb Ka, from Gouye Mbaye Sall Village, plays a vital role in not only growing seed under contract to the cooperative but in demonstrating the benefits of the new varieties to farmer cooperative members. Such demonstrations allow farmers in the community to see for themselves the differences in yield and growth between local and improved varieties.

“Generally, farmers are not too easy to convince, and a farmer will act on what he has seen and experienced. So, he has to see and experience the thing before adopting,” Mandieumb says.

Another beneficiary, Khady Diop, from Dara Ndiakhour Village in central Senegal,

says she joined her local cooperative after seeing how her neighbors, were producing more than she was.

“As a member, I receive seed, inputs, and training which has helped me produce enough grain to meet my needs,” says Khady, who started to farm so she and her husband could afford to send their children to school.

When Khady first started farming, she would harvest less than a bag of groundnuts, now by using improved varieties and other inputs, she is harvesting two to three bags from the same area.

“Before, I used to plant groundnut, millet, and cowpea on one hectare, but I can now afford the inputs, I plant one hectare for each crop,” she says.

Using quality inputs has helped Kady become more productive, and make more money, giving her and her husband the money they need to send their children to school.

Abdoulaye Camara from Mboulem Village is one of six children currently in school, Abdoulaye knows the importance of a productive and profitable farm. The 22-year-old, who is studying language at university, says working with RESOPP has shown him that farming can be profitable.

“Before joining RESOPP, we used to harvest about 1.7 tons of millet per hectare, but this year, we expect to harvest 2.7t/ha. When you grow more, you have more money to change your livelihood. Some people in the community are using their money to get married, build a house, or start a new business. Our family is using the money to send us to school,” Abdoulaye says.

Going far together: how farmer groups help strengthen communities

A seed’s genetics contributes more to a farmer’s yields than any other factor combined.

However, despite the critical role good seed plays in farm production, on average only 20 percent of farmers in Africa use seeds of improved varieties. The numbers are even lower among smallholder farmers who make up close to 70 percent of the continent’s population.

Furthermore, a good percentage of the seeds used in most countries are not locally produced which creates a massive import bill for African governments. As these seeds are not locally bred taking into consideration the prevailing agro-ecological conditions, they are rarely resistant to pests and diseases.

For Africa to attain food and nutrition security that will spur inclusive growth and development, local production of seeds of high yielding varieties must be increased. These seeds should be tailored for specific ecological conditions to adapt to the changing climate. They must also be disease and pest resistant.

Despite the enormous potential for private sector engagement, there are very few local private companies producing seed in Africa. In the last ten years, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has made targeted investments that have resulted in a rise in the number of local seed companies from 10 in 2007 to 101 today in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa excluding South Africa.

Over the years, these companies have

produced and sold an estimated 475,805 MT of improved seeds.

In the last decade, those farmers who have planted improved seed have doubled their yields, helping to increase the production of cereals, pulses, soybeans and groundnuts by four million tons in 2015 alone. In monetary terms, this represents about US$ 2.2 billion in additional income for these farmers.

In 2012, these seed companies set themselves an ambitious target of producing 10,000MT tons each per year giving rise to what is dubbed the ‘10K Seed Club’. So far, only four companies have joined this club.“If you have a direction you want to take, there is no one from whom you need to beg permission,” she said. “It’s on us to make the future.”

These companies recently met in Kenya to review progress and learn from each other on the best approaches towards the target.

Speaking on behalf of Hon. Willy Bett, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, Eng. Jasper Nkanya, Chief Agricultural Engineer at the Ministry, encouraged more local private companies to invest in seed production and distribution.

“The Government in partnership with our development partners has funded the research and development of locally adapted, high yielding varieties and is willing to share these technologies with private seed companies to ensure that we meet the seed demand in the country, and

indeed the continent,” he saidDr. Agnes Kalibata, AGRA President

noted that Africa was witnessing an agricultural transformation with countries that made the biggest investments in smallholder agriculture rewarded with sizeable jumps in both farm productivity and overall economic performance. As outlined in the 2016 Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR), a decade of intense domestic attention to farmers and food production has generated “the most successful development effort” in African history.

“Seeds of improved varieties are important in raising yields and ensuring food security, proper nutrition and prosperity for not only smallholder farmers but the general population. The irony of the seed industry globally is that smallholder farmers who need seeds the most to make more from their small pieces of land have the least access to these seeds,” said Dr. Kalibata.

“Local private seed companies are a critical player in delivering a truly African green revolution. The need for locally-adapted well-performing seeds is even more urgent today with the worsening impacts of climate change. Crops like sorghum, millet, and legumes such as cowpeas, pigeon peas and green grams will become more important. We are advising seed companies to be agile enough. We also need to form even stronger partnerships with all stakeholders to stay on top of seed needs for African farmers,” Dr. Kalibata added.

Africa must spur production of improved seeds for food security and climate resilience


Solar power is changing the way poor households access electricity. One of the companies leading the charge is

M-KOPA. Based in Nairobi, Kenya, M-KOPA delivers clean energy which customers pay for in affordable installments with mobile money, allowing customers make incremental steps towards owning and upgrading assets that bring improvements in their lives.

The 400,000 households in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Ghana connected to M-KOPA-Solar are the vanguard of the revolution underway in the energy sector. By keeping transaction costs down, M-KOPA is offering a new financial product that is inclusive and responsive to the needs of low-income consumers.

And by no longer needing to buy Kerosene - a health hazard and economically unsustainable as the primary fuel used to power homes- M-KOPA users are also making huge savings on their household energy bill, with the average household saving up to US$ 750 over a three-year period.

M-KOPA is a beneficiary of Renewable Energy and Adaptation to Climate Technologies, a special funding window of the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF), supporting business ideas that demonstrate access to low-cost clean energy solutions for rural businesses and households.

The AECF is a multi-donor funded financing vehicle that provides grants and interest-free loans to businesses with

the capacity to implement innovative, commercially viable, high-impact projects in Africa. The AECF supports businesses working in agriculture, financial services, renewable energy and technologies for adapting to climate change. The fund also supports initiatives in media and information services where they relate to these sectors.

M-KOPA’s clients are mainly lower income urban and rural populations living off the electricity grid. The company’s game changer is a simple kit stocked with a solar panel, charger, lights, radio and a SIM card to enable the ‘pay-as-you-go’ system. With their daily payments substituting kerosene for clean solar power, the customers’ mobile money installments are a low risk for financiers and well suited to scale household solar ownership for developing countries.

At the end of the repayment cycle, the MKOPA offers customers upgrades, enabling them secure new lines of credit to purchase additional products using their systems as collateral. Products on offer include new lights, energy-efficient stoves, water tanks and mobile telephones and the much sought after M-KOPA television.

In the words of Jon Ridley, who heads M-KOPA Labs: “Our values focus on improvements and newer innovations,” he says, “It’s in the culture of M-KOPA, enabling our clients to improve their lives and gain ownership of assets.”

All it takes for the customer to acquire an M-KOPA-Solar system is a deposit of

US$ 35 and payments of US$ 0.50 made via mobile phone every day over a 12-month period.

Originally, M-KOPA set itself a target of reaching 240,000 households by the end of 2017, as of July, it had connected over 400,000 homes. With an estimated 500 homes connected every day, the start-up is on track to reach one million homes across East Africa by the end of 2017.

Following its initial success in East Africa, M-KOPA is moving into West Africa and has already connected 10,000 homes in Ghana.

According to AECF Window Manager at KPMG, Victor Ndiege, although M-KOPA is a young business in a nascent industry, it has successfully tested a new approach to connecting homes to electricity.

“M-KOPA delivers systemic change through a low-income empowerment model for low-income earners to access smart products that power their lifestyles and livelihoods.”

Ridley agrees with him. “Ours is a joined up service, combining the provision of solar energy, an innovative financial service as well as generating crucial data in real time.”

The connectivity in the devices enables the team at MKOPA monitor how equipment is used as well as log customer repayment behavior. “These are the elements that allow us to build a flexible relationship with our customers,” Ridley says.

M-KOPA: Powering lifestyles and livelihoods in rural Africa

complete a two-year Master’s of Science program hosted by the Department of Plant Science and Crop Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Nairobi.

The students are majoring in either agronomy; plant breeding and biotechnology; seed technology or business management. Crops being studied within the students’ research component include maize, beans, cassava, rice, sweet potato, and soybean. The studies will equip the students with expertise to increase farmer adoption of seeds from superior crop varieties and good crop management practices.

“We are optimistic about creating the demand among farmers for improved seeds and better methods to support crop production,” he adds.

Alfred envisages the integration of a formal seed system for the entire DRC to sustain a robust and prosperous agricultural sector for smallholder farmers as the adoption of improved seed picks up.

“Food security cannot be separated from the uptake of improved seed among smallholder farmers,” he concludes.

Scholars revving to rebuild seed sectorsKnowledge is like a crop: plant it, water

it and nourish it and its harvest can be shared throughout the community from one season to the next.

Alfred N’Seleka Mutundi, is that crop. The seed inspector from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s National Seeds Services body, known better by its French acronym SENASEM, is one of the nine students from the DR Congo and South Sudan studying in Nairobi as part of an initiative to build the capacity of the country’s researchers.

“I am learning about the procedures to support a vibrant seed industry,” Alfred says, “This information is necessary for the integration of a formal seed system as well as being able to protect seed breeders’ rights.”

In the absence of an organized seed system in the DRC, Alfred knows that he carries a huge responsibility to nurture and scale the impact of his country’s national seed authority.

“My colleagues and I now understand the relationship between seed breeders, seed technologists, and agronomists.”

As both countries slowly emerge from decades of conflict, a partnership between AGRA, the Howard Buffet Foundation, and the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, is helping develop the seed system in the two countries by focusing on rebuilding the human capacity lost over the years.

The partnership is supporting three students from South Sudan and six from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to

Working at AGRA is more than just a regular job. Every day is a commitment to change the reality of farming for Africa’s smallholder farmers.

“My work is rewarding,” says Mary Tekyi-Ansah Yaodze, a program assistant at AGRA’s West Africa office based in Ghana. “These are exciting times AGRA as well as for our numerous partners, but the biggest beneficiaries are the smallholder farmers that are at the center of the work we do,” she adds.

AGRA values its employees highly and is committed to establishing and maintaining a work environment that fosters productive working relationships and mutual respect among staff.

AGRA’s HR policies ensures continued success in achieving its mission through highly-qualified, diverse and motivated people whose support to programs and administration contributes to AGRA’s success. “The primary consideration in staff recruitment is to secure the highest standards of competence and commitment to AGRA’s mission and values,” says Vuhya.

A key pillar of AGRA’s HR policy and one of the benefits of working for AGRA, is a strong focus on staff development.

To help staff enhance their professional knowledge and networks, they are encouraged to participate in professional meetings that are relevant to their expertise and work.

AGRA also encourages and supports staff to pursue formal studies through an accredited institution, with AGRA covering the tuition, books, materials, and transportation costs.

Bernard Nimo is an Information Technology Officer based in AGRA’s West Africa Office. Currently, Bernard is pursuing advanced studies in information systems from the University of Phoenix, Arizona, USA. “Although my work does not have a direct interface with farmers, I know that everything I do counts for my colleagues and their partners.”

Working at AGRA is more than a job


It is 1988, and Ibrahima Niass has just returned home to Senegal after spending the past four

years studying econometrics in Morocco. However, unlike many of his peers, a job as a civil servant isn’t for him. Sure, the pay can be good, and it may be a job for life, but Ibrahima doesn’t want that. Instead, he asks his father for two hectares of land and starts growing seeds.

“Many people thought it was a joke; they wondered why, after completing such high levels of study, that I would want to become a farmer,” Ibrahima says, “but I didn’t want to farm the same way my parents and grandparents farmed. I learned from my friends in Morocco that agriculture could be profitable, and I wanted to start a revolution in Senegal that would help us revolutionize our agricultural sector.”

That revolution was built on the idea that farmers needed better access to newer, improved crop varieties that yielded more and could withstand the pressures of drought, pests, and diseases that limited farmer productivity.

From those two hectares, Ibrahima Niass has expanded his business, Tool Baye, to become one of Senegal’s largest seed companies. Last year, the company produced over 5200 metric tons of seed of groundnut, millet, sorghum, and maize.

By improving farmers’ access to and knowledge of these varieties, Ibrahima, through Tool Baye, is giving farmers in Senegal the chance to grow more produce that they can use to feed their families and sell at local markets.

In a country that relies heavily on food imports – three-quarters of the rice consumed in Senegal is imported – improved crop varieties can play a vital role in reducing the gap between what farmers currently produce and what they could potentially produce.

The head of the Seed Body at the Rural Development Regional Directorate, Laity Diop, says the improved varieties can transform a farmer’s life. “These new crop varieties can make a dramatic impact on farmers’ lives. Take this year, for example, where we saw the rainy season end sooner than it normally does. The farmers who planted the older varieties struggled to harvest enough to recoup the seed they planted, while farmers who planted the newer varieties will have enough food to get them through to the next season,” he says.

In 2015, Ibrahima embarked on a project to give 30,000 farmers in Senegal’s groundnut basin access to improved varieties of maize, millet, and groundnuts. Through the project, funded by the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Africa, Tool Baye is producing and distributing 3000MT of seed of the improved varieties.

To achieve this, Tool Baye has contracted 1500 farmers - most of whom are working in groups - as out-growers; farmers who grow seed, as opposed to food. For the farmers, it helps increase their income as seed is worth more than grain.

Tool Baye provides the farmers with the land, inputs, and training they need to produce the seed, and then buys back the production at above market rates. The profit left after the costs of the inputs are recovered is the farmers to keep.

Mbaye Drame heads one of the groups involved in this project. He says many of the members of the group are using the contracts to subsidize their existing on-farm incomes. “Most of us rely on the grain we grow on our farms to provide food for our families,” he says. “So by working with Tool Baye as out-growers, we can make extra money, while helping [Tool Baye] meet the growing demand for improved seed.”

Increasing farmers access to improved seed isn’t the only revolution Ibrahima has been creating in Senegal. He has also been

empowering women by giving them the resources to make their own money. “Working with Tool Baye has been very good for us,” says Fatou Ndiaye, one of the members of the Tiakho Mady Women’s Farmer Group. “We are now making money to pay school fees and provide for other needs within our community.”

As well as paying for school fees, the women contribute to the local school and other community causes, like funerals and medical expenses. However, it is not just the out-growers who are benefiting from the project.

As seed production has increased, farmers have been quick to access the improved varieties. “When we first started working for Tool Baye, only 10% of farmers in the local community were able to obtain seed of improved varieties; now, we have almost 100% of people in the local area growing these new varieties,” says Matar Ndiaye, who supervises a Tool Baye group in Ndiathiang Village.

“Farmers are interested because they see the benefits. For example, if you grow groundnuts using an older variety and without fertilizer, you can expect to harvest about 500kg per hectare (/ha), but with good seed and inputs, your yields increase to 1.5MT/ha,” he says.

In the 1980’s, when Ibrahima made the decision to go against the grain and go into agriculture, it was because he saw what many others didn’t: agriculture’s potential.

“The potential is very real. We have water, we have land; the only thing we need is more funding and stronger policies from the government. But the potential is real,” he says. Fuelled by that vision, Ibrahima has been working to show others that with good seed, agriculture can be productive and profitable.

In Senegal,the potential is real

At the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), participants congregate to advance the policies and secure the investments that will ensure a better life for millions of Africa’s farmers and families—and realize the vision of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The seventh AGRF 2017 will be held on 4th to 8th September 2017 in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire. This being the first time AGRF is being held in a Francophone West African country it promises extensive representation from across East and West Africa.

The Sixth African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) was held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 5th to 9th September, 2016. The theme of this year’s AGRF was “Seize the Moment: Securing Africa’s Rise through Agricultural Transformation.” “Seize the Moment” recognizes the significant progress African countries have made over the last decade to build a foundation for a renaissance in the agriculture sector across the entire value chain and also recognizes that much more

needs to be done. Many of Africa’s steadfast champions of agriculture stepped forward with significant and concrete commitments of more than US $30 billion in investments to increase production, income and employment for smallholder farmers and local African agriculture businesses over the next 10 years. The Forum attracted more than 1500 delegates from 40 countries and proved to be a multi-stakeholder forum bringing together a diverse range of influential change agents from across the African agriculture landscape and around the world. They included African Heads of State, global business leaders, ministers, farmers and farmer organizations, private agribusiness firms, financial institutions, civil society groups and scientists, as well as international development and technical partners.

In a region challenged by climate change, rapidly growing urban populations, and an urgent need for jobs, agriculture offers solutions, providing a clear path to food security and employment opportunities for

all Africans. We have seen through our collective efforts across the agriculture sector that there are innovations, institutions, programs, and policies that work. The AGRF is our collective opportunity to highlight the best elements of Africa’s agriculture, the changes that are allowing farming families to lift themselves out of poverty by embracing farming as a business. It is up to all of us to come ready to build on our ongoing progress—quickly, efficiently, and at the speed and scale required to secure Africa’s rise through an agricultural transformation.

AGRF advances policies to secure investments for Africa’s agricultural transformation

Source: World Bank, Land Matrix

According to an online dictionary, the slang “going bananas” is an expression used when

one is excited that they act almost out of control. Though it has nothing to do with the banana fruit, for Jacinta and her farmer group, it has everything to do with it. “We have become so enthusiastic about banana farming that many of us have gone ballistic,” said the farmer in an explosive moment of happiness.

It is indeed, going bananas. How else would you explain Jacinta’s courage of overruling her husband in a matter such as taking a decision to fell down a whole acre of coffee trees in one day to replace them with bananas? “After experimenting on Tissue Culture Banana (TCB) farming on a small portion of my 3 acre farm in Kirinyaga County in Kenya and sharing with other farmers about the profitability of banana farming, I was completely convinced that banana farming was the next “coffee boom”, narrated Jacinta. She added; “I had just come from a very difficult financial situation with the coffee farming. Can you imagine after toiling and labouring to produce a coffee crop and taking it to the factory and sitting back to wait for payment for six months only for my coffee slip payment to reflect a negative pay?” Today, I make up to US$ 700 a month from my banana farm -- that is surely more than some bankers earn!

Jacinta’s story is the result of concerted

efforts by various actors who have invested in the banana value chain over the years and whose efforts are now bearing fruit literally. In 2014, the then Farmer Organization Support Centre in Africa (FOSCA) program, gave a grant of about US$ 400,000 to the East Africa Market Development Associates (EAMDA) to work with the County Government of Kirinyaga, the Banana Growers Association of Kenya and a private buyer to increase uptake of banana from the county following the adoption of tissue culture banana by farmers and an increase in production. In just two years, the Kirinyaga farmers have sold bananas worth US$ 400,000.

EAMDA put in place several strategies to bring about this success. They collaborated with private sector for cost-effective project implementation; Utilized partnerships with the public sector, key of which is the County Government of Kirinyaga towards project’s sustainability beyond the project period; utilized collective marketing and provided tents to serve as collection centres for increased farmer produce sales.

They further, catalyzed innovations through banana value addition to increase farmer earnings; linked farmers to financial service providers to access credit for increased production; Established EAMDA/ AGRA’s presence closer to farmers by setting up an office in Kutus town for credibility, enhanced visibility as well as ease of access by farmers and partners; and organized regular business forums for all partners.

Quality inputs are crucial for the banana value chain just like for other crops. The plantlets require to be grown in a hardening nursery before being transferred to farmers’ fields. EAMDA has forged partnerships with credible input suppliers towards the provision of quality inputs such as banana plantlets, equipment and agrochemicals. They facilitated establishment of demo plots and hardening nurseries for testing before promotion to FOs. Most farmer organizations are now purchasing inputs collectively to reduce the cost of sourcing. Further, EAMDA has facilitated the signing of MOUs with reputable agro-dealers who sell the plantlets at whole sale prices to farmers. This has led to the signing of 13 MOUs between FOs and input suppliers as well as service providers, partnerships that have contributed to the sale of 2,335 MTs of bananas, surpassing the total project target of 2,000 MTs.

EAMDA in partnership with Citizen, a Kenyan media house, hosts a weekly program on the local radio station Inooro that promotes value addition and disseminates knowledge on good agricultural practices in the banana value chain. This, alongside farmer field days and trainings that are open all farmers (even outside of banana farming) has enhanced the project’s reach to the targeted indirect beneficiaries.

We want everyone in Kirinyaga County to “Go Bananas about Bananas”


A potato farmer near Arusha, in northern Tanzania, has harvested 35 metric tons (MT)

of potatoes from his one-hectare plot, setting a new record yield in the country.

The yield of 35 MT/ha is ten times the local average and double the global average, which is 17MT/ha. The impressive feat occurred on a field where a farmer was testing how well the Meru, along with other recently released varieties of Irish potato, grew in the local area.

The demonstration is part of a project implemented by Crop Bioscience Solutions to produce and distribute clean potato seed to 17,000 smallholder farmers in northern Tanzania. AGRA funds the project through the Scaling Seeds and Technologies Partnership in Africa, an initiative by USAID and AGRA that seeks to increase smallholder farmer access to transformative agricultural technologies.

The CEO of Crop Bioscience Solutions, Wilfred Musobozi, says that with the right training, access to quality seed, and the adoption of good agricultural practices, other farmers should be able to achieve similar results.

“This yield is the combination of quality seed and good agricultural practices because without good agricultural practices, you can’t reach the variety’s potential,” he says.

Potatoes are an important crop in the region because they grow quickly and

provide farmers with a source of food and money in between the harvests of staple crops like maize. However, the use of low yielding varieties and poor on-farm practices means potato yields remain low.

“One of the first things we teach farmers is to grow potatoes on ridges or beds, this gives the crop more space to grow and makes it easier for farmers to irrigate the crop,” Wilfred says. “This is a small change that can have a significant impact on yield, but very few farmers do it. In fact, even many of the local extension staff lack the know-how to grow potatoes.”

For the trial, CBS identified a local farmer and provided him with clean seed and agronomic advice. “The rest of the farmers in the community continued with a business as usual approach, only to wait and see what would happen,” Wilfred says.

And it didn’t take long for farmers to start seeing the difference. The farmers noticed that while their crops were succumbing to bacteria wilt, none of the plants in the demonstration plot were affected. Unlike most of the seed farmers plant, the seed used for the demonstration was ‘clean,’ meaning it was free of disease. Clean seed, coupled with the Meru variety’s natural resistance to bacteria wilt, meant the farmer growing the demonstration crop didn’t have any yield losses.

“If you have a direction you want to take, there is no one from whom you need

to beg permission,” she said. “It’s on us to make the future.”

“Even before the disease started affecting plants, farmers were noticing the good plant vigor and health in the demonstration plot,” Wilfred said.

Local buyers and processors are also following the project closely. Wilfred says one local restaurant chain, Sky Foods, has expressed interest in contracting the farmers to supply potatoes, instead of buying them in Nairobi, almost 300 kilometers away.

“Sky Foods tried the variety we harvested and found it cooked well, and that customers liked it, so they took all the produce from the demonstration plot. Now they want more farmers in the area to produce the same variety and supply potatoes to the restaurant chain,” Wilfred says. The company also has plans to process potatoes into frozen chips; this could mean even more demand for farmers.

“When they [Sky Foods] first presented the potato processing business case for financing, the bank asked where they would source the produce from. Now it looks like we are unlocking what these people have been looking for because they have an assured supply from the farmers we are working with,” Wilfred says.

Tanzania registers record breaking potato yields


Problems in the post-harvest sector span a wide range of functions and disciplines. Their causes are complex as is cost-efficient strategy needed to overcome them. Causes of post

harvest losses are also technological in nature - use of out-dated mills that result in a high percentage of broken grains, inadequate threshing machines that result in lost grain and badly paved, open lawns used for drying. These challenges have inspired an innovative project in Mozambique.

Isabel Uacheta, Dina Impameia, and Amelia Bitone have one thing in common. They are women determined to succeed in agriculture. They are part of the first lot of beneficiaries of cost-sharing scheme to own threshing machines financed by IDRC with AGRA’s grantmaking and in collaboration with implementing partners, Technoserve in the district of Gurue, Zambezia province.

The project which is set to end in 2017 is expanding the use of post-harvesting technologies by co-funding 50% of the costs of a threshing machine. The beneficiaries contribute 10% , with the remaining 40% provided by a bank loan from the development financial institution - GAPI.

The project’s ambition is that the farmers provided with equipment,will extend threshing services beyond their own farms, and outsource to other smallholder farmers in the areas they operate.

The initiative seeks to promote the use of mechanized threshing equipment to reduce post-harvest losses and increase the availability of seed and grain production by smallholder farmers in Alta Zambezia.

Threshing equipment in women’s hands key to reducing postharvest losses in Mozambique

Technoserve has tested the technology in Gurue district with the potential of scaling up. The machines can thresh about 70-80 bags per day.

Dina, has been a farmer for many years alongside her husband, but recently decided to farm on her own 5 hectares of land with her own equipment.

Amelia, is currently farming a 5 ha of Soya beans in the Locality of Murrimo, in Gurue. She currently has 6 employees and uses tractor services from her family enterprise now engaged in agriculture. She says the firm uses rented seeding machines, but now she wants to own a threshing machine to service her and other farmers in the region.

Isabel, a farmer and short term nutrition consultant recognized the value of the threshing equipment project support and decided to invest in 7 ha of soya in the administrative post of Lioma. She employs 10 casual laborers on her soya seed production field. She also owns 10 hectares of land in Ruace where she produces maize grain as well as pigeon peas and soya.

By Paulo Mole

Paulo Mole, PhD, is the Country Head for Mozambique at AGRA

Janet Gyimah-Kessie founding CEO of Josma Agro Industries Ltd in Ghana. The banker-turned-seed business and agro-processing entrepreneur is changing smallholder farmer lives in the Ashanti

Region of Ghana by availing large quantities of quality cassava and yam planting materials. Gyimah-Kessie first ventured into seed production after realizing that though the country’s appetite for cassava and cassava-derived foods such as ‘fufu’ (boiled and pounded cassava) was massive, farmers were not growing improved varieties due to their perceptions that the roots were not poundable enough.

In 2011, Josma approached AGRA for support in multiplying and disseminating 280 tons of certified cuttings of improved cassava to 1,050 smallholder farmers. Building up on this success, the SSTP in 2014 provided a grant of US$ 207,000 for scaling up to reach 12,250 smallholders farmers. With the SSTP’s grant, Josma is producing quality improved planting materials of cassava and yams to enhance smallholder farmers’ access to quality planting materials. The company is producing planting materials of the following three top ranked cassava varieties preferred by farmers; Esam bankye, Tekbankye, and Nkabom. In addition to the three top ranked varieties, Josma is multiplying planting materials for five out of the six newly released CRI’s cassava varieties.

The value proposition of Josma is to build a competitive and market-based Root and Tuber Commodity Chain (R&TCC) supported by relevant, effective and sustainable services that are available to the rural poor by fostering effective market-driven linkages in the cassava and yam commodity chains through linking small producers, processors and

Luminary Ghanaian seed business is thriving through the distribution of quality improved seeds

traders to larger scale industrial end-users. The company is partnering with the Business Advisory Centre (BAC) of the National Board for Small-Scale Industry, CSIR/Crop Research Institute, Plant Protection and Regulatory Services Directorate of MOFA, CSIR/Food Research Institute and selected farmer based organizations.

Josma has through its awareness creation program, dealt with the perceptions that some farmers held about the roots from improved varieties not being poundable enough. Josma has produced and distributed 18,000,000 cuttings of cassava planting materials to 12,250 farmers with the average productivity quantum leaping from 16mt/ha to 37mt/ha.

These efforts have created awareness among small holder farmers on the advantages of using improved planting materials of cassava and yam, which has resulted in reaching out to 76,000 farmers.

Small-holder farmers have come to understand that not only are cassava and yam staples for household food security, they are also becoming cash crops.

By Simon Crump

Simon Crump is a Communications Consultant at Portland East Africa


For the last 10 years AGRA has implemented interventions with an aim of increasing agricultural yields and production to assure food security, improved nutrition and increase

in incomes. Interventions have sought to improve seed and fertilizer systems, improve access to credit facilities for small holder farmers as well as markets and loss reducing technologies. One of the lessons learnt is that interventions need to be intergrated for exponential impact. For example, the percentage of crops lost to post-harvest spoilage reduced by 10 points when farmers were provided with training and access to better storage facilities versus a 3- and 4-point reduction with just one of the two interventions. Similarly, when farmers received training and access to a processing facility, they increased their value addition of crops by 27 percentage points as compared to 5 and 8-point increases with just one of the two interventions. On the contrary, training on WRS, when provided without access to functioning warehouses within proximity of farms, did not achieve meaningful results for farmers . Similarly, when farmers improve their yields and production, they need access to markets that offer competitive prices to continue to incentivize farmers to adopt yield enhancing technologies.

AGRA interventions are now integrated. In January 2016, AGRA in collaboration with the World Food Program (WFP), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Bayer CropScience, Syngenta, Rabobank, Grow Africa and YARA signed a memorandum of understanding to participate in the

AGRA building effective competitive commodity chain in East Africa

Patient Procurement Platform. This inititive will provide all the necessary components for a successful Public Private Partnership - supply, demand, finance and risk management, and policy support. The platform seeks to support 1.5 million smallholder farmers across 25 countries over three years to double on-farm production and marketable volumes and achieve 98% loan repayment and 95% contract delivery and fulfillment.

AGRA sees the platform as offering an exciting partnership to deliver its new strategy while focusing on four areas: Mobilization of farmers and farmer organizations in all priority African countries for the platform; Provision of extension and capacity building services to ensure farmers have the inputs and knowledge needed to meet quantity and quality requirements; Post-harvest management to help mitigate against losses; and Policy and Advocacy to help address in-country policy issues related to supply, demand, and finance.

Market Access and Forward delivery contracts

In total, the PPP has managed to sign 78 Forward delivery contracts with the 1 buyer in Rwanda and 6 in Tanzania. These are; Export trading group, Kibaigwa flour mills, Ruaha Flour mills, Basic Elements limited, Ken Millers and WFP in Tanzania. In Rwanda the forward contract was provides by the Rwanda Grain a Cereals corporation. 29,490MT of Maize was contracted to 42,538 small holder farmers from 97 cooperatives. The

By Sean De Cleene

farmers are from the southern, central and northern regions in Tanzania while in Rwanda the farmers hail from the Eastern, southern and western regions. In Rwanda due to issues with delayed and below average rain fall farmers were not able to achieve the targeted volumes of 8,200MT. However they did manage to aggregate 3,845 MT (46% of targets) of which 1,379 MT was supplied to RGCC to fulfill forward delivery contracts. This represents a 35% delivery of all aggregated maize by supported farmers. In Tanzania, where the harvest season is still on going, 1,000MT have been aggregated and sold to various platform buyers.

Access to Finance

With assured contracts, farmers under the platform were able to access credit worth US$ 1,295,188 in Tanzania and Rwanda. In Tanzania, US$ 647,884 was advanced to 3,648 farmers to buy inputs while US$ 647,304 was advanced for inputs (US$ 154,680) and Aggregation loans (US$ 493,204). In total 5090 farmers were able to benefit from input loans through there farmer organizations while 4377 benefited from produce purchase loans offered at the close of the seaon. Taking the higher number in Rwanda of 5090 farmers, we therefore estimate that

approximately 8,738 farmers have accessed structured finance through the PPP initiative. Loan repayment is still at its formative stages in Tanzania. However in Rwanda 77% of the loans have been repaid back.

Farmer trainings on good agronomic practises and access to inputs

To enable farmers increase on farm yields and production, the PPP through AGRA implementing partners is offering farmers training on good agronomic practices as well as post-harvest management training. Alongside this farmers are also being linked with improved seeds and fertilizers. In total 32,543 farmers have been trained with Tanzania contributing 21,653 farmers and Rwanda 10,890.

Post-harvest infrastructure and equipment support.

In order to facilitate produce aggregation, implementing partners undertook a survey on the status of Post-harvest facilities and equipment. In Rwanda, of the 47 cooperatives supported by the PPP only 26 has storage facilities with a capacity of 4,650MT. The stores were in various state with some

requiring repair. 3 drying sheds, 34 hangars, 22 winnowers, 464 threshing machines, and only 10 moisture meters. Most did not have pallets and tarpaulins. As a result the project linked cooperatives with the Private Sector Driven Agricultural Growth project that is funded by USAID to support SME development and the growth of post-harvest infrastructure.

Sean De Cleene is the Chief, Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at AGRA

48 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition 48 Impact / January - March 2017 Edition

Source: The World Bank Matrix


Ghana Ratifies ECOWAS ‘s harmonization seed regulations

The Seed Policy Node and Hub program worked on harmonization of seed regulations across ECOWAS including commissioning studies on review of quality assurance manual, adoption rates of improved seeds by small scale farmers, seed certification manual, review of the national seed quality and certification manual and national seed plan in 2015.

The Council of Agricultural Ministers of ECOWAS agreed to gazette the ECOWAS seed regulation in 2008 to harmonize the rules governing quality control, certification and marketing of plant seeds and seedlings in region.

In Ghana Ghana’s legislative framework requires ECOWAS gazettements be approved by Parliament before implementation.. This requirement stalled the process because of a lack of financial resources to bring Parliamentary Select Committee on Agriculture, Food and Cocoa affairs together in a meeting to sensitize them about rarifying the regulations. MIRA Coordinators visited with Attorney General to get the process restarted, worked with the Director of Crop Services and supported a workshop. The Ghana Parliament finally ratified the ECOWAS harmonized Seed Regulations in July 2016.

Similarly, the Seed Health Node and Hub worked on the harmonization of fertilizer regulations across ECOWAS including commissioning studies on fertilizer price build-up to provide evidence for advocating government to intervene to mitigate price hikes in 2013 and fertilizer subsidy impact assessment in 2014.

Tanzania advances reforms on fertilizer registration

AGRA Soil Health Policy Node commissioned policy analysis study in 2015 to assess feasibility for increased local fertilizer production and blending in Tanzania. Study recommended reforms on fertilizer laws and regulations which hinder progress on fertilizer blending and detailed soil mapping to determine limiting nutrients and permit manufacturing of appropriate blends. MIRA supported fertilizer industry stakeholder convenings through Fertilizer Society of Tanzania and Tanzania Fertilizer Regulatory Authority (TFRA) to review and amend the fertilizer regulations of 2011.

Regulations governing registration of new fertilizer products drafted, validated and forwarded to the Minister for his approval. The Regulations were reviewed and amended, and submitted to the Attorney General for vetting and drafting of new regulations. The new fertilizer regulations that include reforms on fertilizer registration are awaiting the Minister’s approval.

By Boaz Keizire

Tanzania advances reforms on licensing private seed companies

AGRA Soil Health Policy Node commissioned policy analysis study in 2014 that developed an electronic monitoring and tracking mechanism for National Agricultural Input Voucher Scheme (NAIVS) to improve targeting and efficiency of fertilizer subsidy program by changing from paper voucher to electronic voucher. But this was not adopted by MALF. Soil Health Node also commissioned study to evaluate performance of fertilizer subsidy voucher scheme in terms of efficiency, equity, impact on fertilizer use, productivity and crop incomes. Government abandoned NAIVS in 2014/15 and replaced it with a loan given to farmers in credit groups. MIRA supported drafting of Cabinet paper that made a case for re-introduction of the NAIVS. This drew on fertilizer subsidy study by Soil Health Node.

As a result, Government re-introduced NAIVS in 2015/2016 and put in place an improved version incorporating recommendations of fertilizer subsidy voucher scheme to replace local government appointment of agro dealers to redeem vouchers to input suppliers appointing own agents to distribute and sell inputs. The reform is MIRA first successful change in Tanzania.

In 2011 Minister of Agriculture issued Circular on licensing to private seed firms public varieties “Protected under IPR”. Invitations were sent through few newspapers and were not adequate. A few targeted beneficiaries came across this information. At the end seed industry was not clear on how to go about the procedures to acquire desirable varieties. With the support of MIRA, SAGCOT and SERA, The Tanzania Seed Trade Association (TASTA) organized a seed industry stakeholder meeting in 2015 to get clarity from Ministry of Agriculture. After deliberations, TASTA and the Ministry initiated preparations of regulations.crafted by a team of experts and resubmitted at meeting organized by the Ministry. Regulations were then presented to the Minister of Agriculture for review and signature. The Regulations are planned for commissioning early 2017.

Boaz Keizire is Head of Policy and Advocacy at AGRA

Significant milestones in seed and fertilizer reforms in Tanzania & Ghana

AGRA is an alliance founded by:

Working in partnership with:

AGRA was set up to work with various partners to bring about a uniquely African Green Revolution to unleash the continent’s agricultural potential. We thank them for 10 years of Shared Success.

Documents

SHARED SUCCESS - AGRA · 2017-02-03 · to changing the reality of agriculture in Africa, from farming as a solitary struggle to survive, to farming as a business that thrives. CAPACITY