NEPAD's FARA discusses vision for African agriculture

Top officials from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) are currently meeting in Johannesburg to discuss NEPAD's vision for African agriculture. The 4th General Assembly of FARA, together with the Africa Agriculture Science Week, will run until 16 June.

NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, envisions increasing Africa's agricultural productivity by 6 percent per annum, the NEPAD Secretariat said in its weekly newsletter. The general assembly is giving delegates the opportunity to debate whether African Agricultural institutions and organisations are contributing to achieving this growth target.

FARA is an umbrella organisation of stakeholders in agricultural research and development on the continent, and has been operating as the technical arm of NEPAD since 2002. FARA has been the driving force behind the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

The CAADP is based on four operational pillars, namely, extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems; improving rural infrastructure and market access; increasing food supply and reducing hunger and agricultural research and technology dissemination and adoption.

The meeting is giving national research institutions that have developed special technologies the opportunity to relay their success stories of improving the livelihoods of pastoralists and smallholder farmers. Development agencies that also play a significant role in assisting farmers to increase productivity are also sharing their experience.

allafrica.com

Rwanda to host parley on African agriculture programme

About 300 agriculture experts, policy makers and stakeholders from the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), African Union (AU) and other international development partners meet in Kigali, Rwanda 29-31 March for a round table on NEPAD`s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

According to the official newsletter of the New Partnership for Africa`s Development (NEPAD), Rwandan President Paul Kagame is expected to officially open the meeting as well as the preceding parley of COMESA and CAADP partners.

"The purpose of the meeting is to reach consensus among stakeholders on the framework to forge the necessary partnerships to implement the agriculture development agenda and secure commitments and resources from partners to make the necessary investments," the publication said.

Rwanda is the first to organise such a meeting among the six designated countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Zambia, selected by COMESA under phase one to speed up the implementation of the region's agricultural development programme. The meeting will also review how national policies and investments are supporting agricultural development and identify constraints to achieving at least 6% target growth rate for the agriculture sector. It will also identify policy and investment gaps as well as design an action plan to bridge the gaps.


CAADP is spearheaded by African governments aiming at accelerating agriculture growth and eliminating poverty on the continent.

Angola Press

Nigeria-based agricultural institute receives Kellog grant for cassava production

The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), based in the Nigerian city of Ibadan, has been awarded a US$600,000 grant to promote cassava production and processing. The W.K. Kellog Foundation of the US gave the grant to promote NEPAD's Pan Africa Cassava Initiative (NPACI) for sustainable economic growth, food security and poverty alleviation in Africa. NEPAD is the New Partnership for Africa's Development, an African Union (AU) effort to kick start development on the African continent.

IITA Public Relations Manager Mr. Taye Babaleye said that the grant would help IITA to promote the production of cassava, a drought tolerant crop, in order to reduce the risk of dependency on maize as the major food crop in some drought-hit countries.

A statement issued by IITA said that in 1997/98, a severe drought devastated maize farms in Southern Africa, putting the lives of 27 million people in Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Swaziland, Tanzania, and Zambia at high risk of severe food shortage. Dry conditions in a swathe of the same area in March 2007 are causing renewed fears of low maize harvests and increased hunger in the region.

Working through the Southern Africa Root Crops Research Network (SARRNET) , IITA initiated the Masinda Cassava Club in the Malawian village of Katimba as a pilot processing center to turn cassava into industrial starch. The farmers now produce cassava with yields of 22 tonnes per hectare. The Club sold about 40 tonnes of starch worth over US$20,000 after one year.

Prior to the establishment of the factory cassava had no real monetary value in Katimba. Farmers now earn over US$800 per hectare of fresh cassava sold to the Club.

IITA

'NEPAD, FARA to assist African farmers'

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was brought into being with much fanfare as a blueprint to accelerate development on the continent by the African Union several years ago. So far it has not lived up to its billing for lack of funding, lack of seriousness of purpose and lack of inspiration, in agriculture as well as in every other sphere. Once in a while a statement on one issue or another will be issued, and of course meetings are constantly held but there has been not much sign of any actual "development" that could be attributed to NEPAD having taken place anywhere, unless you count the well-paid bureaucracy .

Now comes news that NEPAD and something called the Forum on African Research in Agriculture (FARA) will work together " to bring new agricultural technologies to farmers." FARA is described as an organization "which has over 100 members including national agriculture research institutions, nongovernmental organisations, farmer organisations and private enterprises." NEPAD and FARA "will combine their strengths" to perform this new service for African farmers. FARA "will identify priority activities for collaboration in African agricultural research" while NEPAD "will use its links with the international community and development partners to support these efforts financially."

NEPAD's chief executive officer, Firmino Mucavele, said at the signing ceremony in South Africa, "It is our hope that the important efforts being put in motion by FARA will yield tangible results that will benefit the livelihoods of the vast majority of the rural farming population." He said NEPAD is committed to supporting FARA in its "excellent efforts" in increasing African agricultural productivity.

So we have a little-known network supposedly comprised of a cross section of African agricultural stakeholders, yet it still needs to identify priority areas for research. Would it be rude to ask why a network with what sounds like a prestigious roll of members already involved in grassroots agriculture, research and advocacy across the continent does not already know "the priority areas for research?"

Then we have the do-nothing NEPAD not committing any resources from amongst its members, but instead committing to make going around the world begging for handouts its main task in this initiative! I don't know much about FARA, but NEPAD does not yet have any achievements to its name to speak of and the lack of commitment by its member states to put even token money into this latest initiative is not a good sign. And as far as the two organizations "combining strengths," that's a little hard to do when at least one of the parties, if not both, don't have any such strengths!

While the agricultural sectors in other parts of the world are treated with far more respect in recognition of their key economic roles, in much needier Africa governments and their institutions spew more hot air than anything concrete in regards to agriculture. Africa's farmers are largely on their own, often having to worry more about negative interference from their governments than to look forward to any positive assistance.

So while nothing is likely to come from this latest publicity stunt, I trust that a good time was had by all the fat cats at the signing ceremony! And if the sad history of previous so-called initiatives by NEPAD is anything to go by there may not be any benefit from it for the hard-working African farmer, but a few bureaucrats will get to travel the world pleading for donations, attend conferences and issue voluminous reports saying what everybody already knows, and which reports will be read by nobody.

I would love to be proven wrong, but I suspect it's business as usual.

Chido Makunike