Nutrients' Role in Food Security

Transcription

1 Commemorating IFDC s 40 th Anniversary Nutrients' Role in Food Security September 29, 2014 JW Marriott 1331 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC H.E. Tumusiime Rhoda Peace s Remarks on Moving Forward 1:15 pm Moving Forward Discussion Moderator Dr. Rudy Rabbinge, University Professor Emeritus, University of Wageningen (Chair, VFRC Board of Advisors) Mr. Satish Chander, Director General, FAI (Member, VFRC Board of Advisors) Mrs. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Commission (IFDC Board Member) Dr. Fusuo Zhang, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University (Member, VFRC Board of Advisors) Robert Bertram, Chief Scientist, Bureau of Food Security, USAID Good afternoon, distinguished participants and fellow panelists. It is an immense privilege to have an opportunity to contribute to the discussions on moving IFDC forward. I take this moment to congratulate IFDC, particularly Peter McPherson and Dr. Amit Roy on the critical role that they have played in making part of the 40 years of IFDC that we are celebrating today, a big success. As we all know, this has not been easy and took a lot of work. IFDC celebrates its 40 years at an opportune time for Africa. The African Union is celebrating its 50 years of existence. Our Heads of State have declared 2014 as

2 the year of agriculture and food security. We are also celebrating the 10 years of CAADP, the comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme, and have worked to develop strategies for sustaining the CAADP momentum over the next 10 years. As we stand in a defining moment to change the face of agriculture in Africa and ensure that no child goes to bed hungry in this continent, IFDC has a unique role to play. When one looks at the overall growth trends in Africa, we note that Africa s real GDP has been growing at a higher rate than that of developing countries. But this growth has failed to translate into substantial progress in achieving the continent s social development goals because it hasn t turned into solid employment creation. Given that the majority of the poor and malnourished live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, it is important to address Africa s soil fertility challenge and put the continent on a resilient path of sustainable agricultural growth. For IFDC to do its part in the coming years, there are some key drivers of change that IFDC needs to capitalize on: - Growth in population and changes in the population dynamics - Urbanization - The increasing demand for food and higher value food products - Increasing demand for livestock and poultry products as well as fish and fish products, horticultural goods (fruits and vegetables) - Increasing young population - Feminization of agriculture

3 - Increase in per capita income - Increasing cost of energy - Changes in the policy environment - Global health threats, such as Ebola - Global security threats, such as the rise of extremism - The prioritization of agriculture in the development agenda - The adoption of the Abuja Declaration on Fertilizer in Increased pressure for political accountability and good governance - Increased emphasis on the private sector and growth in the ICT sector. - The concept of RESILIENCE and inclusive and sustainable growth. What are the implications of these external factors for IFDC s growth strategy for the coming years? I see the need for greater emphasis on 4 strategic areas for IFDC. The first area of emphasis is CAADP CAADP is the framework for agricultural development in Africa. From , we have developed a CAADP Resultsbased Framework, which calls for increase focus of all development efforts on results and impacts. In the coming years, IFDC needs to align its strategies for Africa and development efforts in Africa with the strategies and processes generated by CAADP. This means closer collaboration with the AUC and NPCA, which is within our reach because there is an MOU between the AUC and IFDC. This MOU can serve as an instrument for closer collaboration. IFDC needs to be an active partner in the CAADP process and this should be easy because IFDC s

4 expertise fall within all 4 pillars of CAADP: land and water management; market access; food supply and hunger; and agricultural research. The second area of emphasis should be the private sector the private sector is an important partner in agricultural development. IFDC should strive for more partnerships with the private sector to mobilize investments in fertilizer production, blending, distribution, and marketing. Institutions such as AFAP the Africa Fertilizer Agribusiness Partnership, are key partners in that endeavour. The third area of emphasis is markets and trade IFDC s efforts should place greater emphasis on the entire food system to improve the competitiveness of African agriculture in regional and global markets. We should strive to improve access to inputs by addressing market inefficiencies in input and output markets. This calls for a value chain approach in market development such as the CASE approach (competitive agricultural systems enterprise approach) for emphasis on building/strengthening the capacity of actors in the value chain, the linkages between the actors, as well as the environment within which these actors operate. The last area of emphasis I see is production/productivity/natural resource management/resilience -- IFDC s priorities in Africa should remain focused on establishing a productive agricultural supply base. IFDC s objective of doubling staple yields in Africa should remain but for that to happen, we need to develop and disseminate technologies that consider the heterogeneity of farmers and farming conditions, the diverse agro-ecological conditions, the different

5 technological needs of farmers as well as reducing production costs. How can IFDC develop programs or projects that improve the agricultural resource base by addressing the specific needs of a diverse group of farmers? I think, we will need to start with research that is demand driven and based on evidence generated from farm and off farm research. To be able to do this kind of research, we must allocate more funds and staff to research, look for creative ways to mobilize research funds, use the field data to provide timely policy advice. In conclusion, I see a bright future for IFDC in the coming years because IFDC s core areas of competencies are requisites for inclusive growth and development. IFDC can capitalize on the need for its knowledge and expertise by becoming more result and impact oriented and through better management of IFDC s knowledge and expertise. Thank you very much.