DEVELOPED COUNTRIES SUPPORT TO THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES OF EAST AFRICA: THE CASE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY

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1 Development Challenges of the Least Developed Countries Tracking the International Commitments DEVELOPED COUNTRIES SUPPORT TO THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IN LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES OF EAST AFRICA: THE CASE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY Lunogelo, H.B. Baregu, S.

2 STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION 1. INTRODUCTION 2. IPOA ON RURAL DEVELOPMENT 3. IPOA ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY 4. SOME PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON PRODUCTIVITY CHANGES 5. CONCLUSIONS AND WAY FORWARD 6. CONCLUDING REMARKS

3 INTRODUCTION All 4 UN Conferences on LDCs: goals to uplifting the economies of poor economies>decent livelihoods by accessing more than the minimum levels of basic needs in food, education, health, water, sanitation, shelter and civic freedom and security The agreed intervention areas in previous UN LDC Conferences were: Enhance agricultural productivity Food security and rural development Trade and Commodities Human and social development Multiple crises and other emerging challenges Mobilizing financial resources for development and capacity- building

4 IPOA4 on AGRICULTURE 1. IPOA4 special focus areas in Agriculture By DCs: financial and technical support to govts and UN bodies By LDCs: strengthened rural institutions for enhanced productivity; stable input supply; use irrigation Jointly: responsible investment in the sector; and policies to stabilise food price volatility and access by vulnerable groups For East African LDCs, this would mean targeting to improve productivity and value chain development in the crops, livestock, fisheries, apiary and forestry as modern and commercial sub-sectors to benefit the majority of people who dwell in rural areas.

5 Issues of Focus in IPOA and Interventions in East Africa Agreed Joint actions 1. Objective 1: Promote responsible international investment in agriculture Donor Joint Assistance Strategies in place in Rwanda, Ethiopia, Uganda and Tanzania. G8 committed in June 2012 to mobilise the private sector to support investments in rural sector using some agreed principles for responsible partnerships

6 Objective 2: humanitarian food emergencies or as a means to limit price volatility FAO working with institutions in 7 countries in Eastern Africa Donor support to the East African Grain Growers Council to establish a Commodity Exchange Market.

7 Objective 3: Pursue policy options to reduce price volatility Research in establishing a system for balancing free movement of cereals in the region is needed Capitalisation of National Food Reserve Agency (NFRA) has taken place in Tanzania and is already engaged in mopping up surplus to stabilise producer prices for grains

8 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa i. LDCs in EAC and Beyond: EAC have joint development development strategies for agric and food security Programmes Funded by EU and World Bank: Lake Victoria Basin Commission which focuses on fisheries, environment Nile Basin Subsidiary Action Programme (Nile-SAP)- involving Sudan and Ethiopia

9 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa 2. Tanzania a. Input support subsidy to targeted areas and the increased supply of different categories of farm equipment 3 of the 5 targeted regions for fertiliser and seed inputs have been reporting huge surpluses e.g. Mbeya 2,000 tons of rice as surplus was recorded

10 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa cont d b. Warehouse receipt system has stimulated the cultivation of cashew nuts and coffee c. Private-Public Partnership approach: large scale farmers supported the small scale farmers in Morogoro on sugarcane and paddy crops production d. The support to the private sector in promoting smallholder horticultural farmers in northern Tanzania has increased exports of cut flowers.

11 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa cont d ii. Rwanda The One-Family-One-Cow has resulted to - surplus production of milk - improvement of soil fertility through application of organic fertilisers Donor support to land conservation funded by US Department of Agriculture through the World Vision

12 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa cont d iii. Uganda The Plan for Modernisation of Agriculture (PMA) and National Agricultural Advisory (extension) Services (NAADS) supported by Sweden (SIDA) and the World Bank Group The plan has made Uganda the main source of food to South Sudan and Eastern parts of DR Congo

13 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa cont d iv. Burundi World Bank has provided loans for the revitalisation of the agricultural sector. The World Food Programme (WFP) has supported farmers by purchasing from them food stocks meant for food relief

14 Anecdotal evidence of support in Rural Development in East Africa cont d v. Ethiopia Support on small irrigation projects, the country has experienced reduction hungry months from six to two months IFAD, African Development Bank (AfDB), World Bank, Government of Ireland and the Belgian Survival Fund (BSF) has enabled Ethiopia to make significant improvement in agriculture.

15 3. IPOA ON FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY Productivity can be measured in terms of the optimal output possible from unit factors of production These factors are such as land and livestock units (yield or output per unit area ) Manpower (output per unit level of effort, mostly man-day or adult equivalent)

16 In Eastern Africa, the eagerness among individual donors to brand their support has duplication of efforts, wasteful spending and in some case outright conflicts among donors and in some cases between recipients at community level. Duplication of effort between FANRPAN and AGRA to support harmonisation of research to produce improved seeds and policies for bulking and marketing of the same within the EAC region

17 At regional level, the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA) working to implement regional objectives as stipulated in the East African Community Development Strategy ( ) Funding of research has traditionally come from own government in basic research infrastructure Donors have supported actual research and provided the technical assistance needed.

18 Some of the support, provided by donors for agricultural research ASARECA: provided support to research on commodity value chains in 12 countries of Burundi, DR Congo, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Madagascar, Sudan, Malawi, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan and Rwanda. Uganda: United Kingdom (DFID) has supported the strengthening of clientoriented agricultural research and development (COARD)

19 Tanzania: Support by DFID in cashew (Coastal and southern Tanzania) and coffee (northern and southern highlands) research as well as the Netherlands in soil characteristics and suitability research. The governments of Korea, China, India and USAID are the latest supporters in agricultural research in Tanzania. Ethiopia: IFAD has supported Ethiopia through an introduction of competitive research grants system

20 EVIDENCE OF IMPACT OF SUPPORT IN AGRICULTURE RESEARCH Some countries have made efforts to increase expenditure in R&D However, considering proportion of expenditure on R&D to total budget, the following is observed: - Burundi invested 1.8%, Uganda 1.2%, Tanzania 0.5%, Sudan 0.3%

21 Skilled Manpower to manage the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS). The region has only a third of the number of researchers in the whole of Sub-Saharan Africa. Most countries recorded gradual increase except Burundi recording decrease from 130 to 98 ( and ) Ethiopia has the highest number of researchers amongst the Eastern Africa LDC countries though viewed as least qualified in Africa (in terms of Post graduate degrees)

22 Some of the Preliminary benchmark indicators for the Eastern African Countries could be: commitments made to agriculture and to agricultural research in particular commitment by the international community to support productivity enhancement. Food Inflation rate Effective and well funded national research systems (NARS) Number of skilled manpower (researchers, extension workers) Proportion of allocated budget to research and development

23 Preliminary Results on Productivity Cereal Yield (kg per Ha) in 2010 (to get data for 2008) Baseline Fertilizer Use (kg per Ha) in 2008 Livestock production index (2008=100) Food price index( =100) Tanzania Uganda Burundi Rwanda Ethiopia Malawi 1,333 1,608 1,346 1,930 1,674 2, % -27.5% -12.5% -15.6% +13.3% +4%

24 CONCLUDING REMARKS There has been some marked increase in donor support to improve agricultural production There has been awakening by LDC governments through introduction of national and multinational programmes and projects aiming for productivity improvements Coordinated donor support interventions need be put in place as stipulated in Paris and Rome declarations.

25 Governments and Donors will certainly have to pay attention to other supply-side and demand-side facilitating factors, including infrastructure for transport, post-harvest handling (e.g. storage), marketing, electricity (for processing and cold storage); financing, as well as conducive policies for domestic and international trading system.

26 AHSANTE SANA! Merci Bocoup Thank you Very Much