"The Agriculture Future We Want"

Transcription

1 AFRICAN UNION UNION AFRICAINE UNIÃO AFRICANA Keynote Address by H.E. Mrs Tumusiime Rhoda Peace Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture of the African Union Commission On "The Agriculture Future We Want" At the AU Joint Conference of Ministers of Agriculture, Rural Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture 1 May 2014 AU Conference Centre, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 1

2 I thank the Chairperson of this Joint Conference, Honourable Minister of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania Honourable Minister of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, our host Honourable Ministers of Agriculture, Rural Development, Fisheries and Aquaculture of African Union Member States, Distinguished Heads of Delegations of African Union Member States, Distinguished representatives of Regional Economic Communities, Excellencies members of the Diplomatic Corps, Distinguished representatives of African and international organisations, Distinguished representatives of Africa's development partners, Distinguished representatives of Farmers, Non-State Actors, Dear members of the Media, Ladies and gentlemen, My presentation is based on the Agriculture we want. This is within the Africa Agenda 2063 that you have just listened to by way of introduction. As Commissioner responsible for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission, allow me to join H.E The Deputy Chairperson of the Commission who this morning, welcomed you all to this important Conference. Let me begin by saying that it is my singular honour and pleasure to convey to you warm greetings and best wishes of the African Union Commission and our Chairperson H.E. Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, on the occasion of this opportune and important Conference. Indeed, as we all know, this Conference comes at a time when we move towards concluding a year-long celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the OAU, now AU under the theme "Pan-Africanism and African Renaissance." And as you all know Pan 2

3 Africanism is about asserting African dignity and so, ensuring a food and nutrition secure citizenry is central to Pan Africanism and African Renaissance. This Conference also comes as the first political follow-up milestone to the formal launch by the AU Heads of State and Government on 30 January 2014, of 2014 as the Year of Agriculture and Food Security also commemorating the 10th Anniversary of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). More importantly, this meeting serves as a key stepping stone in the build up to the next June Summit, where AU Heads of State and Government will debate on the theme of the Year of Agriculture and Food Security with a view to providing strategic direction and adopting a Declaration of renewed and strengthened commitments towards concrete goals and targets in advancing Africa's agriculture and food security agenda for the next decade. From the outset, it is deemed fitting that we proceed from a shared vision of the Future Agriculture We Want for Africa. Because, short of agreeing on where we want to be, we may end up elsewhere or nowhere. Africa Agenda 2063 Vision and the Year of Agriculture and Food Security Let us start with, the Agriculture Future We Want is an integral part of the bigger Agenda 2063 Vision of The Africa We Want, that is An integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, driven by its own citizens and representing a dynamic force in the global arena as you have already heard. This is reflected in the very theme of the Year of Agriculture and Food Security, which is "Transforming Africa's agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods through capturing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development" that relates directly to the pan-african transformative Agenda From the consultations we have so far held with multiple stakeholders across the African continent at different levels, the emerging picture of the agriculture future we want is one that is driven by a broad base of dynamic and creative African citizens, 3

4 contributing to creating inclusive growth, shared prosperity and sustainable development across the continent and to making Africa a major player in the global agrifood economy. It has been observed that today, there are no productive sectors that can help accelerate our walk towards this bright Africa future more than the agriculture and food system. Bluntly put, in a "farm-to-fork" value chain perspective, this system provides for a potential total business value of US$ 1 trillion by 2030 rising up to US$ 3 trillion by 2050! At this juncture, what could better contribute to achieving a vision of a prosperous, food and nutrition secure and, therefore, poverty-free, peaceful Africa more than unleashing the capacities and resourcefulness of the majority of Africa's citizens to realize that potential to create and capture broad-based wealth and jobs from such a multi-trillion dollar business? The answer, I have no doubt, is more than obvious to this august policy audience. Defining features of the agriculture future we want Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, There are converging voices indicating that to realize that dream, we need an agriculture future grounded in five solid foundations ranging from production and productivity, value addition, food and nutrition security, to resilience and investment finance. 4

5 Increased production and productivity First, the agriculture future we want should be a future of a modern and productive agriculture anchored in a solid science and knowledge foundation. This is considered as being imperative because ten years after the adoption of CAADP, Africa's agricultural output has been growing at an average annual rate of 4%, one-third short of the targeted 6% growth rate achieved or surpassed by only a few countries. It is thus recommended that for Africa to redress this shortfall in the future, national and regional centres of excellence of Africa's science, technology and innovation systems will have to be capacitated to fully implement the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa, and generate and disseminate the knowledge and technologies required to double agricultural total factor productivity by As you know, 2025 is an important target set by AU Heads of State by which time we should have ended hunger on the continent. At the same time, African farmers, including the majority of smallholders and women among them, should have secured access to and rights over the land they nurture and manage productively and sustainably. Farmers have to be equipped with adequate knowledge and sustainable water management systems (especially irrigation). These farmers have to be continuously afforded reliable and efficient access to the best inputs, equipment and financial services by a thriving African agricultural input industry and services business, in order to engage in modern and profitable farming enterprises that attract the continent's increasingly educated youth. In the projected desirable future, African smallholders especially women farmers should have been liberated from the use of a hand-hoe, to modernize and upgrade. We will have to phase out the hand-hoe if we are attract the youth into agriculture. The youth cannot get attracted to agriculture if we continue to use rudimentary technology but rather if we apply modern technology. In the future we want, the right place for the hand-hoe should be a museum. 5

6 Increased value-addition and access to better functioning markets and trade Second, the agriculture future we want should be one of a competitive food and agriculture system, which meets the fast-growing and diversifying agrifood demands of intra-african local, national and regional markets and, beyond, responding increasingly to the demands of a growing and exigent global market. To this end, the first call for Africa's agrifood systems is to get preferential access to and conquer the intra-african market which, under the combined effects of the continent's population growth (about 3% per year), strong income growth (at 5% or more over the last decade) and rapid urbanization (at the annual pace of 5%), are demanding for more quality, diversified and convenient food and agricultural products. These opportunities are further sharpened by the fact that the African urban food markets are projected to grow to the tune of US$ 400 billion per year by We want a future that will take Africa away from the scenario where the continent footed a staggering food import bill averaging US$ 69.5 billion and escalating at the fast pace of 15% per year from 2010 to 2012! To capture the growing internal market opportunities and increase the share of intra- African trade to at least 50% of the continent's total agrifood trade by 2025, the agriculture future we want is one where adequate market and trade infrastructure -- including roads, railways and transport services; ICTs; storage and agro-processing facilities; commodity exchanges, market information and other structured trade facilitation services -- connect farmers to local, national and regional markets through a dynamic web of efficient value chains of strategic food and agricultural commodities. Leveraging the emergence and flourishing of a vibrant sector of small, medium and even large joint-venture agro-processing and agribusiness enterprises, which attract a core of young and skilled African women and men entrepreneurs in those value chains, will require bold policies addressing the fragmentation of the African agrifood market through the establishment of an integrated continental market free of all (tariff as well as 6

7 non-tariff) barriers to intra-african trade in agrifood products and protected from external unfair trading practices. Without losing sight of the continent's collective interests for greater integration in the global markets, Africa's agrifood systems will thrive within a Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA), supported by an effective Common External Tariff scheme that strengthens regional preference in agrifood trade by Food and nutrition security for all Third, in this integrated and effective market space, the agriculture future we want is one that will end hunger and ensure food and nutrition security for all Africa's citizens on a self-reliance (food sovereignty) basis by What will primarily contribute to reaching this state of affairs are effective policy and social protection interventions aimed not only at reducing Africa's dependency on increasingly expensive, volatile and uncertain global food markets, but also at strengthening sustainable livelihoods and dietary diversity for target vulnerable groups including children, women, female-headed households, youth, as well as poor smallholders, pastoralists and periurban people. That is the inclusive nature of the Pan-Africanist approach in the agricultural transformation we want. Resilience to climate change and other risks Fourth, the future we want is one that will be characterized by resilient food and agricultural systems. In the context of increasing and intensifying adverse impacts of climate change and other natural disasters with highly vulnerable communities and nations, the future we want will be one where climate change adaptation shall be strongly integrated in agricultural investment plans, strengthened by functional resilience mechanisms at national, regional and continental levels. With particular focus on women, youth and other vulnerable groups, access by smallholders to finance 7

8 and technology for climate adaptation and management of other risks shall be strongly enhanced. Public-private engagement and investment financing Fifth, the agriculture future we want rests before and above all on Africa's own resources and resourcefulness after all Pan Africanism has at its core not only selfdetermination but also self-reliance. I am sure you will all agree with me that the very promising agriculture future depicted above will come at a cost. We should first look within ourselves, mobilise and harness domestic resources, before we put out our hand for help. This will be an eloquent demonstration of not only our commitment but also our ownership and leadership of the African agriculture we want. Then, we can expect additional support and in this connection, Africa's development partners should deliver on their support commitments in line with Africa's priorities as, indeed, the future we want calls for alignment of such support to our own defined priorities and programmes. Coming back to looking into ourselves, I wish to point out that against the commitment in the Declaration at the Maputo 2003 AU Summit to allocate at least 10% of total public expenditures to agriculture, only 13 countries have reached or surpassed this target in any year so far. Although the volume of public expenditures on agriculture has increased at an impressive rate of 7.4% between 2003 and 2010, agriculture's share in total public spending has fallen below the 2003 level as expenditures on other sectors increased faster. But the future we want is one premised on public private partnership and not government acting alone. Despite recent positive developments such as the expansion of pan-african banking groups, the related increase in competition and the infusion of new technologies, products and managerial techniques, including mobile money and ICT products, privatesector financing for agriculture remains very limited, averaging only 5.8% of total commercial lending. This poor performance of the financial sector vis-a-vis agriculture is associated with the persistent challenges of lending risks due to the variability of agricultural outputs and incomes, gender bias against women's access to credit, 8

9 insecure land tenure issues, as well as financial institutions' reluctance to lend to unemployed youth lacking collateral security. However, against the prospects of booming agrifood markets and virtually world-wide growing interest in African agriculture, the future agriculture we want calls for African Union Member States to reaffirm and deliver on their commitment made in the Maputo 2003 Declaration to translate their pronounced priority for agriculture through the allocation of a significantly increased share of their respective national public expenditures for the structural and sustainable transformation of the agricultural sector. Moreover, such spending should go beyond public investment to develop farming to embrace the needs for the development of the full value chains, markets and trade for strategic agrifood commodities. It should also serve to leverage, through effective public-private partnerships, private-sector investment financing at a scale commensurate with the wealth and job creation potential of transformed agrifood systems that Africa cannot afford to miss in this 21 st Century, Our Century. While all the five areas I just outlined are key for transforming agriculture on the African continent, for us to realize this vision, we will require improved sector governance and coordination. This entails several actions, notably: (i) improving the agricultural institutions in terms of their capacity to effectively and efficiently implement agricultural plans at the different levels, particularly national and regional; (ii) improving the quality of policies supported by evidence; (iii) improving the quality of agricultural data to support sector planning and making ensure any subsequent reforms are based on informed analysis; and (iv) establishing mechanisms for tracking and reporting the performance of the agricultural sector at country, regional and continental levels; reviewing sector performance on a regular basis and creating platforms for joint sector reviews and mutual accountability. As we have learned over the last 10 years, reviewing our performance against the targets in the five strategic areas will help assess the progress we are making, and where necessary pave the way for taking corrective measures to ensure we move steadily towards reaching our 9

10 set goals. It is for this reason that we developed the CAADP results framework for use by AU member states and RECs to track implementation over the next 10 years. The governance and coordination is critical considering the multiplicity of areas covered by or related to agriculture and this is one of the key reasons that the Joint AU Conference of Ministers of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture is being convened with the participation of the Bureau Chairpersons/members of the other related sectors. Commitment to sustaining the CAADP momentum Honourable Ministers, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, The outgoing account spells out the agriculture future we want, for which we should toil for the next decade by the CAADP Results Framework, your framework for "Transforming Africa's agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods through capturing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development." This is the vision and these are the strategic goals that we invite you to consider. I hope you find them ambitious and bold enough to not only sustain, but also heighten over the next 10 years the momentum of your own comprehensive Africa agriculture transformation agenda, the CAADP Momentum. No doubt, the challenge is big But, against the considerable prospective returns, facing up to the challenge will certainly be more than rewarding. The AU Commission and the NEPAD Agency look forward to your strategic guidance and wish to assure you that we will follow up the outcomes of your deliberations that I wish the most fruitful possible. Thank you for your kind attention. 10