Green Revolution cannot materialise in Africa without a major concerted effort to secure financing for agricultural production
MAPUTO, Mozambique, September 9, 2013/ -- The African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) (http://www.agrforum.com)
has warned that a Green Revolution cannot materialise in Africa without
a major concerted effort to secure financing for agricultural
production.
Photo AGRA President, Jane Karuku: http://www.photos.apo-opa.com/index.php?level=picture&id=197
The
Forum, which ended on Friday, brought together over 200 delegates from
across Africa and internationally, focused on the critical role to be
played by public-private partnerships and inclusive business models in
the development of Africa’s agriculture.
The
Forum heard that the global gap in finance for agriculture stands at
US$ 450 billion, an issue which is more acute in Africa than anywhere
else. Evidence shows that only 10% of African smallholder African
farmers have access to the financing they need to expand their
production and raise their income.
Irungu
Houghton, Convenor of the AGRF, said: “Throughout the African
continent, we are witnessing successful partnerships between the private
and public sectors and smallholder farmers. But these partnerships are
still too rare. We will only be able to transform Africa’s agriculture,
and alleviate food insecurity and poverty, if smallholders have the
funds to boost their crop yields and expand their business.”
Dyborn
Chibonga, Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of
Smallholder Farmers of Malawi, said: “Some African governments have gone
some way towards addressing affordability and accessibility of
production inputs, but challenges still persist. Each and every year
smallholder farmers are pulled into a downward spiral of taking out
high-interest loans in order to buy farming inputs for the following
season. Without access to credit, smallholders cannot raise
productivity.”
The AGRF committed to focus over the next year on a number of priority actions, including:
• Ensuring that rising revenues from extractives industries are invested into the development of agriculture
•
Reducing corruption in public-private partnerships and designing
business ventures that are transparent, environmentally and socially
responsible
• Building the capacity of famers’ associations, finance institutions and agribusiness agencies to work together
•
Encouraging governments to offer tax incentives and make preferential
procurement choices for companies that source from smallholder farmers
•
Developing inclusive financial models that combine incentives, reduce
debt risk and promote longer-term agribusiness models
• Combining incentives, reducing debt risk and promoting longer-term agribusiness models
The
Honourable Antonio Limbau, Deputy Minister of Agriculture for
Mozambique, who formally closed the AGRF, said: “We are honoured and
pleased to have hosted this important forum in Mozambique ten years
after the Maputo Declaration. This forum was a valuable opportunity to
discuss practical steps to strengthen capacity and extend the use of
modern technology to increase productivity.”
Jane
Karuku, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA) – a partner in the AGRF – said: “2014 is a critical year for
agriculture, when African governments will be setting investment targets
and plans to develop agriculture over the coming decade. The African
Union has recognised this crucial moment and designated 2014 as the Year
for Food Security and Agriculture. We are delighted to announce that
next year’s AGRF will be co-hosted with the African Union in Addis Ababa
in September 2014.”
Distributed by the African Press Organization on behalf of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF).
Contacts:
For
further information on AGRF 2013 and for opportunities for briefings
and interviews with experts and spokespeople, please contact:
Caroline Boin
+44750 671 8047 (mobile)
Anne Wangalachi
+254 736 230 600 (mobile)
Further information:
Download the full AGRF communiqué here: http://www.agrforum.com/060913_AGRF%20Closing%20Statement%20and%20Call%20Action.pdf
About the African Green Revolution Forum
The African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) (http://www.agrforum.com)
is an initiative which seeks to bring together African heads of state,
ministers, farmers, private agribusiness firms, financial institutions,
NGOs, civil society, scientists, and other stakeholders to discuss and
develop concrete investment plans for achieving the green revolution in
Africa. The Forum focuses on promoting investments and policy support
for driving agricultural productivity and income growth for African
farmers in an environmentally sustainable way. The Forum consists of
on-going stakeholder engagements as well as major events which bring
together a significant number of stakeholders to review progress and
re-strategize. The first major Forum event was an international
convening held in Accra in 2010. The second one was held in Arusha,
Tanzania in 2012.
AGRF sponsors and partners of AGRF include:
• Syngenta
• FAO
• Rockefeller Foundation
• African Union
• Nepad
• Southern Africa Confederation of Agricultural Unions (SACAU)
• AGRA
• Yara
• IFAD
• African Development Bank
AGRF 2013
The
AGRF 2013 was held in Maputo, Mozambique, and was attended by over 200
high level government officials, non-governmental and other public and
private sector organizations investing in Africa’s agricultural future –
stakeholders who share the objective of improving and scaling up the
productivity of Africa’s smallholder farmers. The overall theme for AGRF
2013 was ‘scaling up and financing inclusive agribusiness through
transformative public-private partnerships’. The AGRF had three
sub-themes:
•
Inclusive business models – what are the scalable models of smallholder
inclusion into commercial agricultural value chains or that provide
effective market access?
•
Innovative financing models – what are the scalable models to stimulate
growth and value chain partnership expansion in Africa
•
Review of CAADP – key concerns in the next 10 years in relation to
public-private partnerships for agriculture development
For more information, visit http://www.agrforum.com
SOURCE
African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF
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