The 11th African
Economic Conference (AEC) kicked off in Abuja, Nigeria, yesterday with a
consensus on the need to scale up the continent’s agricultural transformation
to spur industrialization and inclusive growth.
Opening
the conference, Nigeria’s Vice-President, Yemi Osinbajo, highlighted how the
Nigerian Government and private sector partners are leveraging resources for
agricultural transformation in the midst of the global economic recession,
which has resulted in the country losing up to 1 million barrels of crude oil
daily.
Vice-President
Osinbajo, who spoke on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, disclosed numerous
efforts being made by the Government to support agriculture and its value
chains to diversify and transform the economy in the absence of oil resources,
which formed the backbone of the economy.
He
expressed the hope that the conference would come up with evidence-based
research and knowledge of good practices that can help Nigeria and other African
countries to transform their agricultural production for more sustainable
growth.
Over
300 participants are attending the annual event, co-organized by the African
Development Bank (AfDB), UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP), on the theme, “Feed Africa: Towards
Agro-Allied Industrialization for Inclusive Growth.”
AfDB
President, Akinwumi Adesina, reminded participants that Nigeria was chosen to
host the conference largely because of its enormous potential in agriculture,
which, if well harnessed has the potential to become a global powerhouse
through agro-industrialization.
In
a keynote speech, Adesina noted that agriculture, which contributes over 28% of
the GDP of Africa, holds the key for the accelerated growth, diversification
and job creation for African economies.
“Agriculture
provides the basic raw materials needed for industrial development. Food
accounts for the highest share of consumer price index and providing cheap food
is critical for taming inflation. When inflation is low, interest rates decline
and it brings greater private sector investments. A more productive, efficient
and competitive agriculture sector is critical for boosting rural economies,
where majority of the population live in Africa,” Adesina said. “The future of
Africa depends on agriculture.”
Citing
examples in Africa (Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda) and from Asia, and South Korea
in particular, Adesina illustrated how Africa can make agriculture a solid
foundation to build a strong food and agro-industrial manufacturing base
quickly.
Current
estimates indicate that 65% of all the uncultivated arable land in the world
that can feed 9 billion people by 2050, lies in Africa. At the same time, the
continent spends US $35 billion annually importing food. This has huge
implications for Africa not only in terms of lost income and rising
unemployment. With the food and agribusiness sector projected to grow from US
$330 billion to $1 trillion by 2030, the continent simply cannot afford to unlock
this hefty opportunity.
According
to Adesina, there is a need for "Growth Enhancement Support" for
farmers: a system whereby small-scale farmers are provided with targeted input
support to be able to use new technologies. The establishment of large “Staple
Crop Processing Zones” and “Agro-industrial zones”, with the required
infrastructure and risk-sharing facilities will also be very helpful.
He
said that the AfDB has earmarked $800 million for ‘Technologies for African
Agricultural Transformation’ (TAAT), targeting 40 million farmers over ten
years, to take new agricultural technologies to scale.
TAAT
would support people like Noel, a young graduate “agri-preneur” from Bukavu in
Democratic Republic of Congo who, together with his colleagues, moved into
agribusiness just over a year ago. They now generate US $4,000 per week from
well packaged cassava flour sold to bakeries for the production bread. The
combination of cassava and wheat flour to produce delicious loaves is now a
good income generating activity across the continent.
“Our
goal is simple: support massive agro-industrial development all across Africa.
To make this happen, there is need for well-directed public policies to
incentivize the agricultural sector, especially agribusiness and food manufacturing
companies,” Adesina emphasized.
For
his part, Acting ECA Executive Secretary, Abdalla Hamdok, emphasized the need
for new policy approaches to incentivize production, which would require a
stronger role by the State as well as the kind of leadership that provides a
clear vision on agro-allied industrialization.
The
UN Assistant Secretary General and Director of UNDP Regional Bureau for Africa,
Abdoulaye Mar Dieye, urged African governments to work together with their
bilateral and multilateral partners to support the continent’s agro-allied
industrialization agenda. Speaking to Africa’s agricultural potential, Dieye
said: “Agriculture can be the golden gate to Africa’s prosperity; it is the
high octane oil that, if properly processed, can radically transform the
continent.”
In
this regard, developed and emerging countries would do well to remove unfair
trade barriers, harmful agricultural export subsidies and regional
protectionism that limit Africa’s access to markets and turns the continent to a
dumping ground.
Prof.
Eric Maskin of Harvard University and co-recipient of the 2007 Nobel Prize in
economics made a short presentation on why globalization is accelerating
inequality instead of reducing it. Maskin called for greater skills education
and training, to provide people usually in rural agricultural areas with
requisite skill that would enable them get jobs in agro-industry
establishments.
“Governments
need to get involved in skills training and education in agriculture because
that is where the unskilled are mostly located. There is no higher priority
than investing in people,” he said.
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