AGRA is pleased to release the Policy Brief: “Building Resilient Agriculture Systems”. It asks the question “Are agriculture syst⁸ems well prepared to withstand high impact shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic, and, faced with such shocks, are they resilient?”. The Policy Brief provides short term and long term recommendations to governments to support resilient agriculture systems within the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read it here – https://agra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Policy-Brief-Vulnerability-of-the-agriculture-sector-to-shocks-7-10-20.pdf
Multiple shocks are disrupting agricultural farming systems in sub Saharan Africa
AGRA’s June Food Security Monitor finds multiple shocks are disrupting agricultural farming systems in sub Saharan Africa
Published monthly, AGRA’s Food Security Monitor focuses on developments and changes that impact on regional food trade in each of AGRA’s 11 focus countries and the follow-on implications for food security.
Findings from the June Food Security Monitor include:
· The multiple shocks in many parts of the continent are causing severe disruptions to agricultural farming systems with devastating impacts on affected populations.
· The continued food price spikes in some parts of the continent demonstrate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and containment measures on food and nutrition security in Africa.
· The continued disruption of food distribution and trade activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need for countries to reduce their import dependency and increase domestic food production to ensure self-sufficiency.
The June Food Security Monitor is available here.
About the Food Security Monitor
The Food Security Monitor provides information about changes in climate and other environmental factors on food production and implications for food trade as well as food and nutrition security; review of government interventions that impact on food trade (domestic and regional); and an overview assessment of the prices of main food staples and the food security outlook in the AGRA focus countries in East, Southern and West Africa. We welcome feedback to Charles Nhemachena, cnhemachena [@] agra.org
Integration and scale: Transforming the livelihoods and lives of smallholder farmers in Africa
AGRA’s 2019 annual report is out. Read it here – https://agra.org/ar-2019/
Last year, after six years at the helm, Strive Masiyawa, outgoing chair of AGRA handed the reins to H.E. Hailemariam Desalegn. As a former PrimeMinister of Ethiopia, he is more aware than most of the transformative effects of agriculture on a country’s economy. Ethiopia was once synonymous with drought and hunger – an estimated million deaths were caused by the 1980s’ famine – it now has a thriving agricultural sector and was declared food self-sufficient in 2016. As his excellency says, if it is possible in Ethiopia, it is possible anywhere.
Climate change and population growth remain threats, and now a global pandemic can be added to the list of challenges facing the continent. COVID-19 has yet to deliver the same devastation delivered to other regions, but if some predictions are right 190 million Africans could fall victim to the virus in the next 12 months. Although crisis response is not a core part of AGRA’s work, to avoid the potentially disastrous impact of the virus on food systems, AGRA engaged governments early in 2020 to ensure food insecurity will not rise, consistent with 2019’s focus on resilience. As AGRA continues to build systems to counteract natural disasters and climatic events it responded to outbreaks of Fall armyworm in Uganda, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique and Ghana, plus desert locusts in East Africa and Cyclone Idai in Mozambique.
AGRA is well placed to confront these challenges. In the next decade, they aim to get Africa’s agriculture system to work sustainably without external interventions. To do so it will continue the partnership model it has pioneered, bringing together governments, NGOs, the private sector and farmer organizations. The new Strategic Framework 2030 will scale,accelerate and create conditions for agricultural transformation. Meanwhile, four years into its five-year strategy, integration is at the heart of everything AGRA does – multiple systems working together to deliver fertilizer, seeds and knowledge to smallholder famers. Three pillars remain at the core of its strategy: state capacity, supporting governments to create enabling environments in which agriculture and farmers can thrive; systems development, from technologies to village shops, to ensure farmers get the products and services they need; and partnerships to accelerate investment and innovation. AGRA is unlocking scale and plugging gaps in Africa’s agricultural systems, bringing services ever closer to farmers.
In just five years, integration has halved the distance travelled by farmers to access inputs. It has gone beyond program implementation, moving away from short-term projects focussed on funding and outputs, to a long-term strategy that drives systemic change. In 2019, AGRA carefully assessed how integration is working with a number of studies and confirmed its agribusiness platforms are generating investment in soil facilities and seed production, giving greater access to credit, creating opportunities for SMEs and its national flagship programs are helping governments to unify disparate activities.
In 2019, AGRA reached over 4.5 million farmers, 32% were women, made $139 million of grant investments across 11 countries, leveraged $800 million in private capital and made 62 new grant commitments totalling $27.5 million. Meanwhile, it reached 1.5 million farmers through digital finance initiatives, supported production of 21,230 MT of certified seed that went to 849,200 farmers, and identified and trained 15,193 new village based advisers to reach over 4.5 million farmers. Overarching all this, AGRA engaged all 11 focus country governments in policy landscaping and benchmarking exercises.
Last year, Ghana hosted the 9th African Green Revolution Forum, the continent’s premier agriculture event. Its Agribusiness Deal Room continued its success by supporting new business deals and saw 117 SMEs seeking $800 million in capital engage with more than 40 investors and financial institutions through 350 scheduled meetings.
AGRA continues its policy to decentralize by deploying staff closer to farmers and markets. 61% of that staff are technical – 211 in total – and there is a continued focus on women who now represent 35% of its beneficiaries. Although this is up 5% on the previous year, it is acknowledged there is still some way to go before that percentage correlates with the numbers engaged in agriculture. Kenya’s phone-based access to credit for agriculture scheme saw 54% of $9.38 million of loans it facilitated go to women, and in line with their stated objective of including more young people in agriculture, 52% of these loans were to the under 40s.
There is no doubt that agriculture remains Africa’s surest path to economic growth. AGRA has an important role to play. In the words of its president, Dr. Agnes Kalibata, “it reaches and enables the disenfranchised, bolsters fragile states and systems, and helps to build a more sustainable world”. AGRA drives the bulk of its investments Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA). The founding members of the partnership include the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The UK Department for International Development (DFID) has recently joined the partnership, bring greater focus on regional food markets and food trade through policy predictability and market systems development. The German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, BMZ, is currently a non-voting member and a resource partner, co-financing AGRA’s strategy in Burkina Faso and Ghana.
Eliminating food importation by training local women on rice processing techniques
Rice farming has been an age-long practice in communities across Niger, a largely agrarian state in Northern Nigeria. For years, they have clung to traditional rice planting, harvesting and processing methods as well as market distribution, which all resulted in low profit.
In addition, they are being plagued routinely with inadequate aggregation centres, high-interest rate loans and price instability due to poor processing methods.
The lack of aggregation center meant that farmers had to travel far to different locations in other to sell their products, spending more money in the process.
Being a major source of income for majority of the people in the community, poor profits from rice sales meant that families could barely take care of their basic household needs.
However in 2019, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) changed the narrative when it began working with rice farmers across the state to help improve cultivation, production and sales, believing that progress in Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda would only come with great harvest.
With huge support, a number of female rice producers organized themselves into a group called the Lemu Women Rice Processors for the project in Gbako Local Government Area of the state.
AGRA organized trainings for these women and youths on agro-input and output market distribution, including rice processing which has greatly helped the Lemu Women Rice Processors Group to be sufficient and maximize their profit.
With this, new agro-input dealers emerged from the training such as Tecni Seed, Da-All Green and more. AGRA also established successfully linkages to source finance from the Lemu Microfinance Bankwith agreements brokered by SG 2000 and NAMDA.
Now, the Lemu Women Rice Processors group can acquire finance through aggregation, securing N200, 000 to N400, 000 per person. with the support of AGRA project. The group started recycling rice through processing, marketing while making up to N400 profit per bag.
There is now a bigger market oppurtunity based on how clean the rice is which has more value. The Faro 44 and 52 variety of rice is cleaner than the traditional variety grown
Through its actions of strategic value chain partners, AGRA has increased the capacities of youth and women, with lessons built around entrepreneurship focused on the rice value chain. It has also successfully contributed in eliminating the need for food importation narrowing the country’s demand gap of over two million tons of rice, specifically in Gbako LGA of Niger state, where there are a lot of women entrepreneurs involved in formal and informal agribusinesses.
The Nigerian Rice Consortium with the help of Partnership for Inclusisive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) program continue to build the capacity of youth and women for employment in the Rice value chain which presents a lot of business and enterprise development opportunities from input marketing, production, processing and marketing of finished rice.
The training provided by AGRA has not only helped the Lemu processors to set up fully equipped community resource centres, but has also provided them with the opportunity to expand their trade.
In the words of Mariam, one of the women beneficiaries, “the benefits of AGRA teaching us how to properly process rice without stones and chaff has increased profitability of how much we sell a mudu of rice; previously unprocessed rice sold for three hundred to three hundred and fifty naira only (N300-350) now processed rice sells for between four hundred and fifty and five hundred naira (N450-500).”
With the extra profit, Mariam is now able to take care of the basic needs in her family, which includes provision of food and clothes for her kids as well as payment of other bill.
Empowering Youths through Safe Pesticides Application Techniques
For several decades, youths in Makarfi Local Government, Kaduna State in the Northern parts of Nigeria were involved in spraying activities of pesticides and herbicides on farms. It is their only source of income due to the high employment rate in their community, they earned meager amounts that was barely enough for them to feed their households and provide other basic family needs.
This was largely due to lack of awareness on proper and modern spraying techniques. They were unaware that different crops required different pesticides and herbicides. The lack of knowledge subsequently created huge crop losses on different parts of the farms, which didn’t guarantee their payment. In addition, the youths were at risk exposing their selves without wearing personal protective equipment while spraying.
The story changed in 2019, when the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) partnered with Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural transformation in Africa (PIATA) to train three corpertives groups on proper spraying techniques while scaling up spraying activities in Markarfi.
Mustapha Shuaibu, a community-based facilitator said the selection process involved a lot of research, the youths in the cooperatives were also interviewed about their challenges and spraying techniques to ensure they required training.
A total of 50 youth were chosen, they were trained on how to better handle pesticides; use of the appropraite persticides for specific crops, spray effectively as well as the use of personal protective equipment to protect themselves. They were also provided with some equipment at the end of the training to ensure they continue to have an opportunity to work because smallholder farmers largely dominate Markarfi community creating a profitable market for sprayers.
The youths became experts and highly knowledgeable in the act of spraying, now they get contracted by farmers to spray their farms, tend to their crops and their payments are guaranteed. Spraying activities in Gimi community have completely changed the narrative for numerous of youths and households who can now adequately take care of themselves.
With more youths acquiring skill sets and gaining strength, there has been an opportunity to collaborate between government and businesses while keeping up with the rapidly evolving demand within the agricultural sector. With the help of AGRA, one of the beneficiary sprayer Mohammed said “I used the money we get from working on people’s farms to take my Jamb examinations for University adimission. Luckily I scored 250, I want to study medicine at the Kaduna State University, I’m just waiting for the admission. This is good improvement for me. I can’t express what I have gained from the program; we thank God.”
AGRA’s intervention has helped transform the Rice value chain in Kaduna State, Nigeria
Rice production has been a major source of livelihood for people in Giwa Iganchi, Local Government, Kaduna State in the Northern part of Nigeria. For several decades, Giwa community cultivated rice and milled it at the Giwa Iganchi Commercial Maize F.C.S Rice Mill Enterprise. Sadly, throughout these years, they were completely depended on traditional farming, planting local varieties of the crop and ancient milling techniques a practice, which often resulted in low yields and profits.
During their rice parboiling process, the women to soaked their paddies in water for several hours to soften the Kernel, re-wash it again and steam it before sun drying. After this, the rice is milled with old machines that are unable to adequately remove stones and polish the grains. This usually results in a substandard poor quality in comparison to the imported rice in the market, which sells for a lower amount.
In late 2019, the Giwa Iganchi Commercial Maize F.C.S Rice Mill Enterprise was selected by SG 2000 and the Kaduna Agricultural Development Agency (KADA) to participate in the project that would transform the entire rice farming process and production.
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) -Kaduna State Consortium project in partnership with the Partnership for Inclusive Agrricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) conducted trainings and the facilitatedpartnerships between the local communities and reputable rural agro-industrialists.
AGRA’s intervention in the production and milling process has greatly improved the entire rice value chain. Farmers now make better choices with seed and practice modern fasrming. The introduction of high yielding rice varieties as well as modern milling machines and techniques has improved the milling enterprise in Giwa.
Mr. Abubakar, one of the beneficiaries of the trainings mentioned the new milling machine has brought a lot of benefits to them and they can now employ more people with the profits from the business.
Now, they are able to mill between 30-40 bags per day, resulting in a more finished product that is at the same standard as imported rice. This has created an oppurtunity for new markets while competing in local markets.
Abdulrahman who works at the mill, said the experience with the AGRA project was transformative, the rice mill has brought about an increase in the production of high-quality finished products and an improvement in the standard of living.
He said, “My profit has improved, constant growth and i have been able to help employ more hands. As you can see, there are people carrying out different roles in the processing, chaff removal, operators and so on. The number of bags processed daily determines how much each is paid, usual between N1000- N1500 daily.”
SEEDCODEX is boosting crop productivity by tackling counterfeit seeds in Nigeria
In Nigeria, crop production is an old tradition, many families in the country solely depends on it for the provision of their basic needs. However, the lack of access to quality seeds has affected crop productivity, making it difficult to guarantee production and for families to adequately meet their basic needs.
Over the years, smallholder farmers have lost millions of naira due to fake, seeds. More than 50% of crop seeds sold in the country are sub-standard and sometimes fake. Farmers have complained about the exposure to illegal seed practices, including counterfeit seeds, fake seeds, fraudulent labelling and regulatory offences.
In addition to destroying the economic prospects of the country, the continuous use of illegal seeds has reduced investment by breeders and seed producers to develop, produce and deliver better quality seeds.
In 2020, the National Agricultural Seed Council (NASC) with the support of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) introduced the NASC SEEDCODEX, an electronic seed authentication tag to provide farmers with quality assurance through tracking, traceability and provision of quality seeds.
The new tag will have a scratch-off code which will complement the existing tags of the Seed Council, would be attached to the pack of every seeds sold in Nigeria. Smallholder farmers are happy to hear this and have embraced the innovation.
During the unveiling ceremony of the SEEDCODEX, President of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Arc Kabiru Ibrahim said the SEEDCODEX will promote farmer’s access to better seed breeds which will help farmers withstand harsher droughts, extreme heat and unpredictable flood associated with climate change.
This initiative is expected to help farmers substantially boost and guarantee harvest, generate more income to take care of their basic family needs.
With the new scratch-off code, farmers are now able to send certain codes via SMS and get instant response to verify the authenticty of the seed. The access to high-quality seeds enables farmers to boost their crop productivity while improving their livelihoods.
Virtual press briefing: It is time to stop hunger from becoming deadlier than the virus – Experts
ONE partnered with the Alliance for Green Revolution for Africa (AGRA) to host a virtual press event on 11 June 2020. The virtual panel discussion also marked the launch the partners’ paper on food security in Africa, titled: How to stop hunger from becoming more deadly than the virus. Read the English and French versions.
As the world grapple with containment of COVID-19 pandemic, food protests especially among poor and vulnerable African communities are likely going to be deadlier than the virus itself, if governments and international institutions do not act now, experts have warned.
In a virtual meeting with the press from across Africa, experts from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and ONE – a global movement campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease by 2030 said that there exists a window of opportunity for governments to save the situation, and plan for future eventualities but only if they act in time.
“We are heading towards a real disaster because when hunger comes in, people will always protests,” said Dr Fadel Ndiame, AGRA’s Deputy President, noting that COVID-19 effects to food security are going to be worse than what was witnessed during Ebola, because the current virus is affecting the entire world.
As a short term measure, the experts want African governments to expand and improve food assistance and social protection programs to protect the most vulnerable including cash-based transfers as the primary safety net, which can largely be distributed through contactless solutions; in-kind food assistance such as take-home rations, food package delivery, and food vouchers where necessary.
It was observed that at the moment, there is no food shortage in the global market. In Europe and the US for example, milk is being dumped and eggs are being smashed as demand from restaurants decreases. But access to the food poses a problem because borders have been closed, and movements curtailed as part of COVID-19 containment measures.
At the same time, during such crisis, some families panic and hoard food. In response, countries impose export restrictions in a misguided effort to protect domestic prices. This is likely going to be a huge problem because many African countries depend on imported food, especially rice from Asian countries.
“Food security concerns go hand in hand with pandemics,” said Edwin Ikhuoria, ONE’s Africa Executive Director, noting that the SARS and MERS outbreaks led to food price hikes and market panics in affected areas, leaving the poorest groups without access to essential foods, especially staples.
In the East African region for example, Tanzanian President Dr John Pombe Magufuli has publicly urged farmers in his the country not to sell food to neighboring countries, and if they must sell it, they must make sure they charge exorbitantly to take advantage of food shortages in countries that imposed lockdown to contain the virus.
With the invasion of desert locust, floods and containment measures for COVID-19, Kenya and Uganda are the most affected in the region. Kenya in particular heavily relies on supplies of commodities such as onions, fruits, tomatoes and other vegetables from Tanzania through Namanga border. Yet, due to the COVID-19 pandemic containment measures, movements across the border have been restricted.
To that end, the experts asked all governments to step up efforts to ensure adequate food reserves by stepping up local production and storage, and called on donors to fully fund the US$1.5 billion requested by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP).
GAFSP, created by the G20 in response to the 2007-2008 food price crises, is a multilateral mechanism to improve food and nutrition security that has effectively channeled finances to governments, the private sector, and directly to farmers.
To the international institutions, the experts called on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Board to act to create $500bn in Special Drawing Rights and all actors should immediately enact a debt moratorium for bilateral, multilateral and private debt for 2020 and 2021.
“Special Drawing Rights should be allocated to poorer countries, providing them with immediate liquidity to respond to the crisis, said Ikhuoria, further calling on donors tofully fund the US$6.7 billion requested for the Global Humanitarian Response Plan.
The GHRP is a coordinated global humanitarian response plan to fight COVID-19 in 64 of the world’s most vulnerable countries, and includes financing for the UN World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
The IMF forecasts global economic growth to contract by 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, a downgrade of 6.3 percentage points from the January 2020 projection. This will make it the worst downturn since the Great Depression. As a result, 419 million additional people could fall into extreme poverty in 2020, particularly in the sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia according to the International Food Policy Research Institute(IFPRI)
Recent studies on the impact of COVID-19 in rural China confirm that in order to ensure adequate food, families substituted high nutrition foods such as meat and produce, for lower nutrition items like grains and staples, significantly impacting nutrition. In Senegal, more than 85% of its population has seen a reduction in income, and as a result, over a third of them now eat less food every day.
Generally, the main productive asset of the poor is physical labor. Yet, this has already been affected by social distancing measures making efforts to contain the virus much more challenging, according to IFPRI.
As a result, media reports have shown that vulnerable citizens in Tunisia have disobeyed lockdown measures to protest over hunger. In Zimbabwe, where extreme hunger debilitates 30% of the population, many are willing to risk contracting COVID-19 if it means they can eat.
“We need governments to develop sustainable food systems that can support individual countries even in times of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Ndiame.
AGRA Webinar: Securing the 2020 cropping season in the face of COVID-19 Pandemic
Participants expressed cautious optimism that despite the impact of COVI-19, Nigeria’s ag sector is ensuring access to quality food at prices people can afford
AGRA’s webinar, “Securing the 2020 cropping season in the face of COVID 19 Pandemic”, held on June 4, 2020 brought together experts in Nigeria’s agricultural landscape to share their perspectives on the impact of COVID 19 on Nigeria’s agriculture sector. The discussion brought together representatives from the donor community, government and the private sector. The session was led by Dr Abdulkadir Muazu, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and was moderated by Dr. George Bigirwa, Deputy Vice President, Program Innovations and Delivery – Technical, AGRA. Participants noted that early actions taken by government and the private sector included the provision of free good quality seeds to farmers, innovative financing mechanisms for farmers, social supports, and the classification of inputs as essential important in the upcoming planting season. They also discussed provision extension and advisory services, roles of women and the support the development partners for effective post COVID response. As a result of these actions, participants were cautiously optimistic that Nigeria’s ag sector is able to continue providing access to quality food at prices people can afford, while ensuring that farmers and the private sector can still make money.
For more information: Dr. Kehinde Makinde, AGRA Country Manger Nigeria; kmakinde@agra.org
Rural Farmers Marvel At New Fertilizer Blends
Halima Jawadu Siyame, 40, is a single mother from Chikombo Village, Nkhotakota, rural Malawi. Just like most rural Malawians, especially women, poverty is a big challenge to her. Food security is always chief among the challenges. Ensuring that rural subsistence farmers like Halima have enough food to feed themselves and have surplus to sell, will help uplift thousands if not millions of people from poverty.
One of the ways of helping them realize more yields in their fields is by producing fertilizer blends that are specific to their areas. This will ensure that they use fertilizer that is appropriate for the socio-economic conditions of the farmers. Blanket fertilizer blends tend to disadvantage farmers where soil and other conditions are different.
To encourage farmers to adopt the new blends, the department has allowed them to carry out trials of the different available blends in their fields. 40 year-old Siyame is one of those farmers.
“I have two maize fields. One I have used our traditional methods here. The other one I planted hybrid seed and fertilizer that I was given by the department to try out. We used less fertilizer on that field but the yields are very good. For the traditional one the yields are poor yet I also applied fertilizers,” says the mother of three.
A number of farmers in the area have been trying the fertilizer blends so that in the end they can chose the one that gives them better yields. “The idea is that the farmers themselves try the different varieties and methods. This will help them make an informed decision and easily adopt the technologies since they were involved in the trials.” Says Deputy Director of Land Resources Gilbert Kupunda.
As for Halima, she can only smile at the quality and big size of cobs in the field. I am harvesting enough maize this year thanks to this project. I will be able to feed my children and my grandmother whom I also keep in my house. We have seen that this new blend is good for our soil here.” She says adding that the farmers in the area have selected 23-10-5+65+1Zn. “We will not be using C.A.N anymore here because we don’t harvest a lot,” Says the proud farmer who is confident she will buy corrugated iron sheets from the proceeds this year.
The Department of Land Resources in Malawi, with funding from the Partnership for Inclusive Agricultural Transformation in Africa (PIATA) leveraging the support provided by development partners under Multi donor trust fund and IFAD. It is being implemented by the Department of Land Resources Conservations, AFAP and Story Workshop Education Trust jointly.
It aims to fast-track finalization of national soil nutrient deficient maps, develop and validate area specific fertilizer blends and create awareness on new fertilizer blends.