Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Nelson K. O. Ojijo

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)

Accra, Ghana

Presented at the ProEcoOrganicAfrica Workshop, UGL, Ghana , 6 November 2013

‘CAADP Research Pillar: Expectations on

Ecological Organic Agriculture Research in

Africa’

Outline

• Africa’s and conventional agriculture

• Drivers determining future agriculture

• Scenarios for action

• CAADP & FARA – last & next 10 years

• The S3A and ecological organic agriculture

• Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

Conventional agriculture

• The “Green Revolution” and aftermath

– Highest achievement of conventional agriculture

– Populations fed but at great health and environmental costs; also, cannot feed the future

– Widening cereal yield gaps between GR countries and Africa parallel fertilizer use intensity

– Thus, low resource endowment (poverty) culpable for poor performance of Africa’s agriculture

– Paradox: that Africa’s poverty reduction strategies should be linked to gains in conventional agriculture

Africa’s agriculture

• Characteristics: – Predominantly on smallholdings

– inputs (material and knowledge), and unpredictable yields, soil degradation and nutrient replenishment, labor intensive

• Consequences: – Widespread food & nutrition insecurity, poverty

– low linkages of agriculture with other productive sectors hence the dismal results with populist ‘agriculture-led economic growth’ policies

Africa’s agriculture

• Why Green Revolution by-passed Africa - lack of key pre-conditions (the 5 ‘I’s):

– Institutions

– Inputs (including water, fertilizers, mechanization)

– Infrastructure

– Incentives

– Information

• Perhaps a silver lining in Africa’s cloud – lessons to avoid

Drivers for future agriculture

• Demographic factors: – population growth rates - pressures on land yet

more mouths to feed

– Youth bulge; women/men ratios; morbidity proportions in populations providing agricultural labor

• Structural transformation and urbanization: – More people deserting agriculture to other

sectors to be fed by dwindling remnants practicing agriculture in rural areas

– Africa’s urban population to outstrip rural population by 2030

Drivers determining future agriculture

• Changing food systems

– Traditional foods abandoned in favor of ‘Western’ convenience foods; nutrition transition

Drivers determining future agriculture

• Uncertainties – climate change, natural disasters, conflicts and political upheavals

– Displacement, destruction, disillusionment

• Environmental degradation – some of which are consequences of conventional agriculture

Scenarios for action • Axioms:

– Africa needs an increase in food production and supply to meet current and future needs

– Africans must do something to achieve desired increase in food production and supply

• Contentions:

– What to do to increase food production (“sibd”)

– How to do what we must do to increase food consumption (“isw”)

Scenarios for action

• On the “What”:

– More units of food output per unit of inputs – hence ‘intensification’

– Ensuring more food continues to be produced to met future demands – hence ‘sustainability’

– Sufficient food produced for current and future demands with minimal damage to the biophysical environment (ecosystem services) – hence ‘conservation’

– The panacea framework: intensification with conservation and sustainability

Scenarios for action

• On the “How”: – A workable mixed model approach with sound

theoretical basis (cf: ‘theory of balanced, unbalanced growth’ type) to help target investments

– Aggregation of efforts – challenges transcend geographical and political borders; hence the need for a supranational approach to actions, interventions; agricultural innovation systems

– This underscores existence of regional organizations like NPCA, FARA and SROs – pooling, positive contagion, economies of scale, ….

Regional actions

• CAADP in last 10 years:

Achieve at least 6% sector growth in all countries by 2015

CAADP

Research, technology

dissemination & adoption

Food supply and reducing hunger

Rural infrastructure &

markets

Land & water management

Pillar Lead Institution 1

Pillar Lead Institution 2

Pillar Lead Institution 3

Pillar Lead Institution 4

Regional actions (CAADP …)

• FARA as PLI for CAADP Pillar 4:

– FAAP (ratified in Banjul in 2005); an advocacy tool to help address challenges under Pillar 4

– CAADP Pillar 4 Strategy (2011 – 2013) to help reform and strengthen national knowledge nodes for greater efficiency and effectiveness

– Formation of CAADP Country Core Education Groups (3C Edu Groups) – CAADP Pillar 4 Expert Pools – to mainstream TAE issues in CAADP

– Formation of CAADP Pillar 4 institutions

Evolution of CAADP Pillar 4 Institutions

SPAAR

CORAF 1987

ASARECA 1994

FARA 2002

NASRO CCARDESA

TEAM-Africa

PAFFO PANGOC

PanAAC

AFAAS

CAADP in next 10 years (Sustaining the CAADP Momentum)

Sustaining the CAADP Momentum

Knowledge Information &

Skills

Agriculture Science Agenda

ICT in Agricultural

Transformation

Agricultural Education &

Training

(Learning networks, expert pools, knowledge networks linking available information and data to policy design; SAKSS, think tanks)

(Research capacity, research issues, link to knowledge networks, facilitating & supporting innovation, policy and social research in agriculture)

(Information support to farmers and practitioners, information packaging and dissemination on communicating CAADP)

(Vocational training, private public sector drive in competency development, curricula, tertiary education-research links, internships)

Knowledge and knowledge support for public and business stakeholders, including farmers and commodity associations – to strengthen analytical skills, relevance and

quality in policies, decision-making, programs and competitive edge

The Science Agenda for Africa’s Agriculture

S3A

Sustainable productivity in

farming systems

Food systems and value chains

Agrobiodiversity and natural resources

management

Megatrends and challenges for

agriculture

Sustainable intensification

Modern genetics and genomics

Foresight

The S3A and sustainable intensification

• Sustainable intensification is one of the underpinnings of the S3A;

• Montpellier Panel perspective on sustainable intensification (alleviating adverse effects of conventional agriculture through):

• targeted delivery (e.g. micro dosing, drip irrigation, fertigation)

• precision agriculture (e.g. for fertilizer or pesticide application)

The S3A and sustainable intensification

• Three components of sustainable intensification: – Genetic intensification

– Socio-economic intensification

– Ecological intensification (perhaps basis for ProEcoOrganicAfrica project)

• S3A does not mention organic agriculture explicitly

• Current policy positions (indeed even the S3A) are predicated largely on conventional agriculture

Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

• Missing the bandwagon of ‘Green Revolution’ was perhaps good for Africa – we have lessons to avoid and, in the era of the electronic superhighway, we have cutting edge technologies at the tap of a button to leapfrog Africa’s agriculture in a non-conventional direction

• Paradigm shift from conventional to intensification with conservation and sustainability needs buy in by policy makers

• Sound scientific evidence to inform policy shift

Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

• Work by ProEcoOrganicAfrica likely to provide such evidence

• Need for foresighting to provide a systems perspective on future scenarios under new agricultural paradigms

• A conceived unified framework for intensification with conservation and sustainability would be necessary a priori

Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

• Can a green revolution occur through intensification with conservation and sustainability (ecological, organic intensification)?

– Perhaps “a greener revolution”: ProEcoOrganic Africa should tell us

• Builds on age-long traditional practices pushed to the periphery in the “Green Revolution” wave

• More adaptable to smallholder systems

Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

• Ecological Organic Agriculture currently viewed as a niche or specialty area meant for the crème de la crème NOT for the masses of world’s food insecure

• More skeptics (even Norman Borlaug!) than supporters, especially at policy level: the ProEcoOrganicAfrica must therefore have an effective communication strategy

• Africa a strategic continent for future world agro-food industry – 60% of world’s uncultivated arable land; Africa’s agriculture must be done the ‘right way’

Expectations on ProEcoOrganicAfrica

• FARA’s mandate is promoting collective vision for Africa’s agriculture and convening stakeholder platforms around such visions

• Thus, need to involve FARA and sub-regional constituents in the ProEcoOrganicAfrica project to:

– Help influence regional policies using project outcomes

– Promote regional innovations around project outcomes

– Gain efficiencies by promoting collective actions and synergies with other similar initiatives within Africa

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Thank you for the attention

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