|
|
Historic Collaboration Launched to
Provide Africa’s Farmers
Technologies, Roads and Resources
Danilovich of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation
and Annan of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
Sign Groundbreaking Initiative in Washington DC
Washington, D.C. (June 11, 2008)—Two of the world’s largest
grant-making organizations in African agricultural
development today joined forces in a plan to help African
countries tackle poverty and hunger through smart,
sustainable solutions to improve the productivity and
incomes of small-scale farmers and poor rural households.
The groundbreaking collaboration combines the strengths and
expertise of the United States government’s Millennium
Challenge Corporation (MCC) and the Alliance for a Green
Revolution in Africa (AGRA). The plan was signed by the
MCC’s CEO Ambassador John Danilovich and former
Secretary-General of the United Nations and AGRA’s Chairman,
Kofi A. Annan.
“MCC’s investments in agriculture and in public
infrastructure such as roads and irrigation complement
AGRA’s investments in providing the rural poor with seeds
and fertilizers to increase their incomes and production,”
Danilovich said. “Our mutual goal is to put in place a
comprehensive and sustainable approach to agricultural
development that invests in long-term solutions to end
poverty and hunger.”
The announcement comes as the global food crisis deepens
widespread hunger and poverty in Africa. More than 200
million people are chronically hungry, and 33 million
children under five are malnourished.
“Collaborations such as ours are essential to putting in
place long-term solutions to the food crisis,” Annan said.
“It is incumbent upon us, as major supporters of
agricultural development to approach development differently
than it has been approached in the past, in order to propel
progress on the ground.”
The two organizations will initially focus their joint
efforts in three countries: Ghana, Madagascar, and Mali.
AGRA is a partnership-based organization that works with
small-scale farmers across Africa to sustainably increase
their productivity and incomes. AGRA has already invested
US$330 million in solutions to problems across the
agricultural value chain: from seeds and soil health to
market development, agricultural education and policy
issues.
MCC, a United States government agency designed to work with
developing countries, was established in January 2004 with
the mission to reduce global poverty through the promotion
of sustainable economic growth. MCC is based on the
principle that aid is most effective when it reinforces good
governance, economic freedom and investments in people.
MCC has signed anti-poverty grants with 16 countries
totaling $5.5 billion. Of this amount, fully funded
agricultural and rural development investments total nearly
$2.8 billion worldwide, including $1.7 billion invested thus
far in African agricultural development.
MCC and AGRA will work together to identify specific
projects and activities to be undertaken by targeted African
countries to foster broad-based agricultural growth and
poverty alleviation. Five complementary areas of activities
are contemplated:
building roads, irrigation and other agriculture-related
infrastructure;
advancing agriculture research, multiplication of seed, and
distribution of inputs and technologies to small-scale
farmers;
increasing access to financing for farmers, farmer groups
and agribusiness;
improving dry and cold storage, food processing and other
“value-added” systems; and
working toward a more conducive policy environment for
domestic agriculture growth, investment and trade.
“Each of these areas is critical to launching Africa’s
smallholder farmers out of poverty and onto a path of
prosperity,” Annan said. “Today, the efforts of our farmers
are thwarted by a lack of access to good seed, fertilizers,
and financing. In addition, some 95 percent of African
agriculture is dependent on rain fall; and farmers lose and
average of 40 percent of their crops after harvest. Reducing
these losses by just 10 percent would yield five million
additional tons of cereals per year.”
In Ghana, AGRA and the Ghanaian governments’ Millennium
Development Authority or MiDA (established to implement the
country’s MCC grant) will launch a public-private dialogue
with seed industry stakeholders regarding current seed
policy and gain consensus on reform measures that best
enable private seed companies and public institutions to
work together towards greater distribution and use of
improved varieties into farmers’ fields. AGRA and MiDA are
developing plans to coordinate seed multiplication and
distribution (maize, sorghum, millet, cowpea and soya),
agro-dealer development and rural finance interventions in
MiDA’s target districts.
In Madagascar, where rice yields remain among the poorest in
the world and fertilizer use is one-twelfth the African
average (which is itself one-tenth the global average) AGRA
and MCA-Madagascar (the entity established to implement the
country’s MCC grant) will use MCC-funded Agriculture
Business Centers in at least three agricultural zones to
expand seed multiplication (rice, maize and butter beans)
and distribution systems as well as availability of
appropriate blends of fertilizers to better reach area farm
households with inputs and advice.
In Mali, AGRA will direct its investments in crop research,
seed development, and agro-dealer network development to
include the Alatona region, where the MCC investment focuses
on expansion of irrigations systems to small-scale farmers.
AGRA and MCA-Mali seek ways to best leverage each others
investments in multiplication and distribution of disease
resistant vegetables and other improved crop varieties, in
addition to exploring avenues to boost private sector
capacities in post-harvest systems and value-added
processing.
Danilovich concluded, “In these countries, significant
investments in agriculture are critical to their poverty
alleviation strategies. I am pleased to partner with AGRA to
outline a framework for future collaboration to help some of
the world's poorest countries find long-term economic
solutions to their most critical challenges.”
|
