'Agriculture should be the foundation'
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf discusses Africa's challenges and priorities
With Africa the only continent in which per capita agricultural production has been falling over the past quarter-century, governments realize how central the sector is to their broader economic and social development, says Mr. Jacques Diouf, Director-General of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), headquartered in Rome. However, hastily implemented adjustment policies and declining donor support have made Africa's agricultural revival more difficult, especially in the continent's low-income, food-deficit countries. Mr. Diouf, who comes from Senegal, provided the following written responses to Africa Recovery's questions.
Q. Looking back over the past decade of continuing economic
reform in Africa, do you see any change in the priority assigned
to agriculture within national economies?
A. We should not forget that there are 53 countries in Africa
with a wide variety of conditions and policy experiences. Nevertheless,
there has been a frequent tendency in post-independence policies
to emphasize industrialization and to invest in agriculture mainly
to produce "cash crops." Today, after a long period
of concentration on industrial development, most countries recognize
that agriculture should be the foundation of their development.
Increased agricultural production and productivity create the
surpluses and free up the manpower needed for broad-based economic
development, starting with agro-processing industries.
As a result of continuing economic reforms, previous policies that hampered agricultural growth are being curtailed. Now the emphasis is shifting to agricultural and rural development, family farms and rural infrastructure. The results are beginning to show. Agriculture output increased 4.2 per cent in 1996, with a better balance between food and non-food crops.
However, despite the declared policy in favour of agriculture, the share of national budgets and total investment in agriculture remains low. I am convinced that governments and the international community need to take a more pro-active approach to put agriculture on a sustainable path to development. I see it as the essential sector of the economies in most countries of the region, particularly the low-income food-deficit countries.
Q. How have the adjustment policies followed by many African
countries affected agriculture, and have there been any significant
shifts in thinking on the relative importance of price and non-price
incentives?
A. Structural adjustment policies and programmes almost always
had to be implemented because of severe macro-economic imbalances
which required austerity measures with painful effects. It should
be observed, however, that in several cases, while the objectives
of structural adjustment programmes were sound, the time needed
to bring about those objectives was not given adequate consideration.
In many cases, at least in earlier programmes, the social consequences were underestimated, or no specific measures were taken to ease the very difficult social ramifications, and the package of measures adopted did not include adequate investment to stimulate the primary sector. Often state-run distribution or marketing systems were dismantled too suddenly, before the private sector and farmers could make the necessary adjustments. For example, in many countries the elimination of subsidies and the disruption of distribution systems meant that the use of fertilizers and high-yielding varieties declined steeply. The research and extension services suffered considerably from budget cuts. This impacted quite negatively on agricultural production. Recognizing these consequences, many countries are introducing corrective measures to protect the most vulnerable segments of the population and to ensure access to technology, inputs and markets by their farmers.
The role of price incentives cannot be denied. Farmers everywhere do all they can to take advantage of favourable prices and to avoid activities that offer little return on their investment. But, for most poor farmers in Africa, production depends on the vagaries of the climate. They have no way to obtain modern farming technology, or credit to buy much needed inputs. They often cannot even reach vital markets because of poor infrastructure. All this prevents them from making changes that prices may demand, even when they know what the markets are saying. So, while price incentives are necessary, they clearly are not a cure-all.
Q. How is FAO addressing food security issues in Africa?
A. Africa is the only continent in the world where per capita
agricultural production has declined during the past 25 years.
Furthermore, 43 African countries are low-income food-deficit
countries (LIFDCs). That means that they do not produce enough
food to feed their populations and do not have the resources to
import the food required to fill the gap. However, their economies
are largely dependent on the agricultural sector and most of their
poor people are the rural poor who will continue to depend directly
or indirectly on agriculture for their employment and their income.
Africans have realized that they cannot have an effective agricultural policy as long as 92 per cent of the continent's arable land continues to produce under rainfed conditions subjected to high occurrence of drought. In their countries, agricultural and food production in particular must increase and it must do so sustainably in order to increase food supply, generate income and thereby improve access to food by all. This objective is at the base of the Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) launched by FAO in 1994 (see box, next page).
The Special Programme offers an innovative strategy to combat hunger and undernourishment. It is designed to help LIFDCs secure food production and increase productivity as quickly as possible, in an economically and environmentally sustainable manner.
The SPFS has a pilot phase of about three years and then an expansion phase. The pilot phase will improve small-scale water control (harvesting, irrigation and drainage) and promote effective means to increase plant production, ensure diversification in small animal production, aquaculture and inland fisheries and also allow the identification of socio-economic constraints to these activities. The pilot phase is already operating in 14 African LIFDCs and the initial results are encouraging, both in terms of increased yields and net returns to the farmer.
The expansion phase aims to build on the achievements of the pilot phase to create conditions for widespread replication of development approaches which have proven to be successful. This phase includes a programme for food security and agricultural policy reform to lift socio-economic and institutional constraints and to create an environment that favours agricultural production, food processing and trade as well as improved access to food. There will also be an investment programme which would ensure availability of the resources required to overcome infrastructure constraints and stimulate private and public sector financing of agricultural activities and services. The Special Programme will be extended progressively to cover all the other LIFDCs of the continent.
Africa also suffers disproportionately from animal and plant pests and diseases. To confront this, FAO has established EMPRES, the Emergency Prevention System for Transboundary Animal and Plant Pests and Diseases. The EMPRES vision is to promote preventive and effective containment and control of the most serious plant and animal diseases and pests by their progressive elimination through international cooperation involving early warning, early and rapid reaction, research and coordination. The programme is aimed at transboundary diseases and pests which are of significant economic importance for a considerable number of countries. Initially the plant pest component has been focused on the desert locust, and the animal diseases component is battling to eradicate rinderpest by the year 2010, while strategies are being developed for such diseases as contagious bovine pleuropneumonia and foot-and-mouth disease.
Q. Has the greater concern for agriculture, including for
agricultural research, been reflected in the priorities of donor
institutions?
A. The present level of official development assistance for
agriculture is lower than at any time since 1970. This trend is
extremely worrying because agriculture is the front line of defence
for food security in the LIFDCs and FAO is devoting all its capacities
to promote this approach in its technical assistance and advisory
activities.
But even as there has been a decline in resources, the fact remains that one of the major problems is the actual implementation of past research findings. There is a stark contrast between crops grown on research stations and those grown on the average farmer's fields and between the yield of leading farmers and those of marginal ones in the same country. If we are able to create a good socio-economic environment for agriculture, improve implementation of sound basic crop and animal husbandry practices, and ensure the availability of input and output marketing channels, this will go a long way towards solving Africa's food problems.
Q. How have FAO's own financial difficulties affected its
work and priorities in Africa?
A. At a time of budgetary stringency for governments and international
organizations everywhere, FAO needs to be innovative in the search
for funds to implement the [1996] World Food Summit Plan of Action.
The organization has cemented its ties with its development partners, donor countries, other UN agencies and programmes, international and regional financial institutions, the private sector, non-governmental organizations and also international and national research institutes.
In January, I signed agreements with the World Bank and the African Development Bank, and in July with the Islamic Development Bank, for the promotion of rural development and food security in LIFDCs. Each bank has undertaken to look favourably upon requests from member nations for the funding of the Special Programme pilot activities, up to a ceiling of $1.5 mn per country.
Finally South-South cooperation agreements are gradually being put into place with experienced technical experts from developing countries being sent to work alongside beneficiary farmers of the Special Programme.
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BOX 1:
Promising start to FAO's food security drive
The FAO's Special Programme for Food Security (SPFS) focuses specifically on low-income, food-deficit countries (LIFDCs). By the end of August 1997, the SPFS had been initiated in 14 African countries (out of 19 countries worldwide). Initial results of the pilot phase have been encouraging:
In Guinea, a priority for national food security is to rehabilitate local rice production. The SPFS has been operational since 1995 in the Guinée-Maritime and Haute Guinée regions. Crop output in 1995/96 showed increases in yields of 71-146 per cent, compared with the previous season.
In Eritrea, the pilot phase began in 1995 in three different agro-ecological zones, with target crops of tef, wheat, sorghum, barley and sesame. Preliminary results of the 1996/97 season show yield increases of at least 100 per cent.
Food insecurity and malnutrition are prevalent on a wide scale in Ethiopia. Designed within the framework of the government's programme for using agriculture as the base for overall socio-economic development, the SPFS started in 1995 in Wofla, Habra and Gonder Zuria districts. The target crops are tef, wheat, maize and sorghum. In 1995/96 yields in demonstration areas generally more than doubled. The net incomes of participating farmers also doubled.
In Senegal, rice, millet, sorghum and maize were targeted for increased production in the Casamance and Senegal River areas. In 1995/96 rice yields on demonstration plots in the Senegal River Valley varied from 4.2 to 6.7 tonnes per hectare.
In Burkina Faso, the SPFS began its pilot phase in 1995 in the Comoé, Hauts-Bassins and Mouhoun regions, focusing on rice and maize. The yield of irrigated rice in 1996/97 was between 5 and 6.6 tonnes per hectare, but still under the target of 7 tonnes.
In Niger, the target crops are millet, sorghum, rice and vegetables. The 1996 results for the rainfed areas showed an increase of 30-60 per cent on the demonstration plots.
One important component of the SPFS is its utilization of South-South cooperation arrangements, in which experts from other developing countries are brought in to work with farmers and rural communities. In 1996 an agreement was signed between Vietnam and Senegal, while the signing of similar cooperation arrangements between China and Ethiopia, Morocco and Niger, and Morocco and Burkina Faso are imminent, and an agreement between India and Eritrea currently is being formulated.
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