AGRICULTURE STATUS REPORT IN AFRICA UNVEILED
By Mary Kibe
The 2020 Africa Agriculture Status Report
(AASR) was launched at the African
Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) virtual summit
in Kigali, Rwanda.
This year’s AASR focuses on Feeding Africa’s
Cities by assessing the opportunities,
challenges and policies required to enable
African farmers and agribusinesses to serve the
rapidly growing urban food markets. The report
seeks to find ways for smallholder farmers to
drive food security, rural prosperity, and
inclusive economic growth.
“This report highlights the opportunity for all
agriculture industry stakeholders to bring
together viewpoints that define the
transformation agenda while outlining the
practical next steps to an agricultural
revolution,” said Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of
the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa
(AGRA).
The report begins by outlining the opportunities
provided by Africa’s urban food markets to the
continent’s 60 million farms. It indicates that
cities shape Africa’s agribusiness environment
by affecting patterns of agricultural production
and inducing the rapid expansion of food
processing and distribution plans.
“This year’s AASR shows that as the centre of
gravity in Africa’s agri-food systems shifts
increasingly towards urban areas, a cohort of
new, non-traditional actors – including city
planners, mayors, district councils, trader
organizations and public health professionals –
are becoming key players in the
implementation of agricultural policy,” said
Andrew Cox, AGRA’s Chief of Staff and Strategy.
Subsequent chapters touch on the
opportunities in Africa’s growing urban food
markets while recognizing that the effective
governance of urban food systems requires
inclusive models that coordinate and
harmonize the actions of the many diverse
players now shaping African agri-food systems.
“Traditional markets and small-format shops
currently account for 80 – 90% of urban food
retailing in African cities. Supermarket shares,
though currently small, seem likely to increase
in the coming decades.
Small farmers reach urban food markets
primarily via traditional wholesale markets and
the efficient operation of these markets,
therefore, becomes key to small farmer access
and competitiveness,” reads the report, in part.
While recognizing the debilitating effects of the
COVID-19 pandemic and its role in exacerbating
existing economic and social inequalities, the
report defines five focus areas in a bid to
overcome the problem of urban under-nutrition
and accelerate the urgency of urban food
system planning.
These focus areas are improved urban food
system governance; efficient urban wholesale
markets; food safety regulation and
enforcement; regional free trade and
agricultural policy harmonization; and
agricultural research focused on high-growth,
high-value food commodities.
Domestic food distribution systems, intra-
African trade and food safety are the other
themes of the report leading to the conclusion
that improved urban food system governance
and performance can create new opportunities
for Africa to transform its agricultural
endeavours into thriving businesses.
The report was launched at the 10th edition of
the AGRF, an annual gathering that has this
year brought together 4,000 delegates including
heads of state and government, agriculture
ministers, members of the civil society, private
sector leaders, scientists and farmers in
discussions to find ways of feeding Africa’s
increasing urban populations.
This is the first time in history that the AGRF is
held virtually, in line with COVID-19
containment measures. The theme of the
Forum is Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent:
Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve
Sustainable Food Systems in Africa, a call to
action to rethink Africa’s food systems in the
delivery of resilient, better nourished, and more
prosperous outcomes for all.
The Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR) is
an annual publication that is published by the
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
since 2013.
The annual publication has become a reference
point for emerging topics on agriculture in Sub-
Saharan Africa, such as Staple Crops (2013),
Climate Change (2014), Youth in Agriculture
(2015), Agricultural Transformation (2016),
Smallholder Agriculture (2017), Government
Capacity (2018) and The Hidden Middle (2019).
The report has grown to be an important
handbook for Africa’s leaders in their plans to
transform the continent’s agricultural
prospects. Among the trends observed in past
reports include increased public-private
partnership, adoption of technology, the use of
improved agricultural inputs, a greater focus on
capacity development and an expanded focus
on extension services.
AGRA is a farmer-centred, African-led,
partnerships-driven institution that is working
to transforming smallholder farming from a
solitary struggle to survive to a business that
thrives.
In collaboration with its partners—including
African governments, researchers, development
partners, the private sector and civil society—
AGRA’s work primarily focuses on smallholder
farmers – men and women who typically
cultivate staple crops on two hectares or less.
AGRA has learned a lot from efforts during its
first decade and is now recognized across the
continent as a strong voice for African rural
development, a prosperous agricultural
economy, and for supporting thousands of
small African businesses and millions of
African families to improve agriculture as a way
to ensure food security and improve their
livelihoods.
The African Green Revolution Forum was first
held in 2006 as the African Green Revolution
Conference (AGRC), hosted by Yara
International ASA in Norway.
The conference moved to Africa in 2010 with
the championing of former UN Secretary-
General, Kofi Annan, who oversaw its transition
to African identity.
The Forum now consists of an annual event
combined with thematic platforms and
activities throughout the year to ensure
continuous progress over time. Rwanda is the
second country, after Ghana, to host the event
twice, having successfully hosted the 2018
edition.
Afterwards, Rwanda will host the event in
alternate years, having been named the home
of the AGRF seat. Other AGRF member
countries will host the Forum in the years
between.
In its current format, the AGRF is organised by
the AGRF Partners Group, a coalition of
institutions that care about Africa’s
agriculture transformation.
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