Purchase from Africans for Africa empowers smallholder farmers
19 June 2014, Accra/Addis Ababa - Sourcing local food to food-insecure populations was the focus of a recent seminar that gathered in the Ethiopian capital, Addis-Ababa, a range of diverse stakeholders from the five countries of the Purchase from Africans for Africa (PAA) – Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal –the programme’s partners Brazil and United Kingdom, invited experts from Ghana, Togo, South Africa, Civil Society representatives, the African Union and New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), Instituto Lula as well as FAO and WFP.
The PAA Africa and Institutional Markets Knowledge Sharing Seminar was part of the PAA Africa knowledge exchange activities to facilitate learning among partners on the potential of local food purchase for food assistance as tools for food security, rural development and agriculture resilience building. Sharing experiences, learning from partners "During this second workshop, the exchange of experiences among PAA Africa's participant countries reached a new level of knowledge, as African countries are learning from their own adapted PAA's models", praised the PAA Africa Coordinator in FAO, Israel Klug. "Based on the Ethiopian best practices in PAA and other experiences presented, each country can plan a set of actions to improve their models back home", he added.
Joint frameworks for knowledge sharing and technical collaboration are essential to advance South-South cooperation and learning from existing initiatives is expanding, such as Purchase for Progress, NEPAD Home Grown School Feeding and the numerous national school feeding initiatives in Africa as well as the Brazilian national experience in fighting hunger. PAA Africa brings in their different approaches access to agricultural inputs, targeting farmers, food procurement methods and contracting, among other issues. Up-scaling PAA Africa’s implementation
In the city of Hawassa, in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples of the South Region, Ethiopia, PAA Africa activities are well developed. The Regional Bureau of Agriculture with FAO provides support to a local seeds production scheme and training to improve maize and haricot beans production. The regional government, which already invests in school feeding in partnership with WFP, is also buying locally grown food from participating cooperatives to supply regional hospitals, universities and prisons.
Niger emerges as a successful case with the creation of a specific fund for the Government’s 3N Initiative (Les Nigériens Nourissent les Nigériens), open to public and private contributions; it represents an interesting approach to guaranteeing budget sustainability for food security policies. In Brazil, the creation of the National Council of Food and Nutrition Security (CONSEA), civil society and government jointly build and implement public food policies, including the country’s Food Acquisition Programme. Best practices help to overcome challenges, among them, rural extension structures, farmers’ access to credit, cooperative capacity to respond to markets demand and the need to diversify school lunch menus.
FAO support to smallholder farmers FAO's work during the first phase of PAA Africa focused on improving farmers' conditions to meet the demands of institutional markets in their regions, with some remarkable results.
"By fostering local circuits, the local food purchase programmes can contribute to offset the increasing costs of food imports, and generate a positive impact in household income and food security" explained Lamourdia Thiombiano, FAO Representative to Ghana and Deputy-Regional Representative for Africa, who attended the Addis-Ababa Seminar.
"The twin-track approach adopted by the Programme, by enabling access to food for vulnerable populations while reinforcing smallholder capacities to produce and participate in local markets, contributes to an integrated resilience approach from response to rehabilitation", he added. In Ethiopia, a seed distribution revolving system was established, allowing farmers to have better access to seeds and reduce dependency on buying seeds every crop season. Through this scheme a total of 22.7 tons of seeds produced by the participating farmers were distributed to 908 non-beneficiaries farmers.
The adoption of participatory approaches through FAO supported training across the country is also improving local capacities. In Senegal, thanks to the distribution of improved inputs and the realization of capacity building in rice production, farmers from the Kedougou region, one of the most food deficit prone areas in the country, have seen an increase of over 100 percent in their yields compared with the previous season in which they received no support.
Moreover, 91 silos Gorongosa - cylindrical tanks that hold up to one ton of grain safely – were built in Tete region, Mozambique, especially benefiting women headed households. An affordable and locally developed technology, these silos contribute to the reduction of post-harvest losses and increase sales possibilities to the producers.
FAO has reaffirmed its commitment to partnering with governments to supporting smallholder farmers’ inclusion in local markets, interagency cooperation and partnerships with research institutions and civil society. Looking forward to build long-term sustainability and foster local ownership, the PAA Africa Programme is working to promote sustainable food production schemes for smallholder farming, contributing to Africa’s efforts to end hunger and malnutrition in the region. Director-
General video message to PAA : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kl1PIlj91NA
FAO has also supported farmers on the establishment of a revolving system for the distribution of high quality haricot beans seeds in Ethiopia.
Related links:
African Union / CAADP Year of Agriculture
In the news:
Brazil’s Ministry of Agrarian Development (Portuguese)
Instituto Lula (Portuguese)