Address by the Director General for the
Extraordinary Summit of Heads of State and Government
on Agriculture and Water

Syrte, Libya, 27 and 28 February 2004

Your Excellency Colonel Al-Qadhafi, Leader of the Great Al Fateh Revolution of 1st September of the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya,
Your Excellency, Mr Chissano, President of the African Union
Your Excellency, Mr Konaré, Chairperson of the African Union Commission
Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure for me to come once again to this beautiful city of Syrte, the privileged birthplace of the African Union.

I should like to express my most sincere thanks to His Excellency, Colonel Qadhafi, Leader of the Revolution, His Excellency President Chissano and His Excellency Mr Alpha Omar Konaré, for having done me the honour of inviting me to join this Summit. Its theme, "Taking up the challenges for integrated and sustainable development in Africa: agriculture and water" is of the greatest relevance to the economic and social development of the continent.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

In Africa, agriculture is the main source of livelihood for 57 percent of the population. It accounts for an average of 17 percent of gross domestic product and 11 percent of exports (22 percent in 2000, excluding oil and mineral exports).

Despite its importance to society and to the economy, however, agricultural performance has fallen short of expectations over the past few decades. Agricultural growth has failed to keep pace with the rising population, and agricultural productivity and output have declined.

There are several reasons for these results. Negligible use is made of modern inputs. Only 22 kg of fertiliser is used per hectare of arable land in Africa, compared with 144 kg in Asia, for example. Even less is used in sub-Saharan Africa: only 10 kg per hectare.

Selected seeds, which have been responsible for the success of the Green Revolution in Asia and Latin America, thanks to irrigation, are hardly used at all in Africa. Rural roads, and storage and packaging facilities are very seriously lacking.

One further factor plays a major part in determining the poor performance of African agriculture: water. Africa is failing to exploit the water resources, whether surface water, groundwater or stormwater. It only uses 4 percent of the available water reserves for irrigation (1.6 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa), compared with Asia’s 17 percent (14 percent in South and East Asia). Taking account of domestic and industrial usage, Africa uses 5 percent of its total resources compared to 20 percent in Asia. Only 7 percent of all arable land is irrigated in Africa, compared with around 40 percent in Asia.

Excluding the five countries in which irrigation is the most highly developed - Morocco, Egypt, Sudan, Madagascar and South Africa - only 3 percent of arable land is irrigated in for the other 48 countries.

Output from irrigated agriculture is three times that of rain-fed farming. Yet agriculture on 93 percent of Africa's arable lands is dependent upon the highly unreliable rainfall, with a serious risk of drought.

Moreover, 80 percent of all the food crises have to do with water, and above all water shortages.

Poor water management and the lack of infrastructure are the structural constraints which account for the lack of productivity and competitiveness of African agriculture.

The consequences are tragic for the continent, with a present population of 832 million, likely to reach 2 billion by 2060:

	26 percent of the people are undernourished;
	70 percent of the poor live in the rural environment, and most of the town-dwellers come from the countryside;
	23 out of 53 countries suffered from food crises in 2003;
	agricultural imports into Africa cost 22 billion United States dollars in 2002;
	in 2002, food aid totalled 1,7 billion dollars, including logistics and administrative costs.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

These grim figures must not discourage us. With the right leadership and with sufficient political will, Africa must and can change this situation. Encouraging examples exist in several countries already.

To address this challenge, a wide-ranging programme will have to be launched looking ahead to 2015, hinging around two components:

Firstly, improved water management must be guaranteed. Small-scale water collection, irrigation and drainage facilities built in every village will make it possible to rapidly double the percentage of irrigated lands to 14 percent, at a reasonable cost.

Existing large scale facilities must be rehabilitated, such as the dams and irrigation and drainage systems, and their management must be improved by participatory methods that will give the principal role to the users.

Lastly, the great river basins and lagoons must be developed through technical, economic, financial and social sustainable development programmes and projects. Successful examples of such cooperation programmes between coastal States already exist in West Africa.

The second component, of the programme is the implementation of rural infrastructures. Here, Africa is where India was in 1950. Rural roads and tracks and storage and packaging facilities must be built. Markets, equipped with processing and conservation facilities for agricultural products, must be installed.

The mobilisation of local labour for these infrastructures will make it possible to cover 40 percent of the cost of the work involved.

But for such a programme to be successful, governments not only have to make the necessary financial effort, but they must also put into place the supporting measures needed to ensure an increased rate of return on the investment.

They must support research and improve the structures for agricultural extension and support. The performance of small farmers' organisations must be improved. Appropriate solutions also have to be found to the land tenure problems that are specific to each country. Investment in products considered to be competitive and with the highest value-added must also be encouraged.

It is also vitally important to improve the conditions for trade between States. In this connection, the creation - for example - of joint ventures between the agriculture-producing countries and the oil-producing countries would help to bolster the development of their production and trading capacity. In 2001, the former countries’ petroleum imports were worth 6.3 billion dollars, while the latter imported agricultural products totalling 11.6 billion dollars.

Tariff barriers and other restrictions on international trade must also be lifted. The continental market must be made secure by adopting a common external tariff and other appropriate measures, especially in view of the support given by the developed countries to agriculture. Their agricultural aid totalled 318 billion dollars in 2002.

The capacity of the African countries must also be reinforced in terms of quality standards and the application of international zoo- and phyto-sanitary rules to protect consumers and boost exports.

Lastly, building up food stocks and reserves at regional economic union level based on local agricultural products would enhance food security.

The estimated cost of a programme of this kind is put at about 126 billion dollars between now and 2015, making 10.5 billion each year for the 53 countries, or 198 million per year and per country. I would just like to recall that Africa's imports cost 22 billion dollars in 2002.

In the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, the total investment is of 251 billion for the period 2002 to 2015, including extending the area under sustainable land management and reliable water control systems (US$68 billion), improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access (US$129 billion), increasing food supply and reducing hunger (US$49.5 billion) and agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption (US$4.6 billion), but excluding forestry, fisheries and livestock programmes.

The resources must come primarily from the national budgets. Last July, in Maputo, the African Heads of State and Government undertook to substantially increase the share of the national budget for agriculture to reach at least 10 percent over the next five years

In order to comply with the Monterrey and World Food Summit commitments, public development aid should increase between now and 2015. Resources provided by OECD countries for agriculture should therefore double and reach 2.4 billion dollars each year for Africa.

The decline in development aid for agriculture must be reversed. Development partners must be made aware of the importance of financing the agricultural sector. This effort could apply in particular to the Programme for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries, and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. It would also apply to the 9th European Development Fund at the time of the mid-term review. The same objectives would also apply to funding provided by regional and sub-regional banks, and bilateral aid.

Lastly, the private sector should also be encouraged to invest in agriculture.

These measures, which emphasise the competitive supply of agricultural products and access to the continental market, will have to be completed by international trade negotiation initiatives in order to get customs duties reduced, and technical barriers to trade against Africa's agricultural products abolished.

Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen,

Following the historic Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa, this Syrte Summit should make it possible to translate those commitments into coherent, realistic and effective programmes.

FAO has helped in the preparation of the detailed programme for the development of agriculture in Africa within the framework of NEPAD. FAO remains at the disposal of the African Governments to continue supporting them in the preparation of continental, regional and national programmes, and to conduct feasibility studies of projects judged to be promising.

In this way, the necessary domestic and external resources could be rapidly marshalled, in conjunction with the international financial institutions and bilateral and multilateral partners.

Thank you for your attention.

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