155. Ensure the provision of public goods by governments. African governments must ensure that an enabling environment is created that is conducive to the development of private firms (regardless of size) in agriculture. This environment must include sound macroeconomic policies, investment in cost-reducing infrastructure and an effective legal and judicial system that can be accessed by small-scale farmers and marketing operators at an affordable cost. Development policies and measures should be transparent and designed by all involved stakeholders in agriculture, forestry, fishery, agribusiness and trade to increase a sense of policy ownership, effectiveness and efficiency. In addition, government should ensure effective decentralization and devolution when required. As social stability is essential for equitable economic growth, increased productivity and long-lived social development, good governance and the provision of safety and security should be top priorities.
156. Strengthen the private sector in agriculture and marketing. Making agriculture a worthwhile investment option for the private sector is a requirement for creating a business environment that is profitable and reliable taking into account both natural and economic risks. Providing additional incentives and support for the establishment of markets and marketing operators should be priorities. The target group for such support should include existing, remote smallholders (particularly in East and Southern Africa, as well as some countries in West Africa). In addition, new private sector entrants and the establishment of cooperatives in input and output markets should be encouraged.
157. Be selective in action and investment. Focusing action and investment on selected potentially competitive products to take advantage of existing production potential and opportunities will ensure that Africa produces and trades competitively within its own countries and with the rest of the world.
158. Develop a strategic framework for expanding cultivable areas. There is a substantial untapped potential for development for the continent's land, water and human resources for increasing production and achieving prominence in agriculture. According to the projection for Sub-Saharan Africa, 233 million ha of land can be brought under cultivation by 2025. However, the productivity of the new land will be even less than that of the currently cultivated land. Estimates show that only 25 percent of the growth in crop production will come from arable land expansion. Therefore there is an urgent need for an appropriate evaluation of the effective new land availability to determine their suitability for crops and develop a strategic framework for expanding cultivable areas.
159. Embrace a holistic vision for natural-resource management based on scientific results. The development of 'priority products' in Africa should be based on scientific research, which should consider the technological needs of producers. Governments should place emphasis on technological development and its extension to ensure rapid adoption by producers. Increasingly, extension services cannot be separated by discipline or sector. They must be regarded as part of the integrated rural economy that incorporates agriculture, livestock husbandry and other sectors. A holistic vision for natural-resource management should be used for productivity improvements and the capitalization of unused comparative advantages.
160. Improve hard rural infrastructure and access to market information. The region's overriding priority is to improve infrastructure (water and sanitation, transportation, storage and processing, energy, information technology and communication). In this connection, a variety of results are expected. Through this improvement, sustainable increased agricultural production and productivity for food security and income enhancement can be achieved. Increased efficiency and a reduction of the cost to reach markets for agricultural inputs and production can be effected, as well as the reduction of physical barriers to and costs of extra-and intra-regional trade. (These costs particularly include the overly high costs incurred by land-locked countries on their imports and exports). Post-harvest and storage losses that plague many farmers and produce traders can be reduced, while value can be added to the primary product output. Market information access, which is instrumental for modern trade, can also be improved. Promoting wide public access to telecommunications and internet services is clearly a public benefit, which governments should emphasize to ensure better access to modern technologies in disadvantaged areas as well.
161. Create policies to promote regional trade and remove barriers to global markets. Trade will increasingly be relied upon by African countries to generate resources for financing growth and development in addition to Official Development Assistance (ODA) and private capital flows. However, the participation of these countries in international trade is severely limited by number of factors (particularly demand and supply-side constraints, as well as unfavourable market access conditions in the markets of greatest interest to them). Coping with increased global market competitiveness also presents an important and great policy challenge to Africa. Concrete actions by the African countries will therefore be required in order to overcome these constraints and transform trade into a powerful engine for growth and poverty eradication, as well as effective interment for drawing benefits from globalization. The basic elements and priorities of such strategies, include: promoting intra-regional trade; diversifying production and trade; raising and harmonizing food safety and quality standards that are necessary for meeting international standards; and improving access to foreign markets and strengthening trade related supply capacity.
162. Focus on adding value and diversifying commodities. To create a more equitable and lasting economic growth, the main priority should be the adoption of improved technologies for the mix of selected sub-regional potentially competitive products. There is also a need to increase the value-added content of exports and to diversify production. The first step in strengthening competitiveness in Africa should be to increase agricultural productivity (through technological innovation and wide adoption) and farm income while targeting sub-regionally specific constraints. A summary of needed actions and types of investment needed to remove land and water-related constraints to priority crops and animal production development under CAADP is presented by sub-region in Table 30.
Table 30. Actions and types of investments needed to remove land and water-related constraints by sub-region
|
Sub-region |
Land |
Water |
|
North Africa |
Soil and water conservation
|
Measures to deal with water scarcity
|
|
East Africa |
Improved soil fertility Support of poor and remote smallholders through:
|
Improved management of water scarcity and quality
|
|
Central Africa (with Chad) |
Soil fertility improvements
|
Improve management of water resources and upgrade freshwater quality
|
|
West Africa |
Soil fertility improvements
|
Improvement of water resources management
|
|
Southern Africa |
Preventive measures for soil degradation
|
Support to strengthen smallholder irrigation
|
163. To address the water-scarcity problem, the North African countries should first ensure increased water supply in the short term using existing technical methods that expand use of desalinated brackish water. Though it is common practice to use water with a higher level of salinity for irrigation, serious problems can arise over the long term because brackish water affects aquifers and damages soil. Therefore, a complex programme to desalinate brackish water over the next few years should be designed. Second, a master plan for soil and water conservation should be developed to make major improvements in national water balances. Third, investments in drainage-system improvements could translate into significantly greater agricultural productivity.
164. In East Africa, most of the rural population is involved in smallholder agriculture, whose unexplored growth potential represents an immediate opportunity to reduce rural poverty in most countries. Improvement to agricultural services available in remote regions will significantly and positively impact household welfare and food security. Because of their remoteness, populations in these areas generally have the least influence on policy. Therefore, their integration into policy-making should ensure increased policy ownership, effectiveness and efficiency.
165. In Central Africa, a focus on actions and programmes to improve water management and soil fertility together with preventive measures to decrease the rate of deforestation (as well as desertification in Chad) is the only way to assure growth in sub-regional agricultural productivity.
166. In West Africa the most promising strategy to improve soil fertility and crop yields would involve combinations of tree use (particularly those which are a source of income), food crops, fertilizers and conservation agriculture (with zero or minimum tillage). This strategy is optimal for combating land degradation and establishing more productive and sustainable systems in the humid zone. Similarly, in subhumid zones of West and Central Africa zero tillage using mulch made from crop residue has been more effective than the use of a plough. Unfortunately, because of the difficulties and transition costs of the new system (including some tools or equipment) its impact has been limited and there has been a low adoption rate in both humid and subhumid zones. Finally, the following issues should be given priority: land-tenure system reform; the creation of incentives for farmers to invest in land fertility improvement and to establish cooperatives; and investment in market outlets.
167. In Southern Africa improvements of smallholder irrigation should receive primary attention. In order to enhance the productivity of small-scale farming, access to water and advanced technologies needs to be facilitated, and institutional capacity building needs to begin in force. Countries that face water scarcity and suffer from variable rainfall (such as Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique, Malawi and Namibia) should employ rigorous sustainable water management.
168. Although the precise nature of forestry development will differ by sub-region and country, priority actions and investments should generally favour:
addressing the problem of poverty and ensuring that forests, processing and trade play a critical role not only in increasing foreign earnings but also in improving the welfare of the rural poor;
reversing the current trends in forest-resource depletion and degradation, especially through protecting and improving watersheds, combating desertification, preventing land degradation and conserving biological diversity.
169. These broad priorities should include actions and investment programmes tailored to the specific features, trends and limitations of each major forest ecosystem and country. The following actions are essential to capitalize on Africa's rich natural forest-resource base on a sustainable basis.
170. The public sector should be revitalized by redefining its responsibilities and enabling it to create the necessary conditions for other community and economic players to function effectively. This improvement would require capacity building in policy analysis, monitoring overall development of the forestry sector and providing a way for all community members to participate in production, processing and trade. The public sector may continue to hold key responsibilities for protecting the environment and providing other public goods, like research.
171. The structure of the industrial roundwood sector is already shifting toward plantations. In South Africa almost all roundwood production is based on plantations. To some extent, production in East Africa should also rely on plantations, although constraints like availability of water and productive land remain critical. Further expansion of plantations in South Africa is also constrained due to lack of available water. There is, however, some opportunity to expand plantations in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia. In contrast, large-scale plantations may not hold much promise in West and Central Africa as long as natural forests can meet the current demands of wood-based industries.
172. Creating incentives (especially by securing land and tree tenure) and developing investment programmes to support trees grown under informal or non-traditional mechanisms (homesteads, woodlots and out-grower schemes) are important. These incentives and programmes are crucial because they may spur productivity in East and Southern Africa and the densely populated countries of West and Central Africa.
173. The following tasks are important to ensure the development of the African processing industry and trade:
Adaptation of industrial and trade development policy, as well as institutional arrangements. These tasks are important so that marginalized small-scale enterprises can be brought into modern economies. Global experience indicates that policies, laws and institutional procedures are designed for large-scale operators. Small enterprises have difficulty satisfying all requirements because transaction costs are too high.
Examination of informal production sectors. Given that rapid industrial growth in Africa remains unattained, greater attention should be given to the small informal sector. Research should be made to discover the magnitude and distribution of benefits arising from these businesses, the human resources involved, the level of exploitation of natural resources required to support it and its contribution to social welfare and the economy at the national, regional and local levels. An in-depth sector review would, therefore, be important.
Improvement and adaptation of rural finance systems and policies. Such reforms and innovations should be undertaken so that forest-based opportunities stand a chance in attracting capital alongside agriculture.
Encouragement and support of modern processing industries and trade. The humid countries that once were very rich in natural forests (e.g. those in the Congo Basin and Coastal West Africa) either have a dormant forest industry or have already gutted their forests and exported their value as low-priced logs. One reason for their inactivity or low-value overproduction may be the lack of value-added processors or inefficient processors. Currently, processors supply large volumes of logs to processing plants in Europe (particularly France), contributing little to national development beyond temporary logging jobs. The comparative disadvantage of these resource-rich countries in value-added products clearly indicates the urgency of improving processing capabilities particularly in humid zone countries (Coastal West and Central Africa).
174. The biological richness of the humid African forests also requires critical attention in economic development planning. With appropriate development and marketing, forests may be able to generate more value per unit area from "niche-markets" for important crop varieties. It is necessary to identify and exploit commercial and local economic opportunities based on "niche products", while making industrial harvesting and forest regeneration compatible with biodiversity protection. Preliminary studies should lead to:
the identification of wild relatives of key agricultural crops and optimal methods to conserve important crop sources. This is critical because land-use pressures threaten natural varieties with extinction. The highland habitats of unique animal species also merit preservation.
the identification and promotion of the commercial potential for other plants, or value-added plant products, with potential for use as food or medicine. Priority should be placed on plants whose potential use is already known. Little investment has been made in technology development (either by domestic or foreign sources) to convert this potential into reality.
the development of policy and the institutional capacity of national and sub-regional research entities and networks to undertake these tasks.
175. An integrated, cross-sectoral and multidisciplinary approach to national and regional development policies helps ensure the sustainable use of natural resources. Forestry on its own has shown limited effectiveness in alleviating poverty. Instead, forestry might be a component of wider production efforts to address poverty eradication and environmental stability. For example, since water is the limiting factor, marginal increases in the efficiency of its use in forestry could lead to productivity gains and environmental quality improvement. Further actions and investment in this area should include:
developing improved water-harvesting methods, approaches and techniques that can make water use more efficient in farming and tree planting.
promoting better governance of land, water, tree and forest resources. This should involve examining critical issues like resource access, ownership and usage rights.
identifying ways to eliminate barriers to information useful for improving economic opportunities and the environment.
discovering the implications of externalities, like development policies and climate unpredictability, on dry forests and economic opportunities.
creating institutional arrangements and policy interventions to increase community participation in forest-resource management.
adding value to forest products and developing markets for them, which could diversify economic opportunities and enterprise development for the rural poor.
176. The following broad areas of action deserve priority in order to address the current trends and issues affecting marine fisheries across Africa:
Close monitoring of fishery-management impacts on the economic performance of the fishery industry and its various subsectors. This could be useful for maximizing benefits and minimizing negative impacts.
Close monitoring of the impact of subsidies, economic incentives and fiscal policies and measures. This attention would shed light on the profitability and sustainability of fishing operations.
Design and implementation of special efforts to protect the artisanal fishery sector. These efforts would aim at safeguarding the important economic and social roles of the small-scale fishery sector as a provider of employment, income and food. The sector's economic performance is usually negatively affected by the overexploitation of coastal fishery resources and competition with more efficient commercial fishing vessels, such as purse seiners and trawlers.
Provision of technical advice and training, as well as investment and credit support. These kinds of government and private-sector support to the small-and large-scale fishing industry are essential for successfully adapting to the changes that accompany responsible and sustainable fishing practices and related management measures and regulations.
Development of joint strategies between Gulf of Guinea countries and northwestern and southwestern African nations to exploit small pelagic species stocks. These species can be harvested at a low cost and can be consumed locally as a cheap and nutritious substitute for higher value and thus exportable products. Existing regional fishery-management organizations should provide an institutional mechanism for coordinating national policies in this respect.
Increased community participation in artisanal fishery development (from planning to financial aspects). By connecting traditional, community-based credit institutions to a modern lending bank, the development effort would capitalize on an important, pre-existing component of local community culture.
Reduction of losses through improved handling and processing. By raising the value-added characteristics of fish products, the fishing industry can be developed without increasing harvests. Focusing on small-scale fishing communities in the future development of fishery-management practices and policies is important. In addition, a more thorough understanding of the cultural and social arrangements within fishing communities is critical.
Understanding and capitalizing on the cultural characteristics in fishery management. In most cases, the cultural characteristics of a small-scale fishing community are developed by its members in order to sustain fishing livelihoods and meet other human needs. In other cases, training can minimize the harmful effects of local customs.
Conflict resolution between industrial and artisanal fleets. Zoning, stock enhancement, public education, better enforcement of legislation, resource allocation and access rights are important tools in resolving these conflicts.
Enhancing efforts to strengthen regional fishery-management organizations and make them more efficient. Regional cooperation has many other benefits besides cost savings. Many fishery policies are explicitly concerned with the need to harmonize management measures among countries. The sharing of information and technical expertise, as well as the joint management of shared stocks, is also becoming more important for multilateral cooperation.
