Wheat Rust: A Threat to the Afghan Bread

Wheat Cropping Systems in Afghanistan Central Highlands. Lal, Ghor. (c) 2015

Farmers in the Afghan Central Highlands depend on wheat as their main source of calories. Wheat is the key ingredient to make naan and other products that keep rural families somewhat nourished through the winter months.

There are two types of wheat cropping systems: irrigated and rain-fed. The irrigated wheat crops abound in the narrow valleys, usually intercropped with potatoes and fodder crops.  Wealthy farmers own this fertile land and they tend to produce surplus grain. Poorer farmers plant rain-fed wheat on mountain slopes in late fall. Dependent on the snowmelt, ground moisture retention, and sparse rain showers, rain-fed wheat is a lot more susceptible to changes in weather patterns and voracious livestock.  Rain-fed wheat also has lower yields and it's usually grown by replacing natural vegetation that would otherwise preserve a healthy watershed.

These problems, however, are minor compared to the potential impact of the “polio of agriculture” - Wheat Rust (UG99). Named after being identified in Uganda in 1999, this fungal infection affects wheat crops, leaving the stems with scaly red pustules. Farmers affected by the ‘rust’ could lose up to a third of their crops. For a region where farmers are subsistence or below subsistence, the rust's impact could be devastating for the family diet.

Cow and Donkey  Traditional Wheat Thresher. Lal, Ghor (c) 2015 

Carried by the wind, billions of spores can travel miles virtually unstoppable. In 2008, UG99 hit Iran, possibly coming from Yemen.  While the border between Iran and Afghanistan is close to 1,000 km according to the Rust Tracker, UG99 hasn't trespassed into Afghan territory to date. Unfortunately, it's a matter of time until the spores find an adequate host and establish a new home in the Central Highlands.

Decades of war has left research institutions and extension services underfunded. In the district where I'm based, the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL), has three extension workers and one motorcycle to cover about 400 communities. The NGO community has little understanding about the formal and informal mechanisms for seed security. In other words, we don't know where and how farmers access and manage their seeds, particularly for the less-profitable rain-fed wheat.

All these factors leave the country very ill-prepared for a potential attack of UG99. Hopefully, by the time that happens, research from CGIAR centers (CIMMYT and ICARDA in particular) will assist in the cultivation of new rust-resistant varieties, ready to be deployed throughout the country. -As they say here - Inshallah.

To learn more about Wheat Rust check out this excellent video from the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative:

Low-cost Potato Storage Technologies in Afghanistan's Central Highlands

Bamyan Valley cover with potato crops. Aug 2015 (c) Rafael Merchan

Growing potatoes in Afghanistan’s Central Highlands is easy. The narrow valleys in the provinces of Bamyan, Ghor, and Daikundi abound with rich, meters-deep, fertile soil. Its surrounding mountain peaks accumulate a thick snowpack during winter, providing plenty of water during spring and summer.  Using an intricate system of ancient irrigation canals managed by the farmers, every corner of the valley gets its share of water for the thirsty crop.

Sure there are some practices that could be done better. Farmers tend not to select potato seeds, planting many varieties as evidenced by the different colors in the potato flowers. There are viruses affecting the plants (early and late blights, Black scurf, and others), and from time to time farmers get considerable pest damage. Broadcast fertilizer is often wasted, rows are also very wide (wasted space where weeds can take hold), and the ridges are sometimes too high to properly absorb water.

But despite these issues, potatoes in the Central Highlands grow very well. The problem, however lies elsewhere.  Farmers in this region don't have an effective mechanism to store potatoes over winter.

Instead, farmers either sell their produce during harvest, or bury the potatoes in large pits they dig on their plots. None of these options are good.

During harvest – late August to early October – the price of potatoes usually drops from $.65 (US)  before harvest to no more than $.10. While this is not unusual for agricultural products,  farmers in Afghanistan are particularly vulnerable as they have few marketing opportunities to bargain for better prices or store the potatoes until prices come back up.

Potatoes damaged from frost (c) CRS

Those farmers who opt for traditional pits gamble with their harvest. When farmers open their pits in April/May, they often find half of their potatoes rotten or with freeze damage. This happens because dormant potatoes continue to 'breathe' during winter. Inside the pit the conditions get very hot and humid – a perfect environment for decay to take over the harvest. A 50% post-harvest loss is tantamount to losing half of your yearly income, as potatoes in region tend to be the only source of cash for farmers apart from goats and sheep.

In response to this, the organization I work  for has introduced a system that takes advantage of traditional practices, and improves it to reduce post-harvest loses. The Ventilated Improved Pit Storage (VIPS) – is a cheap and effective alternative to traditional pits. VIPS incorporates ventilation pipes and simple temperature and moisture management practices to improve traditional potato storage practices. Costing less than $10 (US), VIPS enable farmers to store potatoes until the following spring for seed, consumption, and sale (use this link can find more technical information about VIPS or watch a short video about it).

VIPS used a showcase in community in Chaghcharan. (c) CRS

The technology was introduced a couple years ago and now it’s spreading like wild fire.  Abdul Bashir, one of the farmers participating in the project, said that people in his village - Akhta Khana Bala, Chaghcharan District – were very skeptical at first. “We didn't think this pit would be any different from ours.” However, when they opened the VIPS in April, community members saw that none of the potatoes were rotten or frozen. Like Abdul Bashir, there are now more than 150 farmers in Chaghcharan district who have replicated the VIPS in their communities without project support.

VIPS Design (c) CRS/UC Davis

Promoting improved agricultural practices that are technically-sound, inexpensive, and culturally appropriate results in farmers’ trust. Farmers are too resource-poor to change their behavior for something they may consider risky unless they are totally convinced the technology works. Building their trust by showing how a practice can make a difference in their life is the best way to achieve agricultural development and increase the income of farmers.

Al Jazeera's Inside Story on the Politics of Global Food Security

Much Needed Reform to Food Aid - We Hope

© Flickr: usaid.africa

What better way to end the month-long hiatus than by sharing the good new on food aid reform. According Politico, NYtimes and others, the Obama administration is expecting to announce a full transition to local procurement and cash vouchers. Instead of the sending containers full of US-grown commodities across the ocean, humanitarian and development organizations would soon be able to buy the food needed in regional and local markets.

Although I've written many times here and elsewhere about this, allow me to recap why I consider this a huge deal. First of all, our current system - in-kind food aid programs - is extremely inefficient and expensive. Most of the funding goes to pay for shipping and the food often takes months to arrive to its destination. In addition, the practice of selling food aid in local markets - monetization - can reduce local prices, leaving poor farmers worse off. The type of food is often not culturally adequate, and -with few exceptions-  it provides little nutritional value as it's mostly basic staples.

Local and regional procurement - the way WFP and other international donors do food aid - is much cheaper and efficient. Reporting for NPR's Morning Edition, Dan Charles interviewed Andrew Natsios (former USAID Administrator)  on the proposed changes to Food for Peace, the main program used to distribute food aid. According Natsios, when he first proposed the local procurement at one of the food aid conference in Kansas City, he was almost physically attacked. Virulent opposition coming from the shippers and some sector of the farm lobby prevented the reform from taking place.

I had the opportunity to visit one of the Kansas City Food Aid conferences few years ago while working for a small Nicaraguan NGO that relied on some USAID programs for its operations. The one thing that stuck in my mind was the shiny showcases the shippers used to allure contractors and NGOs into hiring their services when sending food aid across the ocean. I would later learn that close to half of our food aid budget goes to pay for these services.

Few stands from the shippers, my nostrils captured the smell of salmon coming from one of the corners. I followed my nose expecting a guy giving out delicious d'œuvres to find instead an Alaskan company sampling canned wild salmon used in food aid. While quite tasty, the cost of shipping these guys to places like Somalia, Ethiopia and Bangladesh takes up to 90% of the total tab American tax payers have to pay for the program.

Later in my career I had the honor to work with the USDA in a pilot program to replace in-kind food aid. Our proposal was one of the few in Latin America and the only one used to supply rural schools with fresh fruits, vegetables and dairy from nearby farmer cooperatives. I saw the tremendous impact programs like these can have in the communities where they are implemented. One of the farmer coops we worked with was able to expand its market to other costumers. In fact, a key factor behind the famous Brazil's Zero Hunger program was its local procurement for public schools, a model similar to the current proposal.

While we are all still waiting for the official announcement from the administration, I really hope this time we get it right. It wouldn't be the first time powerful lobbying groups and a handful of humanitarian organizations get away with maintaining our current broken system. I'll keep you all posted.

Egypt and its Forgotten Farmers

In an excellent mini-documentary, PBS explores Egyp's agriculture sector and its impact of  the revolution. The film explores how disfranchised farmers had to migrate to the urban centers after export-oriented policies left little of their livelihoods after access to capital and water was redirected to the well-connected. Poor farmers, and urban consumers tired of increasing food prices, provided the fuel that toppled Mubarak.

Watch The Role of Rising Food Prices in Egypt's Revolution on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

In a short report, BBC gives us an update on how those poor farmers' have been doing since the revolution. Unfortunately, despite promises from the new government, little has changed.

Request for Information on Extension Workers

See below a special request from Jessica Fanzo. A group of Columbia students (including yours truly) is working with her in this initiative. Any information is more that welcome. 

The Secure Nutrition Knowledge Platform and the Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services (GFRAS) are undertaking a mapping exercise on home economics and nutrition in extension and advisory services and workers in Africa, South Asia and the Americas. Currently, the role and status of extension and advisory services in nutrition is largely unknown. Except for home economists, many extension services do not have a focus on nutrition. Moreover, home economics extension is no longer present in many countries.

The objective of this work will be to document and map the past, current and future rural extension services that include nutrition, home economic and diet related activities within their portfolio, and identify good practice country or program cases, and note comparative advantages of different types of models. We hope that this mapping exercise informs the nutrition sensitive dialogue in the Scaling Up Nutrition movement and other global, regional and country initiatives.

We are interested in hearing from individuals who have had experience with integrating extension services with dietary, nutrition, and/or home economic activities. This experience could be through trainings, programs, or research. If you are interested in sharing your experiences, please email Jessica Fanzo at jfanzo@gmail.com. We appreciate your responses and participation.

Sending Cash, Not Corn

My piece advocating for food aid reform and urging the congress to switch to local and regional procurement just got published by The Morningside Post. Check it out and let me know what you think.

Four Years into Purchase for Progress

See below a good overview about the United Nations World Food Program approach to local procurement - the Purchase for Progress or P4F. This is an excellent model to replicate as the Congress considers reforming food aid in its 2012 farm bill negotiations. 

Solving the Agriculture-Nutrition Equation

Jess Fanzo in her awesome blog "You Are What You Eat" wrote back in Agust that the understanding of the connections between agriculture and nutrition and health remains the "Holy Gray of Nutrition." She compiled a  broad list of on-going research and published papers on the subject with the conclusion that, well, there isn't one yet. The casual connections between agriculture and nutrition remain elusive at best.

This may change soon. A  DFID-funded report reviewed 151 research projects on how we can use agriculture to use nutrition. Also, FAO just drafted a paper on the " The Guiding Principles on Agriculture Programming for Nutrition." And fresh from the oven, the World Bank hosted an event earlier this week to present a recent discussion paper in Prioritizing Nutrition in Agriculture and Rural Development. One of the presentation's concluding remarks is that while there is a need for more research, we already have sufficient evidence to move ahead with ag projects that we know will have a positive impact on nutrition.
See below the video of the presentation.

  

IFPRI'S Food Policy Work in Plain Words

You’re on top of it: Land Rights in Mozambique

When you read about Mozambique’s agricultural potential it’s hard not to get a sense that the projections are too optimistic. You read about the Beira and the Nancala corridors and their vast swats unused land and wonder why haven’t those corridors become the bread basket of the region already? Why is it that with the growing urban demand, the increasing international commodity prices and the improvements in infrastructure, Mozambique’s agriculture remains stuck on first gear?

It may be the soils – something must be wrong with the soils – you ponder. But then you cross the border into South Africa and the green revolution hits you in the face. (see Google maps for a satellite image). Literally less than a mile away from the border post, the grounds are green with sugar cane crops irrigated with center-pivot systems (those long skeletons that form perfect circles and that are easily confused with the work of a UFO when seen from above). You continue driving and then you see plantains stretching for miles in neatly organized rows. As if this wasn’t enough, suddenly the landscape gets peppered by orange dots on both sides of the highway: citrus season is at its peak and you can buy a whole sack for less than three dollars.

Soils, unlike Colombians, don’t need a visa to cross the border so the bottleneck keeping agriculture below its potential has to be something else. You think about water but then you recall the huge floods this country has faced in the past, so the rivers and their abundant water are definitely there. What about the war, or colonialism, or just culture – aren’t people ‘happy’ just being subsistence farmers? The answer is definitely no, otherwise you wouldn’t hear parent talk about how they want their kids doing something else. And sure, the war and colonialism did affect agriculture quite a bit.

However, you may be standing on top of a more satisfactory answer: the land and specifically its property laws. Well, it turns out that in Mozambique the land belongs to the Mozambicans (aka the government). Instead of buying land, you essentially get a permit to farm it for a fixed amount of years. If land is let fallow, the government has all the right to take it away from you. And even if you are growing bountiful crops, you don’t have legal ownership of the land.

So is that why land in Mozambique remains so underdeveloped? I think it’s definitely a big contributing factor. And it seems that USAID also agrees. Their new version of the Feed the Future Initiative – the so called “Agriculture and Food Security Alliance” is all about partnering with the private sector to give the extra incentive needed to invest here. Mozambique makes part of the second group of countries that will be joining the program. On top of that, the government is finalizing the PNISA, the operationalization document of the agricultural strategy and the action plan for the CADAAP.

Given this willingness to address the bottlenecks related to the disincentives the private sector faces when investing in Mozambique, it seems that the country is heading in the right direction. Although it’s not clear is the actual property law will change, there is definitely a lot of pressure to make it more investor friendly with amendments, tax breaks, and import waivers.

This, of course, has its critics. Chief among them is the Joseph Hanlon, an expert on Mozambique who argued in a recent Guardian article that the private sector approach is incompatible with one that promotes small holder farmers. Although he didn’t call it neocolonialism, he portrayed it as an unwelcome entrenchment of global agro-corporations, scrambling for the last swaps of arable land.

What the author forgets to mention is that an approach in which you incentivized agricultural investments, while supporting small holder farmers is exactly what Brazil did – one of the top five world agricultural producers nowadays and a success story in reducing rural poverty. While Mozambique is far from becoming a global agriculture player, it seems that the country is finally now heading in the right direction.

Communicating Nutrition: From London to Maputo

One of the things that went unnoticed about the London Olympics was a great event organized by DFID and the British government, showcasing the importance of tacking global chronic malnutrition. This was part of a larger effort coordinated by the Scaling Up Nutrition (SUN) Movement.

Mozambique's agriculture minister attended the event and we helped draft his remarks arguing for a better integration of agriculture and nutrition. Unfortunately, aside from some coverage by The Guardian, and other media outlets, little was mentioned about the event on the press.

Although it's getting better, this is a difficult problem those working on global nutrition continue to face: creating a sense of urgency about stunting and what to do about it. As opposed to the powerful images of wasting or starvation, stunted children appear 'normal' and their short height for their age is often attributed to cultural factors.  I would often hear that misconception while working in Nicaragua where indigenous children are thought to be shorter 'by nature.' However, I was surprise to hear the same argument it once again here in Mozambique. (The picture on the right compares Guatemalan children with the height of their counterpart raised in the US)

Currently, we're working on developing a communication strategy that addresses the issue of poor nutrition communication. The government strategy to tackle stunting -the PAMRDC- was approved two years ago and there is a sense that we're losing momentum. With the exception of one, none of the provinces have started implementing the plan. That's why it's really important to reengage politicians and policy makers about the importance of addressing chronic malnutrition with a well-defined advocacy and communication strategy.

The arsenal to do this already exists. There are robust studies that link stunting to adult labor productivity and income generation - an argument that a finance minister will likely entertain. There is also plenty of evidence about how chronic malnutrition exacerbates child illnesses and increases mortality rates. Officials at the ministry of health will definitely pay attention to that. Similarly, underfunded institution working on water and sanitation and school feeding programs will also love to hear about how their work impacts nutrition.

And then there is also the broader message about keeping a nation well feed, ensuring that everyone has access to the most basic need - adequate food. In a country that experienced food riots when the price of bread went up just two years ago, this particular message resonates well with voters and politicians. With rural poverty on the rise and early signs of a resource curse, Mozambicans are increasingly worried about the price of food and politicians are taking note.

Despite all these rock solid arguments and incentives, getting all the organizations and institutions together and have them agreed on the key messages we want to send across remains a monumental challenge. Food security in this country continues to be about increasing yields and making food more available. But just the fact Nampula - the country's bread basket - has the second highest rate of stunting should put serious question marks on this approach.

The other challenge is to grab politician's short attention span. They are interested in the silver bullets and the buzz of the day. They love to sign lofty plans and strategies but when it comes to allocating the funds to implement, they can't find the pen to sign the check. As I said on my previous post, Mozambique is filled with strategies that do not materialized and are rather the reflection of demanding donors.

So yes, by championing their own approach and coordinating little with others of their kind, donors don't make things easier either. A recent article by Joseph Hanlon explores these issues of conflicting approaches. And while I don't agree with the article's main point - that the country has to focus on small holders at the expense of neglecting international agricultural investment - his point about fleeting donor interest is well taken.

We'll continue working on this communication and advocacy strategy. In the meantime, check out the video below showing Prime Minister Cameron describing the need for focusing on global nutrition - an excellent example of an engaged leader that understand well global nutrition.

EARTH SUMMIT at Columbia University

For those readers in NY, make sure you sign up for a great event I'm helping organize:

Columbia Earth Summit: A Call to Action
April 25, 2012 12:30-6:00pm
Low Memorial Library

As we face a growing number of environmental challenges, we believe that the solutions will come from partnerships between public, private and academic sectors. On April 25, 2012 at Columbia University experts, thought leaders and practitioners from a variety of sectors will come together to discuss some of the most pressing environmental questions. This FREE event (RSVP recommended), will feature interactive panels and key one on one discussions with leaders from: Bunge Limited, the Rockefeller Foundation, UNDP, TB Bank, NRDC and the Acumen Fund among others.

The Food Security and Agriculture Panel (which I'm organizing) will count with the participation of:
Glenn Denning: Director of the Center for Globalization and Sustainable Development at Columbia’s Earth Institute.
Cherly Palm: Senior Research Scientist at Earth Institute's Tropical Agriculture and Rural Environment Program.
Gary Toenniessen: Managing Director at Rockefeller Foundation's initiatives in agricultural development.
Carl Hausmann:  Managing Director at Bunge's Global Government and Corporate Affairs

The panel will address the main question of how to feed the world by 2050. We'll cover issues of vital importance such as sustainability, climate change, changing diets, GMOs and Biotechnology, and the role of the public sector.

Visit our website for registration and more information: http://columbiaearthsummit.weebly.com/

PBS's New Hour on Program to Help African Farmers Reach New Markets

Watch Business Fund Puts African Farmers on Road to Market on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

Brazil's Most Valuable Export: Fome Zero and its Programa de Aquisição de Alimentos da Agricultura Familiar (PAA)

With funding from Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC), the country's foreign aid agency,  WFP and FAO are rolling out a new food security program modeled after the successful Programa de  Aquisição de Alimentos da Agricultura Familiar (PAA). PAA, Family Agriculture Food Procurement Program, connects smallholder farmers with school feeding programs by purchasing their products at a subsidized price. In addition, PAA gives farmers access to credit, training, and technical advice. 

The government committed 2.3 million dollars for pilot projects in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger and Senegal. According the WFP, these funds will strengthen their ongoing initiative on local procurement called P4P.

This is also the latest example of the growing south-to-south cooperation between Brazil and the rest of the developing world. In addition to private investments in soybean cultivation in Mozambique, this year the Brazilian government formed an alliance with WFP to open the Center of Excellence against Hunger. The goal of this initiative is the strengthen developing countries' capacity to design and carry out effective programs against food insecurity and malnutrition, with special emphasis on school feeding. Watch WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran describe the Center.

Mozambique's Soybean Potential

As some of you know, I'll be traveling to Mozambique over the summer to work on a new UN initiative named REACH - Renew Efforts Against Child Hunger. The overall goal of REACH is to facilitate better governance and management of nutrition programs and ensure that UN agencies (FAO, WFP, UNICEF, and WHO) are coordinating their nutrition interventions.

With more than 40% of children under five stunted, Mozambique's government has prioritized the fight against chronic malnutrition. However, the integrated nature of nutrition programming makes it difficult to  operationalize, specially in Mozambique where there are so many development agencies and initiatives working at the same time.

Agricultural projects that can have a positive impact in reducing stunting are gaining traction in the development discourse.  Mozambique has an incredible potential to increase its food production and use agricultural development as an powerful engine for economic growth. The country has plenty of unused arable land, growing urban markets inside and abroad, cheap labor, and a great geographic location, with deep-water ports and infrastructure projects needing relatively little investments.

Can soybean lead the way in agricultural development? As the video below shows, the Northern part of the country has soils similar to those in the Cerrado - the Brazilian soy basket. According to the video, the Mozambique government recently signed an agreement with Brazilian soy farmers, allowing them to farm these lands in exchange for increased labor demand and technological advice on soy farming.

The initiative is also been supported by EMBRAPA, Brazil's agricultural research agency along with JICA and USAID. They are all working with government officials to adapt seed varieties to the Northern region and identify the steps need to develop soy's the value chain.

Similar, a World Bank study recently noted the following:

Soybean is a fairly new crop in Mozambique, but agricultural and market scenarios suggest a high potential in the northern Zambezia/southern Niassa area of northern Mozambique, and in Manica and Tete provinces in central Mozambique. In both production areas, improved soybean production can strongly benefit from a local good demand of soybean sub-products and investments in new industrial units, and from  already existing roads and railways linking to the important consumer markets of Beira  in the center and Nampula and Nacala in the north

More recently, Rei do Agro, a local agricultural firm, announced the plantation of 500 hectares of soybeans in the Zambézia province. This follows similar private sector initiatives that are taking advantage of the increasing world demand for soybeans to invest in Mozambique's crop potential.

At first look this makes sense. Soybean are one of the country's top 5 imports in terms of volume and value. With an increasing trade deficit, it makes sense to promote the crop as an import substitute and, in the future, as an export to satisfy growing world demand for the commodity.

Another good reason to promote soy is that the soil type in the north renders it unsuitable for other cash crops. Like the Cerrados in the 70's, these soils are consider wasteland.

In terms of nutrition, the high caloric and protein content of soybeans is also attractive given the country's high incidence of stunting. In theory, soybeans could play an important role in meeting the caloric requirements of Mozambicans while generating cash to access other products.

However, little evidence exist about the positive linkages between agricultural growth and reduction in chronic malnutrition. Although it may seem intuitive to think that higher food availability and/or increase incomes will improve diets, the link between those hasn't quite been demonstrated by robust studies. Moreover, most soybean production is used for livestock feed and the processing for human consumption requires a more complex value chain that the country currently lacks.

So the question remains: Would soybean serve as an engine of economic growth, providing much needed cash, calories, and employment for thousands of Mozambicans or would the project be added to the long list of failed mono-culture promotion initiatives in the past few decades? For now the jury is still out. Stay tuned.

Promising Trends in the African Continent

Le Grand Marche Lome. (C) Rafael Merchan 2008

In a time where developed countries continue to shrink their development aid portfolios, exciting things are happening in Africa that may hold the answer to solve the continent's chronic poverty. The news comes from South Africa's Standard Bank with the publication of an excellent series of reports about Africa's unprecedented potential to catch up to the rest of the world. A recent editorial and article by The Economist also cover this promising trend, citing some of the reports' findings.

The series, entitled "The Five Trends Powering Africa's Enduring Allure" provide a robust evidence about the continent's strategic position to meet the world appetite for food, natural resources, and manufacturing goods, all while reinvigorating local economies and bringing much needed revenue to the governments' treasures. More importantly, the report talks about how the urbanization process in the continent is resulting in a middle class with more disposable income. This extra cash is exactly what farmers need to market their product and diversified into more profitable activities.

Although those living in remote communities and/or subsistence poverty will likely be passed by the emerging local markets, with the spread of ICT, better rural infrastructure, and more committed local governments, their future does not seem as grim as a decade ago.  Finally, one of the reports highlights the central role of agriculture in this new development. Below are the main points made by the fantastic work of  Standar's Bank Simon Freemantle on his report about Africa's Dormant Resource Potential.

• Donor institutions have re-prioritised development assistance for African agriculture as a means to elevate socio-economic prosperity.  Meanwhile, programmes such as NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) are gaining momentum.
• Foreign land leasing deals are on the increase. Estimates vary, yet it is believed that between 50 mn and 60 mn ha of land in SSA has been purchased or leased since 2001. The majority of land leasing agreements are structured on a government-to-government basis. Unsurprisingly, Gulf States have been prominent. Meanwhile, Asian nations, particularly China and South Korea, are prioritizing Africa as a means to ensure long-term food security. 
• Private and institutional investor interest is growing. For instance, London-listed Agriterra owns a variety of agricultural assets in Africa, including 14,000 ha of land for ranching, as well as a maize processing facility in Mozambique. And, Indian horticultural firm Karuturi Global has emerged as the world’s largest exporter of fresh cut roses on the spine of its investments in Kenya and Ethiopia.
• While there are meaningful objections to the nature and structure of much of the new investment in African agriculture, it is clear that the introduction of new capital, skills, and technology is an essential component in unlocking the continent’s ultimate allure. Africa’s agricultural sector has persistently underperformed for much of the past half century—having been a net food exporter in the early 1960s, Africa is now a net importer. Between 1998 and 2008 the number of hungry people in SSA increased by 20%. And, between 1967 and 2007, farm output per person in SSA fell by one-quarter, even while it doubled in South Asia and tripled in East Asia.
• The reasons for Africa’s poor agricultural performance are complex, and myriad. For one, on average, African countries allocate only 4% of their budgetary expenditures to agriculture, compared to 14% in Asia. Only around 6.5% of African farmland is irrigated, compared to 40% in Asia. And, according to the World Bank, SSA uses just 11.6 kilograms (kg) of fertilizer per ha of arable land, compared to a world average of 119 kg/ha. Meanwhile, post-harvest grain losses due to inadequate storage and transport facilities in SSA are equal to USD4 bn per year around 15% of total output.
• Though much is required, and a collective inertia still in large part remains, there are increasing signs of how Africa’s agricultural fortunes are changing. Under CAADP, 22 African countries have committed to raise the budget share for agriculture to 10%. And, in partnership with AGRA, commercial banks are beginning to lend to small-scale farmers. According to OECD/Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) projections, Africa’s production of wheat is expected to increase by 30%, rice by 75%, and milk and sugar by 35% within the next decade. Approximately 25% of the source of crop production growth in SSA between 2010 and 2050 will come from arable land expansion, 7% from increases in cropping intensity, and 68% from an increase in yields. Other estimates have posited that the value of Africa’s annual agricultural output could double by 2020, based largely on gains produced by new land placed under cultivation, yield growth, and the transfer to higher-value crops.
• Africa’s agricultural allure is vast, yet central to the realisation of commensurate socio-economic benefits is an appreciation, on the part of African stakeholders, of how pivotal and intensely valuable this opportunity is—and to position accordingly.

Prabhu Pingali Talks About Gates Ag Agenda

Last week I attended a presentation on Feeding the World organized by the Chemistry Heritage Foundation. The keynote addresses was be given by Calestous Juma, Harvard University who just published a book title: The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa. You can download a PDF copy HERE.

Other panelist included Andrew C. Revkin, The New York Times, who maintain the awesome NYTimes blog Dot Earth, Nina Fedoroff, Pennsylvania State University and American Association for the Advancement of Science; Antonio Galindez, Dow AgroSciences; Rik L. Miller, DuPont Crop Protection; Prabhu Pingali, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; Paul Rea, BASF Corporation; Gary H. Toenniessen, Rockefeller Foundation; and Jay Vroom, CropLife America.

Although Professor's Juma presentation was quite good, I was impressed with the insights of Prabhu Pingali, Deputy Director of the Agriculture Development Division at the Gates Foundation. I tried to record his presentation but the audio didn't come up very good. Instead, I found a much better overview of his strategy to fight global hunger using agriculture as the main weapon. Enjoy

Somalia and the Need for Agricultural Investments

The crisis continues to unravel in the Horn of Africa. A recent  NY Times piece, argues that 750,000 people could perish in the famine, and there seems to little resources, commitment, and coordination in the international community to prevent the crisis from reaching catastrophic proportions. In an excellent commentary from Project Syndicate, Sam Dryden, the Director of the Agricultural Development Program at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, argues that investments in small holders farmers can prevent future famines from happening again (the caveat being situations of extreme weather fluctuations and violence). 

Meanwhile, at an African Ministerial conference on climate-smart agriculture, in Johannesburg, Andrew Steer, World Bank's special envoy for climate change, articulated the importance of increasing investments in agricultural and food security research.  According to Mr. Steer, the WB is increasing its support for agriculture, from $4-billion invested in 2010 and previous years, to $6-billion earmarked for 2011, and plans to increase Ag investments to $8-billion in 2012.  See a clip of his speech below:

This comes at a time when the members of the G20 recently incorporated agricultural research as a center piece of their agenda to ensure global food security. The meeting took place in Montpellier, France from September 12 to 14. 

Three years have passed since the World Bank published its World Development Report on "Agriculture for Development." Now, funds are starting to trickle down to projects in the field. If there is anything positive from the horrendous tragedy unfolding in Somalia, it is the opportunity for governments and policy makers around the world to accelerate agricultural projects, and put on center stage the vital role of food security interventions in preventing future crisis. 

Land Grabs- a New Global Trend

An excellent article on the NYTimes about land grabs in Mali and other developing countries.