The options
Modernising agriculture provides jobs and livelihoods for many people. It is the key challenge that will continue to face most ACP countries for the coming decades. With the vast majority of farms being small-scale, they will need additional help making the move to modernisation.
It may seem glaringly obvious to say that most ACP countries are dominated by agriculture. Yet until recently, the importance of agriculture in these countries' economic and social lives was to some extent unapparent. Governments and donors paid little attention to this sector, preferring to let a liberalised global market take its course. Today, agriculture is returning to centre stage, and much is being asked of it: to ensure food sovereignty; provide jobs for a rapidly growing population, especially in Africa, and offer people a decent living; and to export so as to bring in foreign currency. In order to meet all these challenges, it is crucial to achieve a very significant increase in output, and hence productivity. The only way to achieve this is by ‘modernising' agriculture. The changes may take many different forms, just as there is wide variation in the countries' current situations, their geographical circumstances and the political systems that run them.
Striking figures, which highlight agriculture as a fulcrum for development in many countries, now and for the decades to come, will have an influence on any changes of direction. The agriculture sector still employs a large majority of the population: 63% in sub-Saharan Africa and as much as 83% in Ethiopia, 81% in Rwanda and 78% in Kenya, according to World Bank figures for 2009. In the Caribbean, the rate is 60% in Haiti and just 9.8% in Trinidad and Tobago, which is a far more industrialised country. The picture is similar in most of the Pacific Islands, such as Vanuatu, where agriculture employs 70% of the active population.
In spite of the massive rural exodus that has rapidly swelled African cities over the past 30 years, most people still live in rural areas and make a living from crops, livestock rearing or some activities other than farming. With Africa's population set to double in the next 40 years, jobs will have to be found for the 10 million – soon to become 20 million – young people who enter the labour market each year. So long as it enables people to have a certain standard of living, and that this activity acquires a greater social standing and is better integrated into the country's economy, agriculture will remain an important source of employment, whether it be working for the family farm or as a salaried employee.
A key economic sector
This sector also makes a significant contribution to gross national product (GNP), accounting for on average 30% of GNP in Africa: 44% in Mali, but only 7.8% in oil-rich Angola (see map). In Haiti, agriculture makes up 35% of GNP, but just 9.8% in Fiji. In many countries without mining resources, agricultural exports remain the principal source of foreign exchange – this is true of Benin (53%), Cameroon (70%) and Kenya (78%). It also plays an active role in the creation of national wealth. In countries emerging from long years of conflict and neglect by government services, such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo, agricultural production is the first sector to be revived, pulling other activities in its wake such as processing and trade. A simple road that is made suitable for motor vehicles once again can double output in less than a year.
However, the primary focus of farmers is to feed themselves and ensure food security for the people of their country. For the past 30 years, producers have constantly increased their output of cereals, tubers and vegetables. But their efforts are not sufficient and can, in some cases, be hampered by competition from massive imports which have become de facto indispensible in most ACP countries, from the Pacific Islands to Africa and on to the Caribbean. Thus, Trinidad and Tobago exports 80% of its agricultural output and relies on imports to feed its population, while Haiti covers just 70% of its food requirements. Even some farmers consume imports when they do not have enough home-grown food to eat.
This is a worrying situation given that global agricultural prices are constantly fluctuating and these purchases weigh heavily on government trade balances. In 2010, food imports cost Africa US$33 billion (€23 billion) according to the UN Economic Commission for Africa. The African continent currently imports more than it exports. Since the 2008 crisis, it is more imperative than ever to end this dangerous dependency and ensure food sovereignty.
These figures offer ample confirmation that agriculture may be the key sector for economic and social development in most ACP regions, especially where there are no other raw materials, such as timber, oil and minerals. However, they also mask deep disparities and the inadequate output and productivity of most of these agricultural systems, which need to undergo rapid development. Differences between countries in the agriculture value added per worker – an indicator that measures agricultural productivity – show this clearly. The World Bank gives the figure of $225 (€158) in Guinea, 16 times lower than that of South Africa ($3,641 [€2,560]), while in the USA it is $77,901 (€54,700). Yields are two times lower than the global average. So there is still a very long way to go.
Small family-run farms predominate
In all regions, family-run small-scale farms predominate, accounting for an average 90% of output. These farms range from very small subsistence holdings that only feed and provide basic requirements for the family to small-scale agri-entreprises that are linked to commercial value chains and sometimes call on outside labour. A common feature is that economic activities and the family-run structure are closely linked – the fields are tended by the family, especially women who often also handle sales at markets. Land is frequently passed down through inheritance and decisions are taken by the head of household. According to the Network of Farmers' and Agricultural Producers' Organisations of West Africa (ROPPA), these family-run African farms, also called family production units, mainly produce in order to ‘live' rather than to ‘sell', so increasing revenue is not the priority. It is also important to ensure food security while reducing risks, maintaining good social relations and conserving land.
At market in Bujumbura (Burundi)
Such objectives go hand-in-hand with lifestyles, but they also carry constraints. Farms are mostly small, often less than 2 ha, a size that can only generate a small income, making it dangerous to focus on a single crop. Producers only have a few simple tools to work their land. Very rarely do they have tractors or rotovators, though they sometimes have water pumps if they are near a water point. Buying improved seed, fertilisers and phytosanitary products is difficult or even impossible for some of them, either because they are too expensive or because they are not available. Achieving a significant increase in yields is a challenge that is too difficult for poor farmers relying on food crops to manage on their own. They consume almost all that they produce, selling a very small part, often with great difficulty and for low prices, to buy essentials or send their children to school. There is nothing left to invest.
Obstacles to modernisation
Markets are often limited, except when producers live close to towns. The problem is especially acute in isolated areas where transport costs are twice as high as elsewhere. Regional markets and well structured value chains only work for certain products such as the often cited examples of Galmi onions in Niger and potatoes from Fouta Djalon in Guinea, or for export products. Otherwise, only the biggest producers manage to penetrate value chains. The smaller ones can only manage it if they receive help. A study by the RuralStruc programme shows that farmers in the Senegal River region – which has received considerable investments, is close to coastal markets and has an industrial tomato processing factory – have far higher revenues than those in Casamance, an isolated area with little organisation.
The distribution of work between the sexes also hampers investment. Men are more inclined to be involved in cash crops, which bring them some money, while in many countries women tend the food crops that produce no income. Farmers with an entrepreneurial spirit who seek to innovate to increase their revenues are not always well regarded by their relatives or the community, especially if they are women.
Most of these farms are fragile and are at the mercy of changes in climate or market conditions. Prolonged drought or torrential rains which sweep away crops – increasingly common in some countries, especially in East Africa – can ruin these farmers, who have no insurance to protect them from disasters.
Innovations to encourage
For a long time, these family production units were thought to be archaic and incapable of making any progress. However, in the past 30 years they have adapted to requirements. Agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa rose from an annual rate of 2.3% in the 1980s to 3.8% between 2000 and 2005, often overtaking the growth rates of other sectors. In the same region and over the same period, agricultural productivity rose by 50%.
Bean canning factory in Butaré (Rwanda)
There is good scope for innovation on these farms and they can be swift to adapt to local opportunities. In recent decades, horticulture has experienced an unprecedented boom around towns and as a crop for the hungry season in parts of the Sahel. Maize cultivation has expanded considerably in many countries due to the introduction of varieties adapted to different regions or to drought in southern Africa. The same is true of cassava, with new varieties developed by research. Small-scale irrigation has made progress, as has animal traction in countries of the Sahel. Producers' organisations have mushroomed in most African countries, especially in the West. In Burkina Faso, almost every village has at least one.
The many market information systems, the development of rural microfinance and management advice were developed by projects and now benefit a limited sector of small-scale farmers. However, they are not enough to unleash real agricultural modernisation, the kind that would enable rural communities to live decently and countries to produce enough to feed themselves and sell for export. Coherent structured agricultural policies which address all problems are needed if small-scale producers are to overcome these hurdles. Professional training for future farmers, building or maintaining rural roads and tracks, bringing electricity to rural areas, land planning, better availability of inputs at affordable prices, access to credit, safer land tenure – the list of areas needing attention is very long indeed for most ACP countries if they want agriculture to continue to be the spearhead for their economies and the main source of jobs for their people.