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Five lessons for ensuring sustainable growth in Africa through agriculture

Saturday February 28 2015
farmer

Most smallholder farmers and many new agribusiness leaders are women, and they have a significant role to play in Africa’s agricultural value chains. ILLUSTRATION | JOHN NYAGAH |

For the past eight years, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has been seeking out public and private sector partners committed to triggering a uniquely African Green Revolution, one that revolves around the smallholder farmers who produce the majority of what Africans eat.

As AU leaders now sit down to determine how they and all their partners can achieve their goals, we share a few of the lessons we have learned in places like Ghana, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi, where many are now embracing the potential of agriculture to anchor a new era of sustainable and equitable economic growth. 

One: We must create the conditions for smallholder farmers to adopt new inputs and practices through raising awareness and access to finance.

The only way to sustainably raise agricultural productivity in an inclusive manner is to ensure that farmers are aware of the potential of new seeds, fertilisers and basic agricultural practices already available that can more than double their yields when used appropriately.

AGRA’s partners in national research systems have developed nearly 500 locally adapted crop varieties that are just as competitive as anywhere in the world.

With the support of partners and private equity firms like INJARO and PEARL, we have helped launch 90 seed companies that collectively constitute the largest producer of certified seeds in sub-Saharan Africa, and 80 fertiliser companies that can help blend, distribute, and sell fertilisers to smallholder farmers through market-led solutions such as local agro-dealerships.

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Adoption of these new productivity-enhancing solutions at scale could trigger an agricultural transformation in just two planting seasons; without it, we will hardly get started.

We know adoption rates remain lower than anywhere in the world and it is common to see two plots next to each other, one with a good crop of improved seeds and fertilisers, the other a struggling crop embedded in century-old practices.

The agriculture community must rally around organisations and institutions that are doing demonstrations with farmers to raise awareness, and groups that have found models to reach smallholder farmers with a range of services. Institutions like Baba Ngona in Nigeria and MyAgro in Mali are making available inputs extension and also financial services.  

Two: Think outside the bank to consider new ways to deliver financing to farmers.

There are multiple opportunities to go beyond brick-and-mortar banks to deliver financing that is still in short supply for smallholder farmers.

For example, M-Pesa is reaching out to farmers with its popular mobile phone banking services; microfinance institutions are partnering with commercial banks to provide new streams of affordable capital for agriculture and the MasterCard Foundation recently launched a campaign to expand financial services to rural areas of Africa through AGRA and other partners.  

Three: The time is ripe to develop structured and efficient grain markets that are accessible for smallholder farmers.

As farmers produce more, they increasingly need access to markets for their goods. There are efforts underway in several countries to establish innovative but simple services that deliver new commercial opportunities to smallholder farmers.

For example, newly established warehouse receipt systems in Ghana and Kenya are providing safe and secure facilities to store grain while farmers negotiate with potential buyers.

National and regional commodity exchanges are needed to attract more buyers for this produce. One potential model is being developed by African Exchange Holdings (AFEX) where a new partnership has been forged to combine warehouse storage options with commodity exchanges to serve smallholder farmers in the East African Community.  

Four: Support efforts to match smallholder farmers with large-scale buyers.

Smallholder farmers working land holdings that typically average only a few hectares or less can seem like a poor match for large buyers.

Yet over the past few years, farmer organisations in Ghana, Mali, Tanzania, Mozambique, Kenya, Rwanda, Burkina Faso, and Malawi have established aggregation centres where growers can pool their harvests to meet the demands of large institutional buyers, like the World Food Programme.

The WFP Purchase for Progress (P4P) in some countries has demonstrated that often a market is the missing incentive. In West Africa, a major rice miller and a large brewery have both seamlessly integrated smallholders into their network of suppliers.

Five: Supporting women in agriculture could have the largest dividends.

Most smallholder farmers and many new agribusiness leaders are women, and they have a significant role to play in Africa’s agricultural value chains.

In the Year of Women in Agriculture, this will be in the forefront for the AU and its partners, but we must put women first rather than include them as an afterthought.

Priority actions include developing and promoting improved seeds that take into account women’s preferred characteristics such as taste and cooking time; giving women farmers small trial packs of improved seeds and recommended fertiliser blends; and targeting increased inclusion and participation by women farmers in producer groups to enhance their access to production finance and profitable markets.


Decades of neglect of African agriculture has left crop yields faltering, soils ailing, and markets poorly developed. We are still a long way from overcoming these challenges, but there is a sense that the tide is turning.

Agnes Kalibata is the president of the Alliance for the Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and former Rwandan minister of agriculture and animal resources

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