CAMFA opens with call to stop illegal
activities on Africa's waters

By: Denis Jjuuko - CAADP Network Journalist, 23 September

Fishermen repairing damaged fishing nets.

Banjul: The first Conference of African Ministers for Fisheries and Aquaculture (CAMFA) opened in the Gambian capital, Banjul, on 19 September with a call to put in place robust strategies and policies to check the wanton pilferage of the continent’s aquatic resources through illegal and unreported activities in Africa’s waters.

The call was made by Tumusiime Rhoda Peace, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture at the African Union Commission (AUC). “There are a lot of efforts already marshaled in this direction and I call on you to accelerate the process that will enable the next round of consultations to attain our desired goals,” she said.

Mrs. Tumusiime stressed the urgency of getting the African sector right. “I am convinced that together, we will overcome any challenges facing this sector and through this dialogue that and subsequent actions, we will turn all problems and challenges into opportunities to ensure we achieve sound management and development of the fisheries sector in Africa.”

Her view was echoed by Lamin Kaba Bajo, Gambia’s Minister of Fisheries, Water Resources and National Assembly Matters while officiating at the opening ceremony. He called for strong and urgent cooperation among and between member states as well as the support of development partners.

“There is need for an agreement to ensure far greater consistency between existing fisheries initiatives at regional and national levels by assisting the Regional Economic Communities (RECs), Regional Fisheries Bodies (RFBs), and national member states to translate the NEPAD Fisheries Action Plan into more coherent Regional and National Development Strategies, which can respond effectively to regional and national needs,” he said.

He argued that individual states may well “reform their fisheries policies and governance but yet remain vulnerable to the activities of their neighbours.”

"It is, therefore, important that efforts are made to ensure regional collaboration, potentially through RECs, RFBs and other regional bodies to address the needs of shared, straddling and highly migratory stocks and high seas fish resources," he added.

In a message to the conference, NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency CEO, Dr Ibrahim Assane Mayaki said that CAMFA marks another important milestone in the implementation of the continent’s vision on agriculture that prominently locates fisheries in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

“Fisheries are an important component of the agricultural sector in Africa. It is pleasing that some countries have identified fisheries as one of the key drivers of the agricultural growth,” he said.

Over 10 million Africans derive their livelihood from the fishing industry and are employed in different entry points of the fishing value chain. The fisheries sector, therefore, makes a vital contribution to meeting the food and nutrition security needs of millions of

Africans, It has also become a leading export commodity with an annual export value of US$2.7 billion. However, these impressive benefits are at a risk as African fish stocks in both marine and freshwater sources are declining.

Experts warn that Africa maybe losing the potential to harvest between US$2 to US$5 billion of economic returns every year as a direct outcome of mismanagement. “Illegal fishing is removing fish valued at some US$1 billion from the waters of Sub-Saharan Africa every year,” warns Tim Bostock, the Fisheries Advisor at the DIFD. CAMFA, therefore, comes at the right time as Africa seeks a way forward for its fisheries sector.

Continue reading CAMFA updates by the CAADP Journalists Network on: http://camfa2010.wordpress.com

Boost for CAADP as funding begins
flowing for agriculture

Source: IPS, 1 September

Windhoek: CAADP has received a major boost as several countries have begun drawing on funds from a $22 billion pledge made by the G8.

Sahel farmers are finding ways to reclaim the desert. Photo / OXFAM

Under CAADP, African governments are committed to increase their national budget expenditure on agriculture to at least 10 percent. The programme, agreed by heads of state at the 2003 summit of the African Union, expects a six percent growth rate in agriculture every year.

Dr. Nalishebo Meebelo, the Country CAADP Process Facilitator at the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), told IPS that the leaders at the G8 Summit held in L'Aquila, Italy in 2009 pledged to raise over $22 billion under the Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme.

The World Bank is administering the funds. The United States, Spain, South Korea and Canada as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are the development partners that have contributed towards the finances.

"But there are conditions attached to how countries will be accessing these funds," Meebelo told IPS. She said countries need to have gone through the CAADP process, which includes designing national investment plan which contains detailed and fully-costed programmes and signing a CAADP compact.

The compact is a high level agreement between the government, regional representatives and development partners for a focused implementation of the programme.

"The investment plans should have undergone an independent technical review and the plan should also have been tabled before a high-level CAADP business meeting," Meebelo explained.

The countries that have accessed the funds so far are Togo, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya and Malawi are all expected to also benefit from the fund after they successfully submit their investment plan by the end of September.

COMESA, in partnership with the African Union Commission and NEPAD, is coordinating and facilitating the CAADP.

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Africa's green revolution will founder
without extra global funding

By: Agnes Kalibata and Joseph Sam Sesay, Source: Guardian.co.uk, 26 September

Agnes Matilda Kalibata

Agnes Matilda Kalibata is minister for agriculture and animal resources for Rwanda; Joseph Sam Sesay is minister of agriculture, forestry and food security for Sierra Leone

The word "hunger" connotes two different experiences: deprivation and desire. In our two African countries, and in the developing world in general, nearly 1 billion people experience a severe lack of food and yearn to lift themselves out of poverty. For our world to be stable, it must become free of the worst forms of deprivation. For our world to be more just, the desires of the poor must be fulfilled.

A decade ago, the world agreed to halve extreme poverty and hunger by 2015 as part of the UN millennium development goals. World leaders gathered in New York last week to renew their commitments for addressing global hunger, even as this goal is slipping away. In fact, due to the steep rise in food prices from late 2007 to early 2009 and the recent global economic crisis, global hunger has actually increased. Today, one out of every six people on earth is undernourished.

Our countries are struggling with multiple interlinked challenges: as food prices turn volatile, poor households' access to food weakens; as rainfall and temperature patterns change, small farmers lose yields; and when water is scarce and soil is eroding, yields drop. The rate of growth of yields is falling below critical levels for the first time in three decades. Together, these trends make food access and production more uncertain. As this happens, small farmers and people living in poverty who depend on agriculture, especially smallholders, are the most vulnerable.

We know the solutions to our systemic challenges: our farmers need improved inputs, including seeds as well as improved soils; they need roads that will connect them to markets; they need agribusiness credit and private sector investments to spur growth; they need facilities to reduce their estimated 40–60% post-harvest losses and they need training and technology to cope with climate change. Most of all, they are yearning for results. If we can boost agricultural productivity, we can accelerate economic growth and raise incomes for communities, countries and our continent as a whole.

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Kenya President speaks up for CAADP

Source: Capital FM, 31 August

Ezulwini: President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya spoke up for the CAADP at the opening of the 14th COMESA summit of heads of state and government in Ezulwini in the kingdom of Swaziland. He said Kenya had recently launched its Agriculture Sector Development Programme and, under COMESA, had signed the CAADP Compact "that is geared towards boosting agriculture production".

He added: "I wish to propose that we commit ourselves to report the progress made and the tangible impacts that have resulted from the CAADP at our next summit in Malawi."

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AGRA invests $2.1 million in
training of soil scientists

Source: AGRA, 10 September

Accra: The Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) has been selected to build a Centre of Excellence in the training of Soil Scientists for the West African sub-region.

Twenty students from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Mali, Niger and Nigeria will be offered scholarships to undertake a four-year Ph.D programme at the university.

The Alliance for Green Revolution Africa (AGRA) is investing $2.1 million over a five-year period to organise the programme, which will train a new generation of soil scientists, capable of using balanced integrated soil fertility management to address current and future challenges.

They are expected to contribute to the achievement of an envisaged six percent growth in Africa’s food production by 2015 under the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

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Equatorial Guinea developing agricultural sector

Source: PRNewswire, 10 September

Bata: Equatorial Guinea's Minister of State for Agriculture and Forestry, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue has met with directors of the ministry's various departments to discuss how to streamline functions and processes as part of modernisation efforts to stimulate growth of the country's agricultural sector.

He gave instructions to create efficiencies throughout all departments of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. This effort is part of Equatorial Guinea's work to promote development of and investment in the agricultural sector.

This move is consistent with the actions of President Obiang, who in a recent official visit to Ghana, met with his counterpart President Mills to discuss cooperation and to seek assistance to develop its agricultural sector and boost private sector investment.

The Republic of Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa, and one of the smallest nations on the continent.

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EU accused of biofuel land-grab in Africa

Source: VA News, 30 August

Nairobi: An international coalition of environmental groups says European demand for biofuels has driven local communities off their land in Africa and curbed the production of staple foods.

In an effort to protect communal land in Africa, Friends of the Earth, an international network of environmental groups, is criticising the European Union for driving land acquisition by foreign companies across sub-Saharan Africa.

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US$18m grant for agriculture rehab in Liberia

Source: Daily Observer, 31 August

Monrovia: Visiting African Development Bank (AfDB) vice-president Dr. Kamal El Kheshen has signed a US$18.24 million grant to support the Agriculture Sector Rehabilitation Project (ASRP) in South-eastern Liberia.

Speaking after the signing ceremony he said: “This constitutes 78 percent of the total cost of the program which is co-financed with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Liberian Government”.

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Help for Ghana's smallholder farmers

Source: Daily Mail, 2 September

Accra: The International Centre for Soil Fertility and Agricultural Development (IFDC) with funding from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) is implementing projects aimed at increasing smallholder farmers' productivity and rural incomes in Ghana by making inputs available and accessible to rural farmers and to link farmers to market.

Dr. Kofi Debrah, IFDC Country Representative, told the Ghana News Agency that the Ghana Agro-Dealers Development Project (GAAD) funded by AGRA is providing support by training agro-input dealers in product knowledge and managerial skills in order to expand their network and better serve farmers in the rural areas.

He said the interventions by AGRA particularly to link farmers to market would help remove the frustrations farmers go through in selling their produce and would encourage farmers to produce more to meet the country's food needs.

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Fisheries and aquaculture:

Rwanda looks to attaining food security

Source: New Times, 2 September

Kigali: Rwanda is increasingly attaining food security after the country recorded an increase in national cereal production, reflecting the effectiveness of the government’s crop intensification programme and favourable climatic conditions.

Total cereal production rose by 18.7 percent from 629 tonnes in season A and B of 2009 to 747 tonnes this year driven by an increase in maize and wheat production, according to official figures.

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Agri-sector investment projects at
'unprecedented' levels

Source: Business Day, 1 September

Johannesburg: The number of investment projects in the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa is at "unprecedented" levels, Paul Runge, the MD of Africa Project Access, said at an agriculture investment conference in Durban, South Africa.

It is inexplicable, he said, that agriculture investment forms such a low component of the average development finance institutional portfolio, at about 7%, given that there is such a high demand for investment.

He said countries should adopt a more targeted approach and agricultural investment should be focused on products and areas where the country has the ability to add value.

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AfDB commits $1.5bn to water resources

Source: Nation Media Group, 7 September

Accra: The African Development Bank (AfDB) has promised $1.5 billion to harness water resources for agricultural development on the African continent.

The fund would be for the development of technical details of water projects in Africa in the next five years, AfDB Director Ally Abou Sabaa told the media on the sidelines of the African Green Revolution Forum in Accra.

The water development initiative needed at least $5 billion, he said, calling on other players to make acontribution for the projects, which were designed to make 8.5 billion cubic metres of water available for crop production as part of the food security programme of the continent.

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Bank wins award for finance scheme
for small farmers

Source: Biznews, 2 September

Johannesburg: South Africa's Standard Bank has been announced the winner in the Africa Investor Agribusiness Awards 2010 in the Development Finance Initiative of the Year category for its Agricultural Guarantee Fund scheme that has improved access to finance for smallholder farmers in Africa.

The Agricultural Guarantee Fund Scheme, is an innovative fund for Africa's smallholder farmers and was created by a partnership between Standard Bank, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), OPEC Fund for International Development, Kilimo Trust, Millennium Challenge Account Mozambique, Ministry of Agriculture Mozambique and The Millennium Development Authority.

Initiated in March 2009, the US$100 million scheme aims to reach about 750,000 small farmers and small and medium-sized enterprises in Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda over three years. Under the scheme, the partners provide a risk guarantee while Standard Bank provides the funding for lending.

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Unlocking cassava potential for
farmers in East Africa

Source AGRA, 15 September

Nairobi: Recognising the potential of cassava as the ‘poverty and drought fighter’ crop in Africa, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Farm Concern International have launched a three-year programme that will help 30,000 smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania increase cassava for food and industrial use by processing it at village level.

The first of its kind in this region, the project dubbed Cassava Village Processing Project (CVPP) will unlock the potential for increased incomes for smallholder farmers beyond food usage. It is based on a model where from each land portion under cassava cultivation, an estimated one-eighth of the produce will be dedicated to home consumption while a quarter to a half will go to industrial use.

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