Ouagadougou — “We should all commit ourselves to mobilising the resources that are required in order for us to implement the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). We need to look very carefully at how we can increase national budgetary and private sector support for our farmers”, said Dr. Laurent Sedogo, Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries for Burkina Faso at the start of the second annual CAADP Day.

“This day gives us the opportunity to strengthen the links between the African private sector, the development partners and farmers’ organisations. It is an opportunity for us to review the progress of CAADP since 2003 and also for us to identify the challenges and the solutions to them”, he added.

The 2010 edition of the CAADP Day was held under the theme ‘Post-Compact CAADP Implementation: the African private sector and investments in agriculture’ with a specific focus on how to get banks to support the work of African farmers.

The day was hosted by the Government of Burkina Faso and organised by the African Union Commission (AUC), the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency (NEPAD Agency) in partnership with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

As per the 2003 AU Maputo declaration CAADP is based on two major principles: the pursuit of a six percent average annual growth rate at the national level in the agricultural sector, and the allocation of ten percent of national budgets to agriculture.

According to Martin Bwalya, the Head of CAADP at the NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency “CAADP’s agenda reflects a fundamental shift in the way Africa’s leadership looks at agriculture and its potential contribution to ending poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. The program—fully owned and led by African governments—is at the heart of efforts to achieve growth and national development in line with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)”.

“The overall vision of this year’s CAADP Day is to widen and broaden the political space and investment climate for CAADP to agriculture by paying particular attention to the role of the private sector. And also to showcase the work of CAADP”, he added.

“The reason as to why we are focusing on the banks this year is because the evidence on the ground shows that in order for us to boost agricultural productivity in Africa, we need to direct our attention towards increasing access to finances for farmers in Africa”, said Bwalya.

National ownership, financial incentives and information sharing – all crucial to agricultural-led development

The event attracted close to 200 policymakers, Ministers, researchers, and representatives from farmers’ organizations, the media, the private sector, and development partners who engaged with each other through a moderated panel discussion – on their CAADP implementation experiences.

The panelists at the discussion included: Dr. Sam Sesay -Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security of Sierra Leone, Kwesi Ahwoi -Minister of Food and Agriculture of Ghana, Dr. Laurent Sedogo -Minister of Agriculture, Water resources and Fisheries of Burkina Faso, Vincent Rubarema - Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries of Uganda, Lucy Muchoki - Chief Executive Officer of the Pan African Agribusiness Consortium, Esther Muhiri -General Manager Marketing Agribusiness of Equity Bank and Mr. Alphonse Kadjo -General Director of UBA.

During the discussions representatives from the farmers’ organisations highlighted that the problem of funding and access to finances requires new thinking and new solutions that go beyond what is being offered by the banks today.

The Ministers overwhelmingly felt that in order for a country to succeed with the implementation of the CAADP agenda there had to be political will at the highest levels of Government and genuine national ownership of the country’s agricultural strategy.

Burkina Faso is being expected to sign its CAADP Compact by the end of the week whilst Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire will do so during the course of next week. This will bring the total number of countries that have signed their CAADP Compacts to 22.

Representatives from the private sector highlighted that they see agriculture as a serious business venture. However, they also felt that it was important for African agriculture to be move away from a subsistence focus to a commercial focus and that there are financial incentives on the market that can be accessed to do this.

Members of the media called upon researchers and scientists in African agriculture to be more proactive in terms of sharing information with the media and also recognise their roles as sources of information. Scientists were also called upon to use social media as an avenue for highlighting their work to the wider public.

The CAADP Day was held within the context of the Africa Agriculture Science Week and the FARA General Assembly.

For more information contact:

Andrew Kanyegirire: AndrewK@nepad.org / +27 (0) 83 704 4506

Molalet Tsedeke: molalett@Africa-union.org/ +2511-911-630 631