AUC-ECA Launch Programme On Promotion and Development of Strategic Agricultural Value Chains in Ecowas

2 December 2013
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United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
press release

Addis Ababa — Recognizing the role that strategic agricultural commodities value chain can play in Africa agriculture transformation and subsequently enhancing food security and rural livelihoods, the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in collaboration with ECOWAS, the African Union Commission and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), within the CAADP framework launched a programme entitled "Promotion and Development of strategic agricultural value chains in ECOWAS region" last week in Cotonou, Benin.

Under this programme, studies on value chain analysis will be carried out on rice, maize and livestock in Cote D'Ivoire this week and in Ghana next week. The overall goal is to enable effective Public-Private partnerships to play a significant role in the development of a vibrant agribusiness sector capable of capturing untapped opportunities such as economies of scale, intra-regional complementarities, trade and economies of transactions in cross-border investment with a view to foster agricultural development.

Other countries will follow. The study which will include several other West African countries will be conducted as follows:

1. Value Chain Analysis of Maize will take place in Benin, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Mali.

2. Value Chain Analysis of Rice, to take place in Senegal, Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire and Mali.

3. Value Chain Analysis of Livestock to be conducted in Mali.

ECA will be working with several partners in the course of the study, including International Institution for Tropical Agriculture (IITA); International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), AfricaRice, CORAF/WECARD (Conseil ouest et centre africain pour la recherche et le développement agricoles / West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development); and Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute (FAPRI).

This programme aims at contributing to the formulation of an integrated transnational program, regionally integrated, that will support all the West African initiatives and national strategies under the umbrella of ECOWAS for the development of the value chains of strategic agricultural commodities, namely rice, maize and livestock. It will provide African policy makers with evidenced-based policy options to assist making informed decisions for the transformation of the agricultural sector, which remains the main employer in Africa contributing more than 70% of job opportunities.

The programme also aims at identifying pragmatic, concrete policy options to foster agricultural development through, mainly, empowering small-scale farmers, enhancing agricultural productivity and improving competitiveness within the framework of commodity-based -industrialization, initiated and advocated by ECA, and being endorsed as the path for development for Africa by the last AU-ECA Joint Conference of Ministers of Finances, held in Cote d'Ivoire in April 2013.

Read the original article on UNECA.

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