Africa Feeding Africa
Newsletter of the Agriculture and Agro-Industry Department

Feed Africa strategy targets innovation gap
for Africa’s agricultural transformation© AFDB 2015 - DESIGN CERD/YAL

Editorial

1st semester 2016

AS part ofthe “High5s” vision andthe goal of“Feeding Africa”,
the Bank is supporting thepreparation of a continent-widestrategy for the transformationof African agriculture titled “FeedAfrica: A Strategy for Agricultural
Transformation in Africa (20162025)”.

THE particular role of technology inagriculture is being addressed in aflagship initiative named “Technologiesfor Africa’s Agricultural Transformation(TAAT)” as part of the Feed Africa strategy
prepared by the Agriculture and AgroIndustry Department (OSAN).
TAAT is designed to scale up provenagricultural technologies in order toboost productivity —which is critical fortransforming agriculture on the continent.
This would ensure that Africa is not only
able to feed itself, but also that agriculture
becomes a pathway for long-term growthand shared prosperity.

The Bank’s Agriculture and AgroIndustry Department (OSAN) isproud to take centre stage in thedesign and implementation of theStrategy for African AgriculturalTransformation (ATA).

New techniques, especially in theapplication of information andcommunication technologies toagriculture, financial and informationservices, opened up new ways ofmodernizing agricultural value chains,in a particularly inclusive manner, thus
benefiting segments of populations thatare otherwise often underserved, suchas women and youth.
“Adopting modernized, commercialagriculture is key to transforming
Africa and the livelihoods of its people,
Continued on page 2

As this constitutes one of themost important strategic prioritiesof the Bank, we at OSAN are
enthusiastic and ambitious inhelping to deliver the mission
aimed at achieving this goal.

This first edition covering the firstsemester of 2016 has a special
focus on innovation. Amongst
other things, we’ll look back on
the innovative finance facility set
in Liberia to support agriculture
or at the positive results of ourinclusive and sustainable “modelfarms” in the Democratic Republicof Congo.
Chiji Ojukwu
Director
Agriculture and Agro-Industry
Department© IFPRI / Mitchell Maher

I am pleased to share with you
this newsletter to brief you on our
portfolio of operations and special
initiatives, as well as track portfolio
performance.

Contents
AfDB bets on diversity in innovation totransform Africa’s agriculture................. p. 2

Design workshop on the ENABLE
Youth Program.................................................... p. 4

In Brief:“Feed Africa” strategy unveiled during
AfDB’s 2016 Annual Meetings............. p. 4

Workshop on the role of agropoles
and agroprocessing zones...................... p. 4

AfDB to launch Feed Africa strategy
across the continent...................................... p. 4

Feed Africa has four core goals:• to contribute to eliminating extreme
poverty in Africa;• to end hunger and malnutrition inAfrica;• to make Africa a net food exporter;and• to move Africa to the top of the global
value chains.
Markets worth US$100bn
In line with its goals, 320 million
people should no longer classified asundernourished by 2025. In addition,
130 million would be lifted out of extreme
poverty. Africa should be a net exporterof agricultural commodities, representing
the substitution of US$110bn worth ofimports. Finally, Africa will double its shareof market value for select processedcommodities.

CIENCE and technologies are transforming the agricultural sector, morethan ever before. From the use of modern biotechnology, drones, smart
systems for efficient management of water and nutrients, technologies andinnovations are turning farms into “intelligent farms”.

A roadmap to financial inclusion in
Liberia, Todee
Some 150,000 Liberian farmers are tobenefit from financing and innovativetechnology thanks to the Liberian
Agriculture Transformation Agenda (LATA),
launched by the Government with support
from the African Development Bank.
With 10% of its adult population having
subscribed to mobile money accounts,
Liberia can boast of being able to double
this figure, with the supports of the AfDB.
The program leverages technology
provided by Cellulant Nigeria Ltd.,
probably the most innovative digitalplatform supplier in agri-business in Africa.
It connects recipients of inputs (fertilizersand seeds) to financial services providers

via mobile wallets. This new technology
maps existing farms and tags them totheir owners in a unique database. Its
econometric model could project theamount of input support needed fromthe information collected (land size, croptype, demand).

2 — Africa Feeding Africa, 1st semester 2016

Through the ongoing Smallholder
Agricultural Productivity Enhancement
and Commercialization (SAPEC) Project, itis planned that 150,000 Liberian farmers
will be enumerated in the 2016 planting
season. From a simple wallet in their homevillage, farmers will be able to directly
receive input support for fertilizers,
relevant data and alerts, be visible andsimply exist in the financial system.
In a parallel activity, the Project will promote
SME financing by assisting agro-dealers
to receive funding from commercial banks
through a risk-sharing agreement with theGovernment. Interest rates for on lending
are expected to drop several points,
thereby boosting access to microcredit.

In order to achieving this goals, theproject has defined several field strategies
including the implementation of a system
of integrated management in the context
of sustainable development reserves andthe development of pilot model farms.
The model farms are agriculture sites
developed for the practice of integrated,settled and sustainable farming.
The project supports the implementation
30 pilot farms in order to respondto the recurring problem of slash andburn agriculture and low production ofagricultural products in order to ultimately
help respond to the problem of poverty
around the LUKI Biosphere reserve.
“ Model Farms “ are designed to bea model of sustainable integrated
agricultural production at the community
level. The future vision of the activity isto continue with the system to settle
farmers and fight against unsustainableagricultural practices and promotesustainable development and the fightagainst poverty.

Sudan’s ENABLE Youth Program
A recent country visit and country
dialogue revealed that Sudan is among
the countries that have expressed keeninterest in participating in the ENABLE
Youth Program and have requested theBank’s support. In response, OSAN
has secured USD 8.5 million from theTransition Support Facility (an initiative ofthe AfDB) for the design and preparationof a country-specific ENABLE youth
program in Sudan.
The Bank undertook a dialogue mission
to Sudan during 20-24 March 2016.
The mission held valuable discussions
with Government agencies and otherstakeholders including development
partners to lay the groundwork for thedesign and piloting of the ENABLE Youthproject Sudan.
Continued on page 4This significant step is a gateway to widerfinancial services: premium insurance,microcredit and savings.
“Model Farms” for an inclusive
and sustainable agriculture in DRC© Techmoran / Entrepreneurship in Africa

The seven enablers are designed to givelife to a range of flagship initiatives —15
in total. The TAAT program is one of themany initiatives stemming from enabler
number 1: Increased productivity.

governance system; and contribute to
the development of the National REDD +Strategy to enable the DRC to be eligible
for carbon market benefits and payments
for ecosystem services.

Africa needs to invest more in science and technology to become more efficientand competitive in agriculture – and to diversify rapidly its economies. Focus onsome initiatives launched by the AfDB and its partners to scale up agricultural
technologies in order to reach millions of farmers in Africa within ten years.

Fulfilling the potential of Africa’s agribusinessand meeting these goals could open up
markets worth more than US$100bn peryear by 2025 as the initial set of value
chains identified present annual revenue
opportunities worth US$ 85bn by 2025.
Feed Africa is underpinned by 7 enablers:• Increased Productivity;• Increased Value Addition;• Increased Investment in Hard andSoft Infrastructure;• Expanded Agricultural Finance;• Improved Agribusiness Environment;• Increased Inclusivity, Sustainability,and Nutrition; and• Partnerships.

in innovation to transform

The overall objective of contributing to
the reduction of deforestation and forest
degradation in natural forests, while
reducing poverty in the Congo Basin is at
the center of the integrated REDD+ LUKI
Pilot Project, based around the Biosphere
Reserve of Luki (RBL) in the Mayombe
Forest (CBFF-Luki).
The project’s specific objectives are toincrease forest cover, forest regenerationand savannas to as to reduce deforestation;
improve the living conditions of the local
populations of the RBL and set up a local© @albert_kabasele

The Feed Africa strategy illustrates thedrive to transform African Agriculture
into a globally competitive, inclusive andbusiness-oriented sector that creates
wealth, generates gainful employment,
and improves quality of life. It also seeks
to bring to scale existing and successful
initiatives across Africa and beyond.

AfDB bets on diversity
Africa’s agricultureS© AgrikWestAfrica

particularly the rural poor,” said Akinwumi
Adesina, AfDB President, at the workshop
on Technologies and Africa’s AgriculturalTransformation, held at the International
Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) from12-14 April 2016.

© Techmoran / Entrepreneurship in AfricaContinued from page 1

Africa Feeding Africa, 1st semester 2016 — 3

AfDB to launch Feed Africa strategy
across the continent

THE African Development Bank
Group will be launching “Feed Africa:
A Strategy for Agricultural Transformationin Africa 2016-2025” across the continent
with a regional roadshow which willtake the strategy to five countries from
8-24 November 2016. The implementationand engagement workshops will beheld in Lusaka, Zambia (November 8th);
Yaounde, Cameroon (November 11th);
Tunis, Tunisia (November 17th), Dakar,
Senegal and Kampala, Uganda (both on
November 24th).
The objective of the decentralised
launches is to engage local audiences withaspects of the Feed Africa Strategy which
are directly relevant to their environment.

Continued from page 3

Cameroon: a new vision to boost
the economy of non-wood forest

The workshops will feature key statementsmade by high profile guests, a presentationof the strategy and a panel discussion
featuring local stakeholders. They will
provide an opportunity to highlight themost impactful agriculture projects of theAfDB in each of the respective countries.

The project contributes to poverty
alleviation and sustainable forest
management in Central Africa in generaland specifically in Burundi, Chad,
Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, Sao Tomeand Principe, through the value addition
to non-wood forest products by localpeople, including support to developing
small scale forest enterprises.

The event will bring together a wide
range of participants including Bank staff,
local public and private sector partners,
representative from women’s associations
and youth, development partners andthe media.

Non-wood forest products (NWFP)
became more important in Central Africa
during the economic crisis of the mid
1980s, which caused a decline in theinternational market prices of cocoa
and coffee and motivated farmers
to diversify their income sources by
exploiting increasingly NWFP, partly for
consumption, and mainly for sale.

Workshop on the role of agropoles
The AfDB organized a workshop on“The Role of Agropoles and AgroProcessing Zones (APZ) in Feeding
and Industrializing Africa” during 22-23
March, 2016 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The four recommendations made by
the participants were: support theestablishment of a network of agropoles
and agroprocessing zones; facilitate
investments in countries facing situationsof fragility; develop strategic guidelines
for the creation of agropoles and provide
technical assistance to them; integrate
the development of agropoles in otherinitiatives supported by the AfDB suchas agricultural value chains, youth
employment, commodity exchanges...
Design workshop on the ENABLE
Youth Program
The Bank, in collaboration with IITA,
organized the ENABLE (Empowering
Novel Agri-Business-Led Employment)
Youth Program Design Workshop from
21-22 April, 2016 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Two hundred delegates from more than
30 countries attended the workshop,
which featured prominent speakers,
including private entrepreneurs suchas Aliko Dangote and Tony Elumelu,
Ministers of Agriculture and Ministers ofYouth from 10 African countries.

“Feed Africa” strategy unveiled during
AfDB’s 2016 Annual Meetings

T

HE AfDB has unveiled its Agricultural
Transformation in Africa strategy on
24 May 2016 on the sidelines of its Annual
Meetings in Lusaka, Zambia. The AfDB
plans to improve the agriculture sectorin Africa by embarking on an ambitious
fifteen-point plan covering seven enablers,
which, amongst other things, aims at
transforming the sector and empowering
smallholder farmers and youths.

© Wikimedia Commons

The devaluation of the CFA Franc inJanuary 1994 increased the price ofpharmaceutical products and encouraged
urban and rural households to turn tomedicinal plants for use in curing common
ailments.

Publishing Director:
Chiji Ojukwu
c.ojukwu@afdb.org

In brief...

AfDB’s Agriculture and Agro-Industry
Director, Chiji Ojukwu, said agriculture
remained a major source of income
in Africa, but its untapped potential
had resulted in persistent poverty anddeteriorating food security. Ojukwu said
among the strategies mapped out was
to increase productivity, realize increased

Coordinator:
Benedict Kanu
b.kanu@afdb.org

Editor-in-chief:
Damian Ihediohad.ihedioha@afdb.org

production and increased investment in
hard and soft infrastructure.
AfDB President, Akinwumi Adesina, who
also participated in the panel discussion,
said Africa needed to look at agriculture ina different perceptive if the continent was
to actualize its dream of diversification. He
added that agriculture had the potential
to stabilize economies and should be
looked at as a business.
“We can’t keep sitting on potential. We
need to change our mindset - agriculture
is a business. Why is it that people inagriculture are poor? We must change
this, agriculture is a business and a sourceof creating wealth and employment,”
Adesina said.

Editor:Marie-Ange Nouroumbym.nouroumby@afdb.org

News Desk Editor:
Chawki Chahedc.chahed@afdb.org