Yes, we can change Africa from basket case to breadbasket

By Maore Ithula

Kenyan academic, Calestous Juma, has released a new book that provides a serious re-think on agricultural production in Africa.

The New Harvest, Agricultural Innovations in Africa, which was published last month (April 2011), is critical of foreign development partners’ rigid policies that have yielded little.

The book kicks off with praise for Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika, who single-handedly rid his country of food insecurity some five years ago.

In the same breath, Prof Juma derides the World Bank and the United States agencies that were against wa Mutharika’s experimentation.

The Bretton Woods institutions were opposed to wa Mutharika’s agricultural subsidies (to the tune of 16 per cent of the country’s budget), whose opponents argued that this would kill private sector agriculture.

It did not; instead, the private agricultural sub-sector in Malawi is more vibrant than it was before wa Mutharika ascended to power. Using elaborate facts and figures, the don illustrates how mechanisation of agriculture can easily spur the continent’s economic wellbeing.

In general, Juma notes that over the past three decades Africa’s agricultural productivity grew at a much higher rate (1.8 per cent) than previously calculated. He attributes this performance to technical progress rather than efficiency.

And with specific country example scenario, Juma observes that within North Africa, which has experienced the highest of the continent’s average agricultural productivity growth of 3.6 per cent, Egypt stands out as a technology leader.

Juma emphasises that the country’s success has been attributed to technical investment in the sector and not efficiency.

These findings confirm that the critical role research and development have in agricultural productivity. To underscore this point, Juma observes that on the whole, the black Africa’s agricultural productivity increased in net by 1.4 per cent in 1970s, 1.7 per cent in the 1980s, and 2.1 per cent in the 1990s.

While growth in these decades can be attributed largely to major research and development investments in the 1970s, declines in productivity growth in the 2000s are attributed to decreased research and development investments in the late 1980s and beyond.

Climate Change

Although the scholar stresses that the only way Africa can achieve food security and economic freedom is through development and self-sufficiency through improved agriculture, he also acknowledges that the effects of climate change might curtail some of these efforts.

But Juma reiterates agricultural innovations must be done in the context of a more uncertain world in which activities such as plant and animal breeding will be anticipatory.

He points out that the task ahead for policy makers is to design climate change-compliant innovation systems that shift economies toward low-carbon pathways.

The Harvard University don emphasises that economic development is an evolutionary process that involves adaptation to changing economic environments. His concept of adaptation to effects of climate change in Africa explores five critical areas: managing natural resources, designing physical infrastructure appropriately, building human capital (especially in technical fields), fostering entrepreneurial activities and governing adaptation as process of innovation.

The book emphasises that Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because 75 per cent of it is dry land or desert, exposing it to droughts and floods.

Genetic Resources

The anticipated disruptive nature of climate change, Juma argues, will demand increased access to diverse natural assets such as genetic resources for use in agriculture, forestry, aquaculture, and other productive activities.

An example here is that the anticipated shift in the growing seasons for various crops will require intensified crop breeding.

It is said that large parts of the continent may have to switch from crop production to livestock breeding and vice versa.