Opinion
Africa: Debunking Myths Around Farming in Africa
Of course, for this myth to be truly debunked, the right conditions need to be in place for farmers to seize opportunities and make a good living. That is why civil society across Africa – supported by NGOs like ONE and ActionAid, and individuals like Nigerian singer D’Banj – have come together as part of the DO AGRIC campaign to ask governments to provide the support necessary to enable farmers to make a good living.
We are now ten years down the road from the Maputo Declaration, in which African governments committed themselves to allocate ten percent of their national budgets to agricultural development. But while there have been really impressive results, some countries aren’t on track.
A decade on from that historic declaration, it is time for African governments to renew their commitments to develop agriculture. Increasing funding is vital. We also need to address areas previously overlooked, such as removing barriers to intra-regional trade and establishing mechanisms to minimise the loss of revenue caused by poor post-harvest management.
African civil society is also pressing governments for much more rigorous monitoring and evaluation of what’s happening in agriculture on the ground. After all, it is only when we know where progress is taking place that we can allocate greater resources to areas where there are shortfalls.
Addressing these challenges, and others, is the key to unlocking the rich potential of African farmers, lifting millions out of poverty and driving wider prosperity; and this July’s African Union summit provides the opportunity to commit that support and kill off once and for all the myth that Africa’s farmers will always be poor.
Mercy Karanja, who grew up on a farm in Kenya and went to school on account of her parents’ farming, is a senior programme officer and senior regional advisor to East Africa for agricultural development at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Source: allAfrica
