The AfDB strategy for Africa’s agricultural transformation



22 May 2016. Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.  The Board of Directors of the African Development Bank
Group (AfDB) has approved an agricultural transformation strategy for a competitive and inclusive agribusiness sector that creates wealth, improves lives and secures the environment. The document was widely reviewed by global stakeholders, peer institutions and partners as well as through regional consultations held in Rabat, Kinshasa, Lusaka, Dar es Salaam and Accra.

Focusing on transformation, scaling up agriculture as a business through value addition, led by the private sector and enabled by the public sector, and using innovative financing mechanisms, the strategy aims to end hunger and rural poverty in Africa in the next decade.

It is the second of the Bank’s High 5 priorities – Light up and power Africa, Feed Africa, Industrialize Africa, Integrate Africa, and Improve the quality of life for the people of Africa – a blueprint for the implementation of its Ten Year Strategy 2013-2022.

Realizing the objectives of the strategy would involve increased productivity; value addition; investment in infrastructure; creating an enabling agribusiness environment; catalyzing capital flows; ensuring inclusivity, sustainability and effective nutrition; all in a coordinated manner.
  • The idea is to drive transformation through 15 priority commodity value chains in given agro-ecological zones specifically to achieve self-sufficiency in key commodities such as rice, wheat, fish, palm oil, horticulture, cassava; move up the value chain in key export-oriented commodities like cocoa, coffee, cotton, cashew; create a food-secure Sahel in sorghum, millet, livestock; and realize the potential of the Guinea savannah in maize, soybean and livestock.
  • The Feed Africa Strategy makes a strong case for reversing the situation of a continent that spends US $35.4 billion on food imports annually despite being home to 65% of the world’s undeveloped arable land.
  • The total investment for the realization of the transformation agenda over 10 years is estimated at US $315-400 billion with annual returns of US $85 billion, when fully funded.
  • The Bank will itself invest US $24 billion and leverage additional investments through equity, quasi equity, debt and risk instruments to catalyze investments at scale from the private sector and with co-financing from traditional donors and new players. 
  • The identified financing gap estimated at US $23 billion can be met using innovative de-risking tools and blended financing from combined sovereign, pension and private equity funds.
Related PAEPARD blog post:
23-27 May 2016. Lusaka. 2016 AfDB Annual Meetings to focus on energy and climate change


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African media urged to leverage WBG’s 9,000 open data to boost good governance

Africa media practitioners have been urged to leverage on the World Bank’s estimated 9,000 open data on agriculture, so as to give drive to good governance, reports NaijaAgroNet.

Making this call recently at a 3-day workshop on reporting agriculture hosted by the Africa Media Initiative (AMI) in conjunction with the World Bank in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, the Lead Operations Officer, World Bank Institute’s Global Media Development programme, Mr. Craig Hammer advised participants to explore the power of open data to improve the state of content on agriculture and other sectors of the economy.

He disclosed that World Bank Group, for instance, has over 9,000 development indicators opened including data on health, nutrition, population, gender, poverty and equity, jobs, climate change to name a few.

“There are microdata on 650,000 variables from 1,200 surveys in addition to over 150,000 analyses, reports,” he said.

According to him by leveraging open data, media practitioners on the continent will spur good governance because open data has evidence to drive its story or information.

Hammer, whose presentation was on ‘Data-Driven Journalism Media,’ defined data as information that has been translated into a form that is more convenient to analyze, pointing out that nowadays, the world thrives on three distinct avenues, more so for media practitioners, comprising having access to information and open data, finding agriculture data with today’s relevance.

Showcasing where media fits in open data usage in what he described as information circle, Hammer described media as a watchdog that discloses to the public in real time relevant infomation; microscope which helps to simplify technical governance information thereby promoting accessibility by the public and facilitate engagement.

He also said that by way of media being a megaphone, it helps with the dissemination of now accessible governance information through various channels available to practitioners.


Equally, Hammer said the aforementioned would assist the citizens to understand, discuss and eventually offer feedback for the government to respond adequately.

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Farming for the future of Friends of the Earth

Farming for the Future: Organic and Agroecological Solutions to Feed the World
This report was written by Christopher D. Cook, Kari Hamerschlag, Friends of the Earth U.S. and Kendra Klein, Friends of the Earth U.S
2016, 23 pages
The science is clear: Feeding the world sustainably requires that we protect the ecological resources that are essential for producing food now and in the future. What’s more, research consistently shows that hunger is not a problem of overall supply of food, but results from poverty, lack of democracy and unequal access to land, water and other resources. 

Rather than producing more food under unequal and ecologically destructive conditions, the solution to hunger hinges on creating a more sustainable, democratic and fair food system for all.
Despite the many proven benefits of ecological farming, there is a massive disparity in research funding for organic in comparison to conventional agriculture. Of the $49 billion invested globally in agricultural research, less than one percent goes to organic farming.164 In the U.S., less than two percent of public agricultural research funding goes to organic and biologically diversified farming.165,166 Agroecological farming approaches have achieved high levels of environmental performance and productivity despite minimal funding. Increased research could improve yields and environmental gains beyond already proven success. (page 17)
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Learn from top scientists and thought leaders on the science of sustainable food production and a comprehensive approach to creating a healthy, resilient food system to feed all people, now and into the future.
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