How to ensure the resources allocated to agricultural biotechnologies are used to meet the needs of farmers

1. Resourcing Agriculture:
A Presentation at the Agricultural
Biotechnology Symposium
Addis, Ethiopia: 22nd to 24th November, 2017
BY MUSA SOWE
BOARD MEMBER- ROPPA

2. - INTRODUCTION
- WHAT IS MEANT BY RESOURCING
AGRICULTURE
- TYPES OF RESOURCING AGRICULTURE
- CONCLUSION (WAY FORWARD)

3. INTRODUCTION
Africa’s agricultural transformation depends on
increased productivity of family farms. Family farms
make up most of agricultural producers in Sub
Saharan Africa, where there are approximately 33
million Family farms. Eighty percent of all farmers are
family farmers. Family farming produces 98 percent of
the food crops in Sub Saharan Africa. For this type of
farming system to continue and for transformation to
take place, there is a need to build ecosystem based
intensification in the production system promoting
innovative agriculture resourcing.

4. Framers need resources to allow them to
expand production and/ or diversify
products. This can include, for example,
finance for inputs (such as seeds and
fertilizers), production (such as machinery
and equipment) and marketing (such as
processing, packaging and transport).

5. African Governments have reaffirmed their
commitment to prioritizing agriculture in their
development agendas and are investing an increased
proportion of their budgets in the sector from a
growing national revenue base. However, much more
remains to be done to sustain these gains and truly
drive the agricultural transformation needed for
Africa’s development, and to ensure a better life for all
of its people as laid out in the 2014 Malabo
Declaration by allocating 10% of their national budget
into Agriculture and in the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs).

6. The review of the progress and achievement of the
CAADP agenda demonstrates that none of the two key
CAADP targets during the first decades were achieved.
On the 6 percent agricultural growth rate, only 15
countries surpassed the target during the 2008–2014
period. Most rural farm families lack access to effective
and sustainable finance to support their businesses.
The majority also have limited knowledge and skills to
generate additional income from alternative sources to
support farm income. These lead to low productivity
and poor standard of living

7. Examples, countries such as Japan and South Korea,
which now rely on manufacturing and technology-
driven service economies, were predominantly family
farming societies 60 years ago. Through good policies
and public investments in infrastructure, agricultural
research breakthroughs, and extension services to help
farmers benefit from new technologies, family farmers
in these countries increased their productivity and
incomes, thereby supporting the demand for non-farm
businesses and the growth of employment
opportunities off the farm. Over time, most smallholder
farmers eventually moved into these non-farm jobs.

8. What is meant by Resourcing Agriculture?

9.  It is the acquisition and the management of all
vital inputs required for a farmer to operate
 The main reasons most people do not achieve
financial success in agriculture is because they
fail to apply fundamental lessons that apply on a
much wider basis than finance alone.
 You will notice that we use the phrase “resource
management” as opposed to “financial
management” in resourcing Agriculture.

10. Types of Resourcing Agriculture

11.  Human resource management: Helps your farm
business be productive and profitable, with a
team of reliable, engaged and productive people
 Land as a primary resource: Land as a factor of
production is of immense importance. As has
already been pointed out, everything that we
use can be traced ultimately to land.

12.  Introduction and adoption of Agricultural
Biotechnology: Technology has been used to
improve soil fertility, develop certified seed
varieties, control pest and diseases, control
irrigation to supplement rainfall, advanced
harvesting, handling and storage equipment, and
reduce post-harvest losses, delay ripening of fruit
trees and enhance market efficiency. Farmers grow
more food on less land.

13.  Access to finance and credit through
commercial and microfinance banks in the
form of loans
 Seeds and cereals bank: Primarily, cereal
banks are meant to prevent farmers from
over-selling at low prices buying back at high
prices, to avoid exploitation by middlemen

14.  Seeds and financial Cooperatives: Owned and
controlled by its members for their mutual
benefit.
 Grants: Contribution, gift, or subsidies in cash
or kind by government or other organization
 Value Addition: helps farmers to think
beyond the products they are producing and
analyze the opportunities to be financially
rewarded for creating value for consumers.

15.  Public and private Investment: Private
investment and private capital, and non-
financial institutions need to be sourced to
finance agriculture.
 Weather index insurance: This is an
instrument that improves the chances for
access to finance by insuring against bad
weather, drought or temperature
 Leasing: Leasing is used to finance machinery
and equipment in agriculture

16.  Agriculture Research: Agricultural research
generates, analyzes, and uses data, information,
knowledge and innovation to support ag-
ricultural productivity.
 Agriculture Extension: Shows that agricultural
extension improves crop yields, quality, family
farmer livelihoods and reducing production
risks.
 Modern Information and communication
Technology: In the face of increasing climate
variability, information dissemination to rural
people will serve as strategies to reduce costs

17.  Increased market access, agribusiness and
intra-regional trade: ability to support
transformation of subsistence-oriented and
farm-centered agriculture into one that is
more commercialized.
 Increased Funding and Investment in
Agriculture: The investment and finance from
national governments and Promotion of
broad-based agricultural growth policies.

18.  Promotion of sustainable intensification for
resilience and productivity: This will accelerate
increase production, income and other benefits,
from the same land or less with prudent use of
inputs such as water, fertilizers and pesticides
while reducing the negative environmental
impacts associated with clearing forests, water
extraction, and soil usage, and at the same time
enhancing the flow of environmental services.

19. Conclusion
 Improved technology both on and off farm, in-
creased investment in physical infrastructure,
development of storage and processing facilities,
 Providing appropriate financing for family
farmers and marketing
 Competitive market access and trade can be
achieved if national government and policy
makers can fulfill necessary conditions:
 Support the promotion of private investment in
agricultural value chains by maintaining a
predictable policy environment which does not
impose sudden bans on cross-border or inter-
district trade;

20.  Promote competition in agricultural markets and
avoid offering certain types of market action
advantages through preferential access to subsidies
or incentives;
 Encourage platforms for periodic private sector–
government consultations about the conditions in
grain markets, needed actions and ways to improve
the functioning of these markets;
 Increase public and private investments in
agricultural adaptive research and extension.

21.  Encourage value chains to promote local
production
 Unlocking the potential of market access
at domestic, intra-region and international
levels to spur the progress towards African
agricultural transformation requires
addressing policy and institutional
bottlenecks, and removing and reducing
infrastructure constraints.

22. THANK YOU VERY MUCH !