East Africa can raise farm productivity and boost growth

13Aug 2020
Editor
Editorial
The Guardian
East Africa can raise farm productivity and boost growth

​​​​​​​The food industry is a complex, global collective of diverse businesses that supplies most of the food consumed by the world's population.  Only subsistence farmers, those who survive on what they grow, and hunter-gatherers can be considered outside the scope of the modern food industry.

Most food produced for the food industry comes from commodity crops using conventional agricultural practices. Agriculture is the process of producing food, feeding products, fiber and other desired products by the cultivation of certain plants and the raising of domesticated animals (livestock). On average, 83 per cent of the food consumed by humans is produced using terrestrial agriculture.  Other food sources include aquaculture and fishing.  

The practice of agriculture is also known as "farming". Scientists, inventors, and others devoted to improving farming methods and implements are also said to be engaged in agriculture. 1 in 3 people worldwide are employed in agriculture.

Against this background, food production in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda has to increase significantly to feed the population that is growing at an average of three per cent in Tanzania and Uganda and 2.5 per cent in Kenya, experts believe.

 Adoption of climate smart production, harvesting and processing methodologies is key to improving productivity and efficiencies of the existing food crop production and supply systems. Achieving an increase in food production however requires concerted efforts and joint investments by supply chain actors, service providers and public sector partners, working in the different targeted value chains to support effective adaptation and mitigation strategies.

A five-year multi–country project for Tanzania, Kenya and Uganda is investing two million euros in grants to 14 agri-businesses in the three countries. The investment from the Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project is specifically targeting companies and farmers working in the sunflower, soybean, sesame, common beans, potato and sorghum value chains in the three countries.

Menno Keizer, the CRAFT Project Manager for Tanzania, said in an interview that co-investment with the private sector is one of the key strategies identified by the project to achieve sustainable results and increase availability and accessibility of climate-resilient food.

Through its Climate Innovation and Investment Facility (CIIF), the project will support performance-based investments so as to build the resilience of private sector agribusinesses and service providers in the targeted value chains.

So far four Tanzanian companies (Nondo Investors Co.Ltd, Rogimwa Agro Co. Ltd, Jack Ma Enterprises Ltd and Mwenge Sunflower Oil Mills) have signed partnership agreements worth 567,135 euro.

CRAFT invests in companies that have demonstrated from their own internally generated funds as well as from third party providers (i.e. financiers and beneficiaries) that their businesses are viable.

The project will thus work with and through the private sector to promote climate smart agriculture related innovations at farm and value chain level and support public sector partners in creating the institutional environment for wide-scale adoption of CSA-practices.

The CIIF contribution is not an end in itself but rather a means for attracting commercial funding for follow-on investments and scaling. The agri-businesses invest their own funds and then leverage off the CRAFT grant to attract additional investment from commercial financial institutions. This not only boosts their credit worthiness and relationship with the financial institutions but ensures businesses continuity beyond the life of the project.

The CRAFT investment facility will be able to reduce the financial risks of new business initiatives including those of small-medium scale (women and youth-led) agri businesses and of cooperatives, thereby contributing to an increase in the level of investment and private sector engagement in climate resilient food systems in East Africa.

The Climate Resilient Agribusiness for Tomorrow (CRAFT) project is a multi–country (Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) five-year effort implemented by SNV in partnership with Wageningen University and Research (WUR), the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), Agriterra, and Rabo Partnerships. The project is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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