Presentation by Wendeline Tuijp

1. Boosting African agriculture:
two perspectives
Wendelien Tuyp

2. Industrial agribusiness
model for Africa
• Large scale
• Monocultures
• Key: maximizing production
• Cash crops for global market – maize, palm oil,
soybean, cotton, coffee, tea, cocoa, rice, rubber
• Low biodiversity
• High external (chemical) input (fertilizer, pesticides,
industrial seeds)
• Mechanization
• High input costs – low labour intensive

3. G8: transforming African
agriculture by big agribusiness
• In 2012 launch of New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition by
G8 to transform African Agriculture through private sector-led and
market drive food systems.
• Central role for agribusiness and increased use of industrial
inputs (synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, hybrid and genetically
modified seeds) Source: Oakland Institute www.oaklandinstitute.org
• Public and private stakeholders in the New Alliance commit to
policy changes and investments
that accelerate implementation of
African country plans for improving
food security and nutrition.
Source: Website New Alliance for Food Security
and Nutrition

4. G8 assumptions claim:
• increase the yields/ boost African food productivity
• provide jobs and lead to better incomes of farmers /
economic growth
• give farmers access to agricultural credits
• remove bottlenecks to commercialization and
transportation
• ensure the continent’s food security

5. • Win-win situation: who are the winners
in this approach?
Questions

6. Coffee company Olam in
Tanzania
• 2000 ha for irrigated coffee plantation in Lipokela village, €2 million
investment for a dam to store rainwater
• Donors: Dutch Development Bank and GIZ Germany, incl public
money
• Aim: improving local livelihoods, income diversification, sustainable
agriculture
• Number of workers at the plantation: 400 people (1000 during
harvest) with wages of $2 per day
• Also: contract farmers, receiving free coffee seedlings and training,
they pay for transport and loans for fertilizer.
• Issues on plantation: displacement of farmers, irrigation, wages.
Issues for contract farmers: coffee is a cash crop, competing with
other crops on the farmer’s fields, irrigation on farmer’s fields, fertilizer
costs €80 for 4 sacs (40 days of work), coffeebeans only after 4 years

7. Win-win situation?
• The company decides what to
produce, which period, the product
price, providing fertilizer, receiving
public money to invest
• Farmers take all risks as investors
• Farmers lose their autonomy
Source: PPP win-win opportunities? documentary at ARTE in French

8. Smallholder / family farms
• Small scale agriculture – up to 10 ha
• Multi cultures – crop diversification and rotation
• Important: risk spreading
• Food crops for local market, using part of produce for
family consumption
• Biodiversity is key to keep many (climate-resilient)
varieties and breeds alive
• Labour intensive (mainly family)
• Low external (chemical/financial) inputs
• Low mechanization
• Seeking stability of the farm household system
Source: FAO

9. Small farmers are key to
feeding the world
"Empirical and scientific evidence
shows that small farmers feed the
world. According to the UN Food &
Agricultural Organisation (FAO),
70% of food we consume globally
comes from small farmers", said
Prof Hilal Elver (UN special
rapporteur on the right to food)
“We all know that hunger and malnutrition cannot be
solved by pushing for more production-oriented policies.
There is more than enough food in the world for all. The
problem is accessibility and economic inequality.”

10. World Bank on agriculture in Mali
• Organic fertilizer has a large and positive effect on productivity and
resilience in dryland agriculture
• Subsidized pesticides are often overused by maize and rice
producers
• Mechanization related technology appears not to provide significant
productivity benefits
• Small farms are significantly more efficient than large farms
• Crops like millet and sorghum are locally consumed: no transport
problems
• Knowledge of farming methods is unevenly distributed
• There seems to be a lack of effective advsory services
• Successful poverty reduction strategy in arid zones not only rests on
maximized productivity, it also rests on stabilizing yields and reducing
risk.
Source: World Bank Enabling the digital revolution in SSA - country focus Mali spring
2017

11. Farmer Innovation: the process in which farmers
experiment to improve their farming systems
‘If Africa realizes its own potential in innovation around SLM, especially at
community level, it can do vastly better than copying and pasting approaches
from elsewhere in the world’. Justine Braby, External evaluator - March 2016.

12. Ghana: Moatani women’s groups
and their initiative on composting
“You cannot turn up and tell
locals what to do, that doesn’t
achieve anything. You need to
listen, learn and share that
knowledge.
African farmers already know
that they have to be more
productive and that they must
do it in a more sustainable way
than many other places. Our
job is to help them achieve
their goal.” Erik Solheim, Head
of UN Environment -
September 2016.

13. W4RA team

15. Thank you!