Small farmers make the difference

Part of the problem is defective thinking and topsy-turvy prioritisation by the continent’s political leaders, Jimmy Carter told 120 guests from 10 countries, among them agriculture ministers, vice chancellors and deans of agricultural universities. “It’s easy to under-estimate the small farmers yet they are as hard-working and ambitious. Given the right knowledge and financing, there is no doubt the African farmer can develop faster,” he said, adding: “This will deter the ill-advised policy of taking the land away from them and giving it to large commercial farmers.”The undoing of large scale farming is that it often condemns the rural poor, in this case smallholder farmers are yanked off their fertile lots – sometimes at the prodding of powerful politicians and foreign firms – to the less productive fringe land.

Experts say smallholder-propelled “green revolution” in Africa, where Malawi and Ethiopia are stellar success examples, will remain elusive when agricultural researchers are detached; extension system disorganised and politicians turn the other way. Presenting a key note address at the Addis symposium, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, vice president of Alliance for Green Revolution (Agra), said: “The green revolution in Asia worked because of three other critical factors; political will, supportive policies and large scale financing.” What has made the African situation different and troubling, he said, is that the three core enabling elements are missing despite stunning success by local scientists in breeding new high-yielding crop varieties that should result in bountiful harvest.

But where political executives have led by example, as outgoing African Union chairman President Bingu Wa Mutharika has done in Malawi, hunger has been kicked out, savings made on previous food imports, post-harvest handling loss slashed and wealth introduced in rural households. In 2005, Malawi was a net food importer and its domestic deficit staggered at 47 per cent, Dr Adesina said. However, when the production system was lubricated with adequate financing and right knowledge offered to farmers, farm output rose significantly and in two years, the country was exporting 400, 000 tonnes on the back of a 53 per cent surplus!

In neighbouring Rwanda, food production modelled on the tenets of the “green revolution” grew by 15 per cent in 2007 and a percentage point higher in 2008.The sprouting of agro-dealers, who place farm inputs at easily accessible shops and affordable prices, have enabled farmers in Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania to reap big.