Innovative African Agricultural Projects Inspire Hope - PART 1 of 5 | Voice of America - English
The World Bank has praised some projects in Africa it says could significantly boost food production in the near future. Africa is in the midst of a farming crisis and experts are warning that little money is being invested in the continent?s agriculture sectors. With developing countries in Asia reaping the food-generating benefits of a so-called ?green revolution,? Africa?s the only continent where per capita food production is declining.
Governments in developing regions and international donors are providing littlefunding for agriculture, so the World Bank has turned to social entrepreneursin an effort to combat the negative fallout from food shortages, devastatingfood price hikes and lack of investment in the sector. ?Asocial entrepreneur is someone who focuses on helping the poor and thedisadvantaged people in society. That?s what motivates them and sets them apartfrom your typical businessperson. They?re a special breed of entrepreneurs whofocus on social change,? explains Juergen Voegele, the bank?s director ofagriculture and rural development. Voegele, who has worked to improve agriculture in thedeveloping world for almost two decades, is a key figure behind the WorldBank?s Development Marketplace initiative. The program gives start-up funds toprojects it thinks will ultimately reduce poverty in some of the world?spoorest areas. Voegele says social entrepreneurs are the ?primaryelements? in the initiative?s success. ?(They)generally tend to be ambitious people. They really want social change; they aresocial champions and they take things on that most people would consider verydifficult to do. Social entrepreneurs are not driven by money or powergenerally; they want to make the world a better place.? Recently, the Development Marketplace?s expert evaluatorsselected 100 finalists ? out of about 1,700 entries from around the world ? toshowcase their ideas aimed at improving agriculture in developing countries.Farmers, academics, students and scientists were among those trying to win WorldBank funding. Almost 40 percent of the entries came from sub-Saharan Africa,says Theresa Bradley, Development Marketplace team leader. ?This surprised us, but sub-SaharanAfrica has a rich community of organizations that are really on the cutting edge,that are really trying to find creative solutions that can be unique for thechallenges that Africans face?. A lot of innovation is happening in Africa, sowe tend to get a lot of good ideas from them,? she says. After a rigorous process, Bradley?s team awarded 22projects ? five from Africa ? grants of about $200,000 each, to tacklechallenges in agriculture at a local level. Voegelesays he was struck by the quality of ideas emerging from Africa. ?Manyof them are focusing on energy efficiency and also smallholder farmers whocan?t get access to markets. Those are both big issues for poor smallholderfarmers in Africa.? Oneof the winning entries from Africa was from William Kisaalita, a biological andagricultural engineering professor at Uganda?s Makerere University and theUniversity of Georgia in the United States. His project transforms devices thatare used to cool beer in Europe. The adapted technology is to be used byUgandan small-scale dairy farmers to allow them to transport milk that wouldotherwise have been wasted to distant markets. Anotherwinner was from Tanzania. There, businesswoman Christine Adamow, assisted by ateam of East African scientists, discovered that oil pressed from non-ediblenuts from the indigenous Croton tree could be used as biofuel in dieselengines and generators. Adamow is encouraging Tanzanian farmers to plant thetree, to provide them with extra income and give the region a valuable new fuelsource. One of Voegele?s favorite projects was a similar winningentry from Senegal. ?It uses locally-produced biofuels for outboard motors,so fishermen and farmers can get their produce to the market without having tobuy expensive diesel,? he tells VOA. In Senegal, as in many other African countries, farmersand fishermen can?t sell their produce because markets are often too far awayfor them to walk to. They?re also too poor to pay for truck transport and roadsare often in disrepair. In addition, transport along waterways is extremelylimited. But in Senegal, says Voegele, a project is using a technology thatheats raw, unrefined seed oil, ?straight from the press and into the fuel tank,without any extra processing.? The World Bank official describes the Senegalese effortas ?really quite unusual.? ?This was a couple of young Senegalese guys who said, ?wewant to do something that everyone tells us can?t be done.? And they did it.And (that?s) phenomenal, and we?ll provide them with a significant amount ofsupport to take this to the next level. They?ve proven the concept, they?veshown it can be done (and) it?s relying on local resources. It has both thebusiness foundation, but it also has the potential to be scaled up on quite asignificant scale.? Voegelehopes the funding provided to the winning projects will ?ultimately put them ina position to scale up what they have invented ? either initially on a smallerscale, but also eventually on a countrywide, national or regional level. Whatthey will use the money for really depends on the individual project.? Hesays such initiatives typically use the money to recruit international expertsto refine their ideas, to train their employees and to buy more raw materials. Voegelestates that African agriculture faces ?numerous? obstacles. ?There?sgreat difficulty for the smallholder farmers in Africa to have access to seeds,inputs and fertilizers?. And then there is the huge challenge of bringing theirproducts to the market. Access to markets is a phenomenally big challenge.? Headds that African farmers also often lack the information necessary to enablethem to progress. ?Theydon?t know what the market wants, they don?t know where to get seeds from, theydon?t know what is the best management practice, etcetera, etcetera,? saysVoegele. ButTheresa Bradley?s confident that many African innovators in the field ofagriculture are confronting the challenges ?head on.? ?Alongstanding, traditional problem in agriculture is access to markets, fromrural to more urban spaces. We focused on this area, looking for cutting edgesolutions to enhance access to markets?. And many of the projects deliveredwith regard to this,? she says. ButVoegele is disappointed with what he terms the ?neglect? of agriculture inAfrica. ?Theamounts of money that are being spent on agricultural research have beendeclining; the amounts of money in national budgets of governments that arebeing used for investing in agriculture?have declined. This is a trend that we urgentlyneed to reverse,? he warns, and elaborates: ?I mean this in a broader sense;not only with regard to agricultural production, but also with regard to accessto markets, market development, supply chain development, infrastructuredevelopment, information services development?.? Voegele says the recent food price increases, and related?volatility? in agricultural markets, are a ?wake-up call, for people at theinternational level, and in places like Africa, that new investments must bemade in agriculture.? He says he?s encouraged that African authorities are?finally? beginning to acknowledge this. Voegeleemphasizes that it?s of the utmost importance that governments, whether in thedeveloped or the developing world, consider the effects that their policieshave on agriculture. ?Ifcountries have trade policies that either make it difficult for products to beexported or difficult for products to be imported, you will always have aproblem,? he says. Voegeleacknowledges that it?s ?particularly concerning? that Africa?s the onlycontinent where per capita food production is decreasing. There are severalreasons for this, he says. ?Thereis really the issue of not being connected to global markets, there is the issueof not having access to the inputs, there is the issue of not having aconducive environment in many African countries for private sector investment ?and of course not enough funding.? Butthe main reason, Voegele maintains, is that ?priorities have shifted away fromagriculture. There has been this notion that agriculture is not reallyimportant for economic growth. But the fact of the matter is that it?sextremely important for economic growth, particularly in Africa.? Yetthe World Bank?s most recent report on global agriculture says that for everydollar invested in the sector, the return is up to three times higher than thesame investment in other sectors in Africa. Voegelesays he?s encouraged, though, by growing numbers of ?innovators? emerging fromAfrica who he hopes will counteract lack of agricultural development there. ?Wehave to be confident. I believe that what happened during the last year, withfood prices going through the roof, that?there?s now a lot of energy andenthusiasm to get agriculture back on a good path.? Voegelesays there are now ?hundreds and hundreds? of people in Africa who arededicated to improving the situation and he sees ?a lot of positive things?happening. ?They?reworking on more efficient fertilizers, more environmentally-friendly technologyand?we see a lot of big private companies now taking a more sociallyresponsible approach and trying to link their sourcing of raw materialsdirectly to smallholder farmers. And people are working on innovative ways toget information technology into the marketing chain, into the supply chain.? Voegeleacknowledges, though, that it?s not going to be easy to resolve all thechallenges facing agriculture ? especially in Africa. ?Allof us involved ? governments,development agencies, the people themselves ? still have a long and hard road ahead of us.?