Effective governance, fundamental to agric transformation - AGRA

Agricultural experts have said that farmers can thrive when the systems around them, powered primarily by the private sector are working.

They argue that the private sector thrives when they can invest in a stable, predictable environment.

“It is the government’s role to establish the policies, regulations, and investment programs that make the agricultural sector attractive.

“Countries that have achieved agricultural transformation have effective public sectors that kickstart and sustain change, make long-term investments in systemic enablers, and create strong incentives to crowd in other resources,” the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said in its 2020 annual report.

It said that without the right enabling environment, businesses and philanthropic actors and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), however well-intentioned will have limited impact.

“In short, an effective government is a fundamental pre-condition to agricultural transformation,” it emphasised.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), sustainable food and agriculture requires responsible and effective governance mechanisms at different scales – from local to national to global.

It says transparent, accountable and inclusive governance mechanisms are necessary to create an enabling environment that supports producers to transform their systems following agroecological concepts and practices.

“Successful examples include school feeding and public procurement programmes, market regulations allowing for branding of differentiated agroecological produce, and subsidies and incentives for ecosystem services,” it said.

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Building national capacity

Since 2017, AGRA has collaborated closely with governments to help lay the groundwork for systemic change.

Although a long-term investment, there are already compelling early results – evident in national investment plans, changes to long-held institutional practices, smarter and faster policy reform, and the response of private sector actors.

The report notes that institutional change is difficult and that government’s contribution to the agricultural sector may be marked by uneven commitment, limited coordination, and a lack of capacity and resources.

“We support governments to strengthen their planning, stakeholder engagement, monitoring and evaluation tools, and more. AGRA tracks improvement in state capability across a range of indicators,” it said.

Also, AGRA has recorded real progress in the 11 countries where it has invested.

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Indeed, across 44 indicators measuring vision and strategic planning, coordination, implementation capacity, and accountability, it sees evidence of improvement in 42 of them.

“Clearly, change in institutional mindset, strategies, and processes are achievable and relatively fast with the right evidence and support system,” it said.

National agric plans

According to AGRA, a core focus of its work is to improve and operationalise National Agriculture Investment Plans (NAIPs).

So far, it has collaborated on NAIPs with nine of its focus countries; from these, it has supported the implementation of 10 flagship programs, the prioritised, bankable investment projects selected from NAIPs.

“These flagships serve as umbrella initiatives under which different actors can mobilise resources, expertise, and operations towards a common goal. We see accelerated development, with time for flagship design declining from an average of two years to four to six months with our support.

“The 10 flagship programs supported by AGRA are projected to reach 13 million smallholder farmers,” it said.