EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As Africa approaches the new millennium, throughout the continent there is an emerging need to create an environment that enables members of civil society to contribute fully to sustainable economic and social development. As many countries move away from the model in which the state tried to do everything, it is clear that there needs to be much broader participation of various actors in the development process. This transition to a more participatory approach, which is taking place at different speeds depending on national, regional, and international conditions, can only occur if there is a rethinking of development approaches in all areas, but particularly with respect to agriculture. At the initiative of USAID, the ADB, MSU, and INSAH, 40 researchers, policy makers and private-sector entrepreneurs from 19 countries, representing 20 African and international organizations, met in Abidjan for a continent-wide workshop to debate issues related to transformation of African agriculture. This meeting was hosted by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research of Côte dÂIvoire. The Abidjan workshop built on previous discussions organized by Winrock International, the World Bank, USAID (AFR/SD/PSGE/FSP) and IFPRI concerning the key challenges (food insecurity, poverty, and environmental degradation) that need to be addressed while fostering a structural transformation of African agriculture. In 1992, Winrock International held a seminar in Baltimore, financed by USAID (AFR/ARTS), to examine these questions. A large number of North American analysts participated in this meeting. One of the principal conclusions was that there existed appropriate agricultural technologies already Âon the shelf that would allow African agriculture to grow at 4% annually, but that the adoption of these technologies was often hindered by unfavorable macroeconomic and sectoral policies. At that time, World Bank analysts had argued that a 4% agricultural growth rate was needed to stimulate fast enough overall economic growth to allow meaningful increases in real income and a reduction in poverty. In 1993, USAID (AFR/SD/PSGE/FSP) hosted a workshop in Harare that brought together a group of African analysts to examine these same problems. The Harare group, less convinced of the widespread availability of appropriate technologies for all regions of Africa, raised the issue of the potential serious negative effects of structural adjustment programs on African agriculture. The workshop participants in Harare therefore recommended that USAID: (1) commission specific studies on the impact of agricultural policy reforms in various African countries, (2) encourage more attention be given to the development and promotion of agricultural technologies appropriate for specific agro-climatic zones, and (3) foster a re-examination of the relationships between the NARS and the CGIAR in order to assure that the technologies developed in the international research centers are adapted to the specific needs of different localities in Africa. The recommendations of the Harare workshop served as the starting point for the workshop in Abidjan. The organizers commissioned papers on the recent experiences with agricultural transformation in Zambia, South Africa, Malawi, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Ghana, and the Sahelian countries. The Abidjan workshop also drew on the results of a workshop organized in Senegal in December 1994 by IFPRI, which examined the difficulties encountered in the elaboration of long-term agricultural development strategies in Africa. The Abidjan workshop attempted to go beyond these previous meetings by concentrating on identifying the specific investments and policies that African governments, firms, and international organizations and donors could undertake in the short and medium term to encourage sustainable economic and agricultural transformation. The challenge was to identify specific ways in which to foster the structural transformation of agriculture in African countries. This transformation would then stimulate broad-based economic growth while at the same time assuring improvements in food security, poverty reduction and environmental protection. The discussion and debates in the workshop were organized around three modules: The first module dealt with the basic issues and challenges involved in agricultural transformation. These were introduced through three presentations, followed by discussion. The second module dealt with the case studies and experiences with agricultural transformation in different regions of Africa. The third module consisted of discussions in small working groups. From this sharing of experiences and the discussion in the working groups there emerged a consensus that three broad areas need to be addressed in order to foster the structural transformation of African agriculture: policies, investments, and technologies. More specifically, the participants came to the following conclusions: In order to ensure a sustainable process of agricultural transformation, African countries can no longer afford to put off the necessity of critically reexamining their macroeconomic policies. The case studies show that in most of the countries, structural adjustment programs have been launched. Intended to stimulate market-driven economic growth,these programs have had mixed results in most of the countries. It remains nonetheless true that certain countries have achieved substantial progress in the implementation of these programs. Improvements in the system of governance are absolutely imperative. Specifically, there needs to be transparency in the design and implementation of policies, through greater involvement of farmers, who are the main actors in the system and the intended beneficiaries. The diagnoses and outlook for these countries that emerged from the case studies point to the need to make such changes as soon as possible. Substantial national public investments, specifically in infrastructure, that are complementary to the agricultural policy reforms constitute important measures that can contribute decisively to the structural transformation of African agriculture. These investments should come mainly through the mobilization of domestic resources and through increased competitiveness of products on the national, regional, and international levels. In order to foster agricultural transformation, these countries also need to undertake actions that are complementary to the infrastructure investments, notably those necessary to reach an annual minimum agricultural growth rate of 4%. They also need to accelerate regional integration (specialization by region and inter-regional trade) as a key element in their transformation strategy. Because there is no universal solution, it is absolutely necessary to take account of agro-ecological differences across zones when developing alternative strategies for sustainable structural transformation of agriculture. The participants in the Abidjan workshop identified six zones on the basis of objective criteria. The classification proposed by the workshop has several advantages: It helps to guide the development of technologies and the definition of programs to manage natural resources. It facilitates examination of questions regarding comparative advantage and specialization. Lastly, it is useful in formulating general policies. In summary, the participants identified three key dimensions necessary to foster agricultural transformation: the full involvement of farmers, an approach based on regional integration, and the mobilization of domestic resources. These are key missing links that are necessary to accelerate the process of agricultural transformation in Africa. The structural transformation of agriculture also will require a better understanding of certain bottlenecks that reinvigorated national agricultural research systems will have to attack. With respect to this issue, the workshop participants identified key research questions to be addressed in the coming two years. These issues were put together in the form of an analytic agenda. Such research would allow the different workshop participants to work in an informal network, participate in similar research efforts, and to then meet to evaluate their common experiences. Finally, the workshop recommends that the ADB, USAID, and other development partners be asked to support this process, which will in the end help them to justify the need for their own involvement and kindle new enthusiasm for agricultural transformation in Africa.
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Paper provided by Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics in its series Food Security III Papers with number
11414.
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