Key challenges affecting agriculture in Southern Africa

Although most governments in the Southern Africa Development Committee (SADC) just as others in the rest of Africa have since 2003 embraced the vision of revamping the agricultural sector through increased budgetary allocations and designing of enabling policies, there still exists challenges that dog the growth of the sector, writes Simba Nembaware.

In his speech at the World Food Prize annual international symposium just ahead of World Food Day held last month, former UN Secretary-General and Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Mr. Kofi A. Annan said “Africa is the only continent which does not grow enough food to feed itself.”

Annan noted that Africa was bypassed by the science-based agricultural development adding that in the last decades governments had slashed needed investments for agricultural research and development, for rural infrastructure and for support to smallholder farmers.

In a paper presented at the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP)’s Southern African Regional Development 3rd Briefing on Financing agriculture in Southern Agriculture held last month in Malawi, Dyborn Chibonga of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) said the smallholder farmer in Africa, though highly characterized by unpleasant traits like poor resources, high illiteracy and poverty rates, “still forms a major force to reckon with within the agriculture sector.”

Chibonga highlighted that challenges bedevilling Southern Africa’s agriculture can be classified into four groups: Financing Challenges; Marketing Challenges; Environmental Challenges; and market Liberalisation.

Financial challenges include the inadequate and the lack of access to credit; high prices for agricultural inputs and farm implements; unorganised farmers; low entrepreneurship; weak institutional linkages and weak extension services.

Challenges that pertain to market include: high energy prices; limited economies of scale; lack/inadequate market information; poor/inadequate infrastructure such as roads, storage facilities, production facilities, education and health facilities; poor telecommunication networks.

Declining soil fertility and the effects of climate change such as droughts and floods among others are part of the environmental challenges that farmers in Southern Africa have to contend with.

Market liberalisation entails the removal of agricultural subsidies and in Southern Africa this is coupled with unstructured or disintegrated marketing structures.
Citing Malawi’s smallholder farmers who contribute over 20% of the country’s agriculture GDP, Chibonga said solutions to address the numerous challenges lies “in the nature and context of investments towards the sector.”

“We acknowledge the commitment by African Governments in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) but recommend an increase in the quantity, improve the quality and transparency of public investment in agriculture in agriculture.”

Governments are further urged to ensure that small producers have access to, control over and sustainable use of natural resources such as land and water, while on the other hand governments should promote ecologically sustainable agriculture.

Increasing investment in production and farm-level processing by small producers coupled with investing in post-harvest processing, marketing and value development are other recommended steps to be taken in the quest to curb the challenges dogging Southern Africa’s agriculture.