Africa

The Challenge of Increasing Agricultural Productivity in SSA

July 16, 2015

By Alejandro Nin-Pratt, Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI), International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)

Although Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) has significantly improved its agricultural performance since the mid-1990s, debate is ongoing as to whether the region will be able to withstand growth in the coming years. In particular, the region’s agricultural productivity growth continues to lag behind the rest of the world, growing at roughly half the average rate for developing countries; growth in land and labor productivity has been modest; growth in cereal yields is still low in almost all countries; and fertilizer use remains very low. Two recently released IFPRI discussion papers offer new possible explanations for the puzzling phenomenon of agricultural growth in SSA.

The first paper, Inputs, Productivity, and Agricultural Growth in Africa South of the Sahara, finds productivity to be the main driver of agricultural growth in SSA in recent years. In the case of poorer countries with low labor productivity and low input use per worker, increased productivity resulted from increased input-use efficiency. Countries with higher output and input per worker also increased their input-use efficiency, but in addition they benefited substantially from the adoption of technologies developed elsewhere.

One reason why poor countries with low input levels per worker find it more difficult to benefit from new technologies may be That these technologies require a very different input mix that the one used by producers in poor countries. Advanced countries develop technologies compatible with their own input mix (such as high levels of capital and chemical inputs per worker), but such technologies are less effective in poor countries where the input mix is very different (low levels of capital per worker and intensive labor). Advanced countries using the most productive input mix can produce 60 percent more output per unit of input than SSA countries, and these differences could increase in the future.

The second paper, Agricultural Intensification in Africa: A Regional Analysis, focuses on the role of fertilizers in the various intensification pathways that SSA countries follow. Results indicate that differences in agricultural growth patterns are driven by relative land and labor abundance and are affected by the region’s differing agroecologies. Countries with low population density (half the countries in SSA) increased output by expanding crop production into new land area, reducing fallow periods, and increasing double-cropping. The contribution of increased land productivity to output growth in these countries is low, and fertilizer use per hectare has not risen. In these countries, fertilizer seems to be used to expand crop land but not to increase yields.

On the other hand, countries with high population density show a substantial contribution of land productivity to output growth and a positive but low correlation between land productivity and fertilizer use. A possible explanation for this is the differing agroecologies of the countries with high population density. For example, root and tree-crop systems require lower levels of fertilizer than cereal-based systems. The importance of root and tree-crop systems in countries with the highest levels of population density (Burundi, Nigeria, Rwanda, and Uganda) could explain their relatively low level of fertilizer use compared with countries with cereal-based production systems (such as Ethiopia, Kenya, and Malawi). Of the total land suited for crop production in SSA only 18 percent is better suited to cereals than to root and tree crops, and 70 percent of that land is located in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Results outlined in these two papers offer significant implications for policy, as they show that the slow pace of technology adoption and productivity growth in SSA could be because the available technologies are inappropriate to local conditions and the low levels of capital available. First, in areas suitable for cereal production, low population densities make advanced technologies inappropriate unless complemented with capital investment to increase labor productivity. The best strategy for these countries appears to be labor-saving technologies that accelerate the incorporation of new land into production and create incentives for increased fertilizer use as countries approach their land frontier. Second, labor-intensive technologies are best placed to succeed in countries like Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda because more than 60 percent of their potential agricultural land is located in favorable agroecologies with high population densities. For those agroecologiesproducing root and tree crops like cassava, plantains, cocoa, and coffee, Africa will need to develop its own Green Revolution. This will require more investment in agricultural R&D because tropical crops benefit less from research by high-income countries, which generally focuses on crops and livestock production for temperate climates.

It is hoped that this research will contribute to bring a new perspective on the appropriateness of technology choices to the ongoing debate taking place in SSA.

Doubling down on a good investment – Featured on IFPRI.org

November 26, 2014

By Rebecca Sullivan

As the world’s population continues to expand, ensuring that food production can meet the growing demand is an ever-mounting challenge. Climate change, soil degradation, and volatile food prices further threaten food security at a time when increasing agricultural output is paramount.

In the report, Taking Stock of National Agricultural R&D Capacity in Africa South of the Sahara, produced by IFPRI’s Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators, researchersNienke Beintema and Gert-Jan Stads summarize recent progress in the development of national agricultural research systems in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA). The report—presented at the conference celebrating 15 years of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Johannesburg, South Africa this week—also serves as a benchmark for monitoring the implementation of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa, which is being launched at the conference.

Regional spending on agricultural research and development (R&D) must double if the countries of SSA are to meet the recommended United Nations (UN) and African Union’s target of investing 1 percent of agricultural GDP in public agricultural R&D, not to mention the even more ambitious post-2015 recommendation that low- and middle-income countries ramp up spending on agricultural R&D by five percent from 2015 to 2025.

The report highlights additional challenges to national agricultural research systems:

Low staff retention and qualification levels: Civil service recruitment restrictions, low salaries, and inadequate funding have prevented many public agricultural research institutions from competing for, training, and retaining staff; in addition, a very large share of senior researchers are approaching retirement
Low female participation: Although female participation in agricultural R&D has increased in recent years, women have less influence on decisionmaking and policy because men continue to dominate in senior research and management positions.
High funding volatility: Volatile fluctuations in agricultural R&D funding exert negative impacts on agricultural research systems by impeding strategic planning, undermining the conduct of research programs, demotivating staff, and eroding prior progress, all of which affect the quality, quantity, and efficiency of research outcomes and their ultimate impact on agricultural productivity and poverty alleviation.
High donor dependency: Significant shares of government funding are generally allocated to salaries, leaving many countries dependent on donor and development bank funding to support the day-to-day costs of operating research programs and developing and maintaining R&D infrastructure; in addition to increasing funding volatility, high dependence on donor funding has the potential to skew national research priorities.

African governments and research agencies are limited in their choice of options to address the many challenges they face in developing their agricultural research systems because of funding constraints. The ASTI report lists various successful policy changes already adopted in certain countries, which can offer valuable lessons for other countries.

“It is critical that African countries invest more in agricultural research to ensure that they can feed their populations,” said Beintema. “Underinvestment, inadequate human resource capacity, poor research infrastructure, and a lack of coherent policies continue to constrain the quantity and quality of research outputs in many countries.”

Deepening CGIAR Alignment with CAADP Partner Institutions – New Scientific and Technical Partnership Activated

October 17, 2014

New work is underway to develop stronger integration between partnerships and technical research and analysis in support of the next phase of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) – and specifically the CGIAR response to and support for the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A). Efforts for this new activity build on the strengths of on-going work of programs such as ASTI, HarvestChoice, ReSAKSS and Africa Rising to strengthen increased engagement in the larger science and technology landscape. This includes developing the tools, technologies and delivery systems necessary to make progress on the targets and goals for CAADP’s next phase of implementation.

A meeting was organized and hosted by the new IFPRI-based S&T Partnerships in Africa team on behalf of the CGIAR Consortium, and held in Washington, D.C. on September 29 and 30, 2014. Entitled Support of Scientific and Technical Partnerships in Africa, the meeting aimed to activate the implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the African Union Commission (AUC) and the CGIAR Consortium. In attendance were over 30 partners from the African research for development institutions, development partners and colleagues from CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) and Centers.

Building on the good progress made over the past few years on the CGIAR alignment to CAADP, initiated through the Dublin Process, the next step is to develop activities in support of targets and goals listed in the Malabo Declaration to deliver on the next phase of CAADP in Africa.

The two-day meeting addressed three main topics:

How CGIAR will respond to and support the implementation of the Malabo Declaration through supporting the S3A, which has been led by FARA over the past year and will be launched formally in Johannesburg in November;
The role new technologies and virtual technology platforms will play in the delivery of the Science Agenda, and how to conduct the collaboration between CGIAR, FARA and the SROs to deliver, and;
In follow-up to the Climate Summit held that week in New York City, a session was held to discuss how the AUC and CGIAR, including CCAFS and others, will come together to deliver on the technical research and implementation at the country level on Climate Smart Agriculture.

Working with ASTI and several other key partners, we will expand our reach to a wide array of partner programs and institutions and help “connect the dots” by creating new ways of sharing information, communications and research among partners, and finding innovative ways to move together to address country-led priorities to tackle poverty and hunger.

Contributed by Kerri Wright Platais, Program Head, Scientific and Technical Partnerships in Africa
Email: k.w.platais@cgiar.org

For further information:
http://www.asti.cgiar.org/scientific-and-technical-partnerships
http://www.asti.cgiar.org/scientific-and-technical-partnerships/activities

ASTI in the year of Agriculture and Food Security: Upcoming Outputs for 2014

March 25, 2014

Despite a decade of strong agricultural growth and development, Africa continues to face serious challenges in terms of poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. That is why the African Union (AU) has declared 2014 the Year of Agriculture and Food Security. As such, the AU has called on all member states to strengthen their policy environment in a bid to help spur investment in agriculture and implement mechanisms to track and measure progress through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP).

Investment in agricultural research and development has undoubtedly played a critical role in recent agricultural growth in Africa. IFPRI’s 2013 Global Food Policy Report, released earlier this month, highlighted the region’s trends in agricultural R&D investments and human resource capacity in a chapter based on a recent data analysis by the Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) program. The chapter’s key findings were also presented at the 10^th CAADP Partnership Platform meeting in Durban, South Africa on 19 March:

African agricultural research spending increased by 40 percent during 2000–2011, which was largely driven by increased spending in just two countries: Nigeria and Uganda.

Investment levels in most other countries are still well below the levels required to sustain agricultural R&D needs. In 2011, only 10 African countries met the NEPAD/UN target of spending 1% of agricultural output on agricultural research.
Donors and development banks remain an important funding source for African agricultural R&D, but are also main drivers of funding volatility.
Despite rapid growth in the total number of agricultural researchers in the region, many countries continue to face serious capacity constraints, which has been accelerated by the aging of more qualified researchers.
This highlights the urgent need to recruit and train the next generation of agricultural scientists.

There are many encouraging signs that African agricultural research is moving in the right direction, not in the least thanks to an increasing number of recent (sub-) regional initiatives. Nonetheless, much more is needed to tackle the remaining challenges, which the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa is set to address. The Science Agenda is based on the belief that African agriculture is too important to be outsourced to international investors and that every country requires a basic science capacity as an essential part of an agriculture-led social and economic transformation.

ASTI indicators provide a useful benchmark of the current status of agricultural R&D investment and capacity in Africa and for monitoring future progress of the Science Agenda, which is currently under final review for the adoption by AU Heads of Government in July 2014. The continuous monitoring of agricultural R&D investment and capacity in Africa is an effective tool to hold governments accountable for implementing the necessary policy changes and funding allocations needed to meet the objectives of the Science Agenda. Indicators play a key role in driving future change.

Forthcoming ASTI outputs for Africa over the next few months include a series of country factsheets, a regional report, datasets, and a revamped ASTI website.

Agricultural Researchers: how much do you really know about where new varieties have been adopted?

February 7, 2014

DIIVA stands for Diffusion and Impact of Improved Varieties in Africa, a project that collected data on improved crop varieties in Africa south of the Sahara. The three featured databases on adoption, varietal releases, and the scientific strength of breeding programs, organized around a set of 154 crop-country combinations (across 21 crops and 29 countries). The databases are hosted by the ASTI web site. (www.asti.cgiar.org)

Why is DIIVA relevant?

The steady uptake and turnover of crop varieties is key to supporting increases in food production in Africa and creating a trampoline effect of green agriculture in Africa and supporting increases in food production Yet despite the efforts of agricultural researchers in crop improvement in the region, the current knowledge of the diffusion of improved crop varieties is patchy at best.

The data and analysis generated through the DIIVA project closes this salient knowledge gap. It provides information on the effectiveness of each of crop improvement systems in delivering modern varieties to farmers, and provides insights into means to improve the way that the CGIAR and the African national agricultural research institutions can work together more effectively.

DIIVA and ASTI data interaction

ASTI is expanding its website with other databases related to agricultural R&D in developing countries, such as DIIVA. By hosting the DIIVA website, visitors will be able to link the adoption and release of specific crops and countries with the overall status of agricultural R&D in the near future when ASTI releases its updated dataset for the region (planned for spring 2014). For example, adoption of various maize varieties in Tanzania can be compared with the country’s allocation of research resources to maize.

What were the DIIVA findings?

According to the CGIAR, “Output in the form of released varieties is increasing for most crops, but is still characterized by a high level of instability from year to year.” Overall adoption of improved varieties across the countries and crops of Africa south of the Sahara is estimated at 35%, but masking significant variation across crops. This represents steady progress when compared to prior estimates from the early 2000s.

Furthermore, during the discussion of substantive results in the sections on varietal output, adoption, and change, the DIIVA project has also had its share of surprises. For example, “Prominent among these unexpected findings are the increasing demand for maize OPVs in West Africa, the steady productivity record of cassava in the face of well-documented resource scarcity, and the advanced age of cultivars in the expanding soybean crop in Nigeria.”

Key Players

Who’s responsible for this DIIVA of a database? Led by the CGIAR Standing Panel on Impact Assessment (SPIA) and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, DIIVA was implemented by scientists from Africa Rice Center, Bioversity International, CIAT, CIMMYT, CIP, ICARDA, ICRISAT and IITA and their partner organizations in each of the 29 countries.

For more information on Impact at the CGIAR, visit : http://impact.cgiar.org

ASTI Launches New Series of Country Factsheets at ASARECA General Assembly

December 18, 2013

The 2nd General Assembly of the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) was the ideal launching pad for a new series of ASTI country factsheets. These factsheets convert ASTI data and analysis into visual, easy-to-read overviews of agricultural R&D capacity and investments in African countries. The launch allowed for key stakeholders from ASARECA member countries to get a first glance at these innovative ASTI outputs. ASTI head Nienke Beintema was a featured speaker at the General Assembly where the factsheets were widely distributed. The ASARECA General Assembly was attended by 400 representatives from the 11 ASARECA countries , including Ministers of Agriculture, directors of the National Agricultural Research Institutes, university deans, researchers, farmer representatives and other stakeholders. Also in attendance were representatives of various regional and international organizations as well as the donor community.

The objective of the ASTI factsheets is to highlight trends and challenges in country-level agricultural R&D spending and human capacity, and allow for a cross-country comparison of key indicators. The first five countries featured include Burundi, DR Congo, Madagascar, Sudan, and Tanzania. Each factsheet contains a quick overview of recent trends, as well as a presentation of key institutional, financial, and human resource indicators. Each factsheet also features a more in-depth analysis of some of the key challenges that individual agricultural R&D systems are facing.

The ASTI team—in close collaboration with the National Agricultural Research Institutes and other national partners—is currently finalizing factsheets for 36 countries in Africa South of the Sahara. These will become available on the ASTI website in the coming few months. The ASTI website will also be enhanced and expanded to include data download, graphing, and benchmarking tools.