following factors: macroeconomic, investment and finance variables such as the rate of interest, structure of financial system, and public expenditure; incentives to industrial and agricultural producers; trade protection measures, regional integration, and investment regulations; regulations on competition and market structure, subsidies provided to use and disseminate new technologies; incentives to develop particular regions of a country. Another issue is the coherence of policies, as all these policies mentioned above have to be made coherent in terms of objectives, instruments, and the underlying timeframe. This focus on coherence is not often found, as the available case studies remind us. To reach policy coherence, a policy framework is needed in the form of a vision, an action plan, a medium-term public investment programme, and in the form of subsector operational plans; integrating donor projects and programmes into this framework is also an important task. A key question centres on whether and how public and private sectors cooperate in the task of developing and reforming agro-industry, and how the institutional set-up works to facilitate such cooperation. Other important questions are: how do the economic and structural policies that may affect agribusiness development in general and agro-industry subsectors in particular work in reality? To what extent is there policy coherence between macro policies, agriculture policies, trade and industry policies, competition policies, and technology, structural and spatial policies? Are there trade-offs and conflicts that impede agribusiness development? The role of key pillars for agribusiness development: The key policy factors, or “pillars” can be understood as the main drivers that move the agro-industry sector and agribusiness enterprises forward (see UNIDO 2011). The eight key pillars are of central importance for the comparative analysis of the country cases; agribusiness dynamics are linked directly to progress in all these factors. The eight pillars are therefore related to the main ways in which value addition can be enhanced by agribusiness enterprises: Key Pillars: Enhancing agricultural productivity. How can agriculture be supported so as to ensure a stable
and sustainable supply of raw materials for industrial processing?
Upgrading value chains. What are the possibilities for and constraints on upgrading agribusiness
value chains in the country?
Targeting producers and commodities. How can producers and commodities be selected for
promoting social inclusion?
Exploiting local, regional and international demand. How can local, regional and international
demand for agro-industrial products of the country be developed and exploited by agribusiness?
Strengthening technological effort and innovation capabilities. What are the instruments and
prospects for increasing the technological base, the innovation capacity, and the human capabilities needed for agro-industrial development in the country?
Promoting effective and innovative financing. How can both conventional and innovative
financing mechanisms be adapted to the conditions of agro-industry and developed further for dynamic agribusiness development in the country?
Stimulating private sector participation and investment. How are private agro-industry and
agribusiness enterprises supported most effectively? How can investment conditions be improved?
Improving infrastructure and energy access. How can the agro-industrial infrastructure be
developed and improved, and how can access of agribusiness to sustainable energy sources be provided in the country?
This study presents new evidence on these seven pillars for each of the case study countries. The new evidence allows it to derive the most feasible strategies, which will be of relevance also for other African countries.
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CONTEXT OF AGRO-INDUSTRY IN AFRICA
Context of agro-industry in Africa
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