DEVELOPMENT
Short-term fixes - the bane of West African agriculture Boosting agricultural productivity in the Sahel region is crucial to reduce chronic food in security, improve families' nutrition, promote economic growth and help build people's resilience, say experts, but governments still under-fund the sector, as do international donors who favour short-term fixes.
Vegetable farmer nurturing her plants
WHILE there has been a renewed interest in investing in agriculture over the past five years, partly spurred by a drive towards more self-sufficiency given rising food 24
prices (which spiked in 2008 and remained high), the sector is still under-served in West Africa. In 2009 the Economic Community of AFRICAN AGENDA
VOL.16 NO.3
West African States (ECOWAS) renewed the 2003 Maputo pledge to commit at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture. But as the accord approaches its 10year anniversary later this month, only 10 of the 54 African Union countries have met this goal. While growth in small-scale agriculture can benefit the poor twice as much as growth in other sectors, global development aid for agriculture declined by 77 percent between 1983 and 2006, according to a report by Oxfam. In Senegal, for example, where agriculture accounts for nearly 14 percent of the country's GDP and employs more than two-thirds of the labour force, ActionAid says the government invested just 4.7 percent of its budget on agriculture in 2012. Consciousness did rise, however, in 2008, when food prices spiked and West African governments realized they were overly dependent on imported staple grains. "Many countries realized that being too dependent on the international market was not sustainable, and from that moment on, said 'OK, if we want to be able to feed ourselves and if we want to improve the food security of our populations, we need to have a minimum level of food sovereignty. And to do this, we need to invest more in agriculture'," said Eric Hazard, campaign manager for Oxfam's GROW campaign. Since then "agriculture has been back on the agenda in the region." But in those countries that have achieved the 10 percent goal, such as Burkina Faso and Niger, Hazard said the quality of the investment remains an issue. "When you secure, say, 17 percent of your budget for agriculture, but only spend 65-70 percent of that on farmers, and the