Agriculture
Letter to a Farmer
Wheat Farmer (shutterstock)
Dear Farmer,
You are my hero. You might think your life is mundane, perhaps even redundant, however for millions like me on the outside looking in, you are extraordinary.
For many of us who are not farmers, we drive past your swaying fields and hum about spacious skies and kernels of corn.
You till the soil from morning till night. Waking up every day to ensure the labour of your hands is coming to fruition. You are the epitome of hard work and determination and although that may sound cliche, it is true.
Farmer, you are indeed wonderful. You plant seeds in the soil and watch them grow. You help to build nations and communities both at home and abroad.
Although policies remain in place to stifle your trade or limit the way you import and export goods, you stay committed to your trade and it’s robust returns.
For the days, months and years that you toil, for the food you give and for the way you inspire millions around the world, I say thank you.
Please don’t let anyone tell your story, especially those who have no idea what it’s like to produce their best work.
If many of us could work from dusk to dawn, then receive one-fourth of the money that the crop was worth only a year ago, we would not last in our professions.
I doubt most of us would stay in our trades if we received one-fourth pay for our best efforts.
Thank you for your dedication and contribution to society. Thank you for making the world a better place. Your commitment needs to be emulated by many.
Hopefully, you would pass the torch of your excellence to the younger generation and give them a chance to fill the fields with robust crops and produce.
Your work reminds us that farming is indeed the essential work that needs to be done.
Sincerely,
A loyal consumer.
Also Read: Interview With Deborah Ogwuche, Founder Of Food Channel Africa
R-L- Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo, Honorable Minister, Federal Ministry of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr. Bababtola Fasheru, President African Cashew Alliance (ACA), Mr Ernest Mintah, Managing Director ACA presenting the Analysis of the Nigerian Cashew Sector (Photo: Supplied)
The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) revitalized their vision for the African Cashew Industry as it held the much-anticipated 16th ACA Annual Cashew Conference from the 12th to the 15th of September 2022 at the Sheraton Abuja Hotel, Abuja, Nigeria. The well-attended conference attracted various stakeholders and cashew experts in the African Cashew Industry with the theme; “Strengthening Sustainable Kernel and By-Product Marketing in The African Cashew Industry”. It was the first physical gathering after the outbreak of COVID-19 and the first held in Nigeria since its inception. The African Cashew Alliance (ACA) is a business association of actors and stakeholders in the cashew industry in Africa and beyond. Established in 2006, the ACA is devoted to promoting a globally competitive African cashew industry that benefits all actors in the cashew value chain, from the farmer to the consumer, through value addition.
The annual conference is a major part of the ACA’s obligation to keep the industry vibrant, responsive to the issues on the ground, and committed to the interests of all stakeholders. The outcome of the conference further buttressed the alliance’s mission: to create a platform for accelerating growth and investment in the African cashew industry through partnerships, advocacy, market linkages, technical support, and global networking.
The conference had a rich series of learning and knowledge-sharing sessions, exhibitions, workshops, field visits, meetings, master classes, forums, digital initiatives, and provided opportunities to form strategic partnerships among the participants, speakers, and seasoned cashew experts that addressed relevant issues and offered solutions to the challenges of individual industry players, institutions, the participating countries’ respective national sectors, and the global industry.
The 2022 ACA Conference highlighted the vital role of marketing in building a sustainable African cashew industry. The event helped to sensitize participants on kernel and by-product marketing and other important related industry issues, including high production yields, kernel and by-product processing and policy.
According to the president of ACA and MD/CEO of Colossus Investments Limited, Mr. Babatola Faseru, “the cashew industry provides direct and indirect jobs to over 3 million people in Africa, especially women, serving as the main source of income for over 1.8 million households in West Africa. Therefore, to ensure sustainability, we need to address the question of how important supply chain linkages are from processors worldwide to growers of cashews. We need to harmonize strategic measures for the management of Kernel and by-products marketing, and we need to address the issue of infrastructure to sustain the growth in the local industry, in order to compete globally.”
He also emphasized the role of technology in this pursuit, adopting the best technology for shell and apple processing is critical. He pointed out the need for diversification of shell processing; knowing that shell is the biggest waste and major concern in cashew processing.
In his closing remarks, he acknowledged the great work being done through ACA despite the challenges;
“We are proud that through our annual conference and many other learning events and services, we are creating the right platforms and conditions for partnerships, advocacy, market linkages, global networking and providing the needed technical support for accelerating growth and investments in the African cashew industry.”
Among the special guests of honour, keynote speakers, speakers, panelists, moderators, stakeholders, and participants that attended the event were; His Excellency, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, Former President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Cashew Ambassador; Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo (CON), Hon. Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar, Hon. Minister of Agriculture, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Amb. Mariam Yalwaji Katagum, Hon. Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Babatola Faseru, ACA Board President; Ojo Ajanakou, President of National Cashew Association of Nigeria. Also, present was the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Cameroon and President of the Consultative International Cashew Council Mr. Gabriel Mbairobe. There was a rich and exhaustive list of distinguished speakers from across the globe in attendance, who did justice to the conference topic and sessions held.
As a result of the quality of the event, it attracted exhibitors comprising industry leaders, key stakeholders, established businesses, as well as SMEs that gladly exhibited their products, services, and brands to the local and internal audience at the conference. This was another major highlight of the conference and they enjoyed engagement from the participants and robust media coverage from the mainstream houses, including TV, radio, print and digital, who were in full attendance.
The event also had support and sponsorship from industry leaders, stakeholders, SMES, and established brands in the value chain. The President of the ACA Board of Directors, Mr. Babatola Faseru, expressed the Board’s gratitude to partners, sponsors, and the hundreds of physical and online participants of the Conference.
As part of the post-event activities to continue to engage the various stakeholders outside of the conference, the president of the African Cashew Alliance (ACA) Mr. Babatola Faseru, with the team paid a visit to the Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Abuja and shared the progress of the association with the minister, Otunba Richard Adeniyi Adebayo (CON). The president recounted the challenges in the cashew industry in Nigeria, and how the association have greatly helped to provide solutions to them. The president also presented the various physical and online assets of the alliance like the report, the strategic documents stating the plans of the alliance and the online platform where stakeholders in the industry will continue to engage in productive conversations that will move the Cashew industry forward.
In response to the president of the African Cashew Alliance, the minister for Industry, Trade and Investment acknowledged the work being done by the association to promote the production of cashew in the country. He noted that most of the progress has been documented and the ministry has it in a good report. He affirmed the progress made in export as one of the achievements of the association; Nigeria is currently second in the world after Vietnam when it comes to cashew export. He also acknowledged some of the challenges the association has surmounted and shared the excitement of a bright future for the cashew industry. He further assured the ministry’s support for the association. He ended by thanking the association and looked forward to collaborations between the ministry and ACA.
The association promised to continue to engage all the stakeholders across sectors including government and policymakers to ensure the goals of promoting the cashew industry in Nigeria and Africa remain a priority.
The annual conference provided an opportunity for networking sessions where participants were able to meet, network, and explore business opportunities and collaboration. The participants affirmed the quality of the conference and looked forward to next year’s conference, which promises to be bigger and better.
African Risk Capacity Group and the African Development Bank presented a symbolic US$797,049 cheque to the Government of Madagascar following delayed rains during the 2021-2022 agricultural season, which resulted in drought conditions across the country, particularly in the Grand South. The ARC payout is the result of drought insurance taken by the country under the African Development Bank’s flagship programme ADRiFi, which financed 50% of the 2021/2022 insurance premium for sovereign drought risk transfer for the Republic of Madagascar.
This payout will be specifically used to strengthen the resilience of part of the approximately 1,024,523 people affected by drought, according to the estimate of the Africa RiskView software, a tool used by ARC to estimate the number of people affected by disaster events and the associated response costs.
“I would like to thank the African Risk Capacity Group, the African Development Bank, the German government, as well as multi-donor partners such as Switzerland and the United Kingdom, who provided premium support to the Government of Madagascar to enable insurance uptake. Your support to ARC and to countries across the continent is crucial to enable us to sustain membership in this vital insurance mechanism,” said Mr Tahina Razafindramalo, Minister of Digital Development, Digital Transformation, Posts, and Telecommunications.
In his remarks, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and Director General of the ARC Group, Ibrahima Cheikh Diong said: “The payout made today not only supports vulnerable communities affected by drought, but also reaffirms the Government of Madagascar’s commitment to protecting its people against climate-induced shocks by actively participating in the ARC’s insurance mechanism.”
“Madagascar is, unfortunately, one of the African countries hardest hit by the impact of climate change. However, the government’s foresight to take out drought insurance meant that we were able to work together to develop a pre-emptive contingency plan, detailing how the payout would be used. The swift release of funds means the most-affected communities can now be assisted as a matter of urgency,” said Lesley Ndlovu, CEO of ARC Limited, the insurance affiliate of the ARC Agency.
In establishing a framework for collaboration, ARC and the African Development Bank signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March 2017 to support African states to manage disaster risks and to be better prepared to effectively respond to climate-related perils that seriously affect the continent. It is within this framework that the Bank provided financial support to the Government of Madagascar for the payment of its insurance premium over a period of 5 years (2019-2023) through the ADRiFi programme.
“This is the third insurance payout via the African Disaster Risk Financing Programme and ARC to the Government of Madagascar. The combined total of more than $13.5 million to boost the government’s ability to provide services that are keeping thousands of vulnerable people from food insecurity or migrating in search of food and work, demonstrates the Bank’s sustained commitment to building African nations’ resilience to climate change,” said Dr Beth Dunford, African Development Bank’s Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development.
CAP-F Partners and NABG Officials (Image: Supplied)
The food situation in Africa is quite dire but full of potential. According to the United Nations Conferences on Trade and Development (UNCTD), between 2016 and 2018, the continent imported about 85% of its food from outside the continent. This cost the continent about $35 billion. What’s worse? This cost is expected to rise to $110 billion by 2025. The impact of this is two-fold; African economies are unable to guarantee food security for the continent and are unable to take advantage of the global food market, which is expected to reach $11 trillion by 2030.
To achieve Africa’s agricultural potential, The Grow Africa Partnership was jointly founded in 2011 by the African Union, African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD) and the World Economic Forum. Grow Africa’s mission is to increase private sector investment in Agriculture. Grow Africa’s flagship programme is the Country Agribusiness Partnership Framework (CAP-F), a mechanism for establishing effective public private engagement to create agribusiness partnerships in a country. CAP-F facilitates the alignment of private sector investments commitments with public sector policy/infrastructure obligations and provides a mechanism for all parties to hold each other accountable for their obligations. CAP-F’s footprint currently spans 16 African countries.
During a recent CAP-F private sector stakeholder sensitization engagement, CAP-F’s partners, including AUDA-NEPAD, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG), pledged to work with multi-stakeholder agriculture value chain platforms to promote private sector investments that can improve agriculture productivity in Nigeria.
In his welcome address, Emmanuel Ijewere, Vice President, Nigeria Agribusiness Group (NABG) expounded on the context of a private-sector led agribusiness investment ecosystem in Nigeria. “Agriculture has the credentials to be Nigeria’s most attractive investment option. It is very important that stakeholders across the public and private sectors work together to align their interests and expectations. This is the value that CAP-F brings to the table,” Ijewere noted.
Also speaking at the engagement, Ibrahim Gourouza, Chief Operating Officer of Grow Africa noted that the optimised participation of private sector investors will help build more sophisticated agriculture value chains across Africa. This tasked Grow Africa with the responsibility of creating a private-sector inclusive agriculture investment ecosystem through CAP-F. On the design principles around CAP-F, he noted, “One of CAP-F’s key success factors is that it is owned by countries and anchored on existing structures. With this in mind, in collaboration with stakeholders, we selected NABG as the anchor of CAP-F coordination in Nigeria.”
He noted that Grow Africa is committed to CAP-F in Nigeria in a number of ways. “Grow Africa has provided the CAP-F Secretariat in Nigeria with a business model that has generated close to $500m in private sector investments in Africa across 6 countries and in 5 value chains. This will be an invaluable tool for business deal generation in Nigeria. We will continue to provide technical assistance for the team in Nigeria. While we have attracted funding from AGRA for the CAP-F Secretariat in Nigeria, we will work to expand the partnership support to ensure a more sustainable CAP-F implementation in Nigeria. Finally, we will provide a database of financiers who we will connect to provide sector deals in agriculture in Nigeria,” Gourouza noted.
The CAP-F business model focuses on collaborating with multi-stakeholder platforms across agriculture value chains in the country (existing and new platforms) and the development of business cases to identify investment opportunities in these value chains as well as inhibitors to these investment opportunities. The business model then creates matchmaking opportunities between various stakeholders, which culminates in a term sheet that aligns the commitments and expectations of all stakeholders from those investment opportunities. These term sheets are then taken from commitments on paper to actual investments that are concluded. The final stage of the business model is a mutual accountability and knowledge sharing activity, where updates on private sector investments are presented to the African Union.
CAP-F’s activities in Nigeria are funded by AGRA. In its address, the funders, represented by David Adama, Senior Programme Officer, noted that the engagement with private sector stakeholders is extremely important in driving agricultural transformation in the country. He stated, “CAP-F provides an opportunity for government and the private sector to engage on some of the opportunities that have been identified through the National Agriculture Investment Programme (NAIP) in order to know where private sector investments are necessary. This is particularly important, given the current challenges around public sector investments. AGRA is happy to work closely with Grow Africa and NABG in Nigeria to facilitate this.”
CAP-F Partners is also critical if Nigeria is able to move its millions of smallholder farmers into agripreneurs, who can actually create wealth through agriculture.
