Governance and small-scale agriculture in West Africa

African democracy institute Idasa is to hold a conference in Nairobi, Kenya, from 8-10 November, on "Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa". It will examine governance and public investment processes and how these are shaping small-scale agriculture in the region.

This conference will be a follow up to an Idasa conference on small-scale agriculture in Southern Africa, held in Johannesburg at the end of 2009, where participants noted a need to move away from a reliance on donor funding, as donor agencies often dictate the recipients’ development agenda.

Conference organiser Leslie Nyagah is calling for papers for the "Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa" conference. Abstracts and final papers from West African participants will be accorded preference but all submissions will be considered and must be sent to [email][email protected] by the end of July.

A study released after the first conference, compiled by Nyagah, who heads the Public Expenditure and Smallholder Agriculture project in Idasa’s Economic Governance Programme, concluded that African governments must mobilise domestic resources to fund and implement policies.

Nyagah concluded in his report that Africa has the potential to be food secure. He argued that the traditional favouring of large-scale operations that have collateral or receive government support must be reviewed and that smallholder farmers need access to credit and similar incentives such as tax relief.

His report noted that only 19% of African countries have met the commitment stipulated in the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme drawn up by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) to allocate more than 10% of their national expenditure to agriculture. Yet the trends in agriculture expenditure in proportion to total expenditure are not improving.

Malawi is the best performing country in the Southern African Development Community in this regard, allocating on average 12.3% a year on agriculture between 2004-05 and 2006-07, and improved revenue collection in Malawi has enabled the implementation of the government’s fertilizer subsidy programme without donor funding, and without diverting resources from other sectors.

The need for global food security requires a recognition not only of the importance of smallholder farming in meeting the food needs of the global population but also of the significance of producing food for the poor by the poor who have often been marginalised in policy and budgetary decisions,
Nyagah argued in his report.

A shift in thinking across the continent will be required before changes start to happen, Nyagah said. The lack of effective farmer organisations and limited support from civil society groups has undermined the ability of smallholder farmers to put pressure on governments through sustained lobbying for an adequate share of public expenditure.

Participatory budget-making conjures up possibilities of increased participation for smallholder farmers and the rural poor in agriculture policy-making processes, thus raising the political stake of smallholder farmers while helping improve governance of the sector.

Many African countries have in place agricultural development strategies that are pro-poor and aim at improving the agricultural sector. Participants at the Southern African conference agreed that these should be implemented, rather than new strategies formulated.

The follow-up conference in Nairobi will focus on three themes: priorities for public investment in agriculture; trends in public expenditure on small-scale agriculture; and policy processes and stakeholder participation.

For more information on the "Governance and Small-scale Agriculture in West Africa" conference in November or to participate in it please send abstracts and final papers to Nyagah on [email][email protected] or 27 12 3920500.