Filling in the Gaps—Critical Linkages in Promoting African Food Security: An Atlantic Basin Perspective

8/3/2019 Filling in the GapsCritical Linkages in Promoting African Food Security: An Atlantic Basin Perspective

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Filling in the GapsCritical Linkages inPromoting African FoodSecurityAn Atlantic BasinPerspective

Joe Guinan, Katrin A. Kuhlmann,Timothy D. Searchinger, Elisio Contini,and Geraldo B. Martha, Jr.

January 2012

Wider Atlantic Series


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2012 Te German Marshall Fund o the United States. All rights reserved.

No part o this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any orm or by any means without permission in writingrom the German Marshall Fund o the United States (GMF). Please direct inquiries to:

Te German Marshall Fund o the United States1744 R Street, NWWashington, DC 20009

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Tis publication can be downloaded or ree at www.gm us.org/publications. Limited printcopies are also available. o request a copy, send an e-mail to in o@gm us.org.

About GMFTe German Marshall Fund o the United States (GMF) is a non-partisan American public policy and grantmaking institu-tion dedicated to promoting better understanding and cooperation between North America and Europe on transatlanticand global issues. GMF does this by supporting individuals and institutions working in the transatlantic sphere, by conven-

ing leaders and members o the policy and business communities, by contributing research and analysis on transatlan-tic topics, and by providing exchange opportunities to oster renewed commitment to the transatlantic relationship. Inaddition, GMF supports a number o initiatives to strengthen democracies. Founded in 1972 through a gi rom Germany as a permanent memorial to Marshall Plan assistance, GMF maintains a strong presence on both sides o the Atlantic. Inaddition to its headquarters in Washington, DC, GMF has seven o ces in Europe: Berlin, Paris, Brussels, Belgrade, Ankara,Bucharest, and Warsaw. GMF also has smaller representations in Bratislava, urin, and Stockholm.

About the Wider Atlantic ProgramTis report was prepared or GMFs Wider Atlantic program, a research and convening partnership o GMF and MoroccosOCP Foundation. Te program explores the north-south and south-south dimensions o transatlantic relations, includingthe role o A rica and Latin America, and issues afecting the Atlantic basin as a whole.


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Filling in the GapsCritical Linkages in Promoting African Food

Security:An Atlantic Basin Perspective

Joe Guinan, Katrin A. Kuhlmann,Timothy D. Searchinger, Elisio Contini,

and Geraldo B. Martha, Jr.

January 2012

Wider Atlantic Series


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Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Introduction: Food Security and African Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . .7I. Africas Development Corridors: Pathways to Food Security, Regional

Economic Diversification, and Sustainable Growth . . . . . . . . . . . 23

2. Synergies in the Solutions to Africas Climate and Food Security Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

3. Brazil and African Agriculture: Lessons from Brazilian Experience,Prospects for Cooperation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

About the Authors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Table of Contents


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F illing in the g aps 1

Preface

In July 2010, the German Marshall Fund of the United States(GMF) and Moroccos OCP Foundation launched a majormulti-year partnership to explore emerging issues in the widerAtlantic space. This endeavor builds on a continuing partnershipfocused on geopolitical and geo-economic developments in theMediterranean. Our starting point is the notion that the future of transatlantic relations will be shaped, to a substantial extent, by therole of emerging actors in the southern Atlantic, and north-south

relations generally. The growing role of Brazil, West Africa, andSouth Africa is part of the picture. Countries like Morocco nowhave strong incentives to reinforce the Atlantic dimension of theirexternal policies. From an American and a European perspective,a more geographically expansive approach to transatlanticcooperation transatlantic relations for the other half of theAtlantic Basin could emerge as a new strategic imperative.

The GMF-OCP program on the Wider Atlantic includes anannual Atlantic Forum in Morocco, and a set of research projectsaddressing key issues in an Atlantic Basin context. In the first yearof the partnership, our research included studies on food security,energy, and Moroccos new geopolitics.

This report incorporates findings from the discussion on foodsecurity at the first Atlantic Forum, held in Rabat, June 17-19, 2011.Comments on the report are welcomed, and may be addressed tome, or the authors, at GMF.

Ian O. LesserThe German Marshall Fund of the United States


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Executive Summary

Joe Guinan

If the poor could eat words, then the challenge of global foodsecurity would largely have been met. The re-emergence of foodsecurity as a matter of pressing international concern in thewake of the 2007-2008 global food price crisis resulted in a flurry of research, analysis, and commentary by governments, academics,and practitioners, issuing forth in a blizzard of reports, publicstatements, and even a few action plans. Recognition is growingthat recent changes in global agricultural markets are structural innature and signal a reversal of the long-term downward trend of prices for agricultural commodities. Growing global populationand wealth are increasing demand for food as resources arediminishing, soils are being depleted, and climate change istouching off fierce competition for water and land. Yields of theworlds most important crops rice and wheat are rising moreslowly than the number of mouths to feed, with experts predictingthat global food production must rise by 70 percent by mid-century in order simply to keep pace with population. These long-termstructural factors driving demand are here to stay and will continueto affect food prices for years to come.

The goal of this paper is not to duplicate or summarize this vast new literature on food security. Rather, recognizing that anadequate response to the challenge of global food security willrequire many elements, it is to suggest from a transatlantic andwider Atlantic Basin perspective the need for critical linkagesthat should be made in order to increase leverage in the use of scarce public resources and amplify the impact of internationalefforts to promote food security in Africa and increase theirlikelihood of success.

The Atlantic Basin perspective reflects the important role of allsides of the Atlantic, north and south, on the production side

of the agricultural equation and the resources they bring to thetable in terms of land, technology, and finance (both investmentcapital and development assistance). While a significant portion


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W ider A tlAntic S erieS4

of rising global demand for food stems from population increasesand changing diets in Asia particularly China and India alarge part of the solution will necessarily have to be found in theagricultural production and potential of the wider Atlantic region.

The regional focus on Africa stems from the simple fact that thecontinent, as the principal region of the world bypassed by theGreen Revolution of the 1970s, is on the front lines of the globalfood security challenge. Home to half the worlds uncultivatedarable land, sub-Saharan Africa is the last great agriculturalfrontier. It is also home to over 40 percent of the worlds hungry,and has the lowest caloric intake of any region the only place inwhich the number of malnourished children is higher now than inthe mid-1960s. And the situation is worsening. The recent globaleconomic downturn hit Africa hard. Economic growth rates havefallen precipitously, and the number of people living in extremepoverty is on the rise. Most of these are smallholder farmers, andmost smallholder farmers are women. The projections show that,without intervention on an unprecedented scale, Africa will behome to three-quarters of the worlds hungry by 2025. A majorhumanitarian disaster is looming in what in historical terms is the

mere blink of an eye.A massive influx of public and private investment into Africanagriculture is needed to boost productivity and increase yields,which are lower in some places than they were during theRoman Empire. Ultimately, only capital markets can financethe scale of productive investment necessary to bring about thistransformation. However, because of the perceived high risksassociated with African agriculture and the complexity and expenseof infrastructure and other constraints that have confoundedthe ability of private investors to address them, public sources of finance will be necessary to put in place catalytic investment. Inan environment of constrained public resources around the world,food security will thus have to find ways to piggyback on otherpolicy priorities, initiatives, and areas of public concern.

Having first introduced the issues, the following paper bringstogether an expert group of authors to look at three ways in whichcritical linkages should be made in efforts to promote food security in Africa.


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Katrin Kuhlmann examines the African Development Corridorsmovement, which consists of using existing roads and railroadsthat link mines and other investments with regional markets andports to bring farmers into a system that can move food, goods,services, and information. Given that so many of the continentscountries are either landlocked without access to ports or sosmall that local markets cannot provide adequate scale to createeconomic opportunities, access to regional markets is particularly important in sub-Saharan Africa. The legacy of arbitrary colonialboundaries and fragmented markets has exacerbated the problemsof poor policy and regulatory environments and held back regionaltrade. In response, African leaders have begun to coalesce around

the Development Corridors, an innovative approach to marketdevelopment first proposed by Nelson Mandela, which could do forAfrica what projects like the Erie Canal did for development in theUnited States.

Next, Timothy Searchinger explores the need to link food security in Africa to climate change solutions, given the interrelated natureof these challenges, and the need to make available funds do doubleduty. Despite its tiny contribution to global gross domestic product

(GDP), African agriculture generates a significant and growingshare of world greenhouse gas emissions, while modeling analysesshow that farming in Africa will also bear the brunt of climateimpacts through droughts and higher temperatures that depresscrop yields. The opportunities for synergies between climatemitigation and adaptation efforts and food security initiativesrepresent the most practical and economical pathways for makingprogress on both fronts through measures that boost agricultural

productivity.Taking advantage of the opportunities to address food security andclimate goals together requires agreement on a shared vision forAfrican agriculture based on strong productivity gains throughtechniques that also reduce production emissions, limiting exportagriculture to high value crops, protecting forests, and prioritizinguse of African farmland to boost production of staple foods. Such a vision will require significant financial support. At the Copenhagen

climate change meeting in 2009, developed countries pledgedto provide $100 billion to developing countries for adaptation,mitigation, and general low carbon development. Although there


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are challenges in coming through with these funds in a tough fiscalenvironment, the imperatives of climate change will eventually force action. Both the Reduced Emissions from Deforestation andDegradation (REDD) and the Nationally Appropriate MitigationActivities (NAMAs) frameworks offer a means to deploy funding tomeet dual climate and food security goals. But the best opportunity lies in making them work together.

Finally, the 21st century global agricultural economy contains ahost of international actors from the wider Atlantic Basin andbeyond. While Chinas role in Africa has received a lot of recentattention, Elisio Contini and Geraldo B. Martha, Jr. address theincreasing role of Brazil in African agriculture and food security.Brazil-Africa agricultural trade is growing at a rapid pace. Brazilsemergence as an agricultural superpower in just four decadeshas attracted the attention of African leaders. Agro-ecologicalsimilarities between the Brazilian cerrado and African savannahave opened the door to technological cooperation. And a numberof foreign policy initiatives Brazil has opened 16 new embassieson the continent in recent years have led to increased Africa-Brazil engagement on food security, particularly via Embrapa, the

Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation, which has been activein providing technical assistance and extension services to Africanagriculture with support from the highest levels of Brazils politicalleadership.

This Southern Atlantic dimension to African food security bringing together the resources of Latin America and Africa torealize the potential of the southern half of Atlantic Basin for trade,investment, and development based on solidarity and real interests is of critical and growing importance. Any attempts to increaseleverage through international coordination should find waysto incorporate not just U.S. and European interventions on foodsecurity in Africa but also those of Brazil.

Taken together, an increased focus on these linkages would be asignificant contribution to current policy thinking and the long-run chances of success of the initiatives already underway topromote food security in Africa and beyond.


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Introduction: Food Security andAfrican Agriculture

Joe Guinan

Food security defined since the 1996 World Food Summit asexisting when all people at all times have access to sufficient,safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life,a definition that is commonly held to include both physical andeconomic access to food that meets peoples dietary needs as wellas their food preferences is back at the top of the internationalpolicymaking agenda. From a transatlantic perspective, foodinsecurity was last evident as a matter of pressing public concernduring the Depression-era Dust Bowl in Americas Great Plainsand in Europe in the aftermath of World War II, when large partsof the war-ravaged continent suffered from severe food shortagesand food rationing had to be introduced and maintained for thebest part of a decade. While hunger persists today on both sides of the North Atlantic as a result of poverty nearly half of childrenin the United States today are recipients of food stamps at somepoint before the age of 20 the overall productivity challenge of providing enough food in Europe and the United States has largely been met. Consumer preferences and concerns over nutrition,health, animal welfare, food safety, and product quality and variety have been eclipsing more traditional concerns over price and volume as a nascent food movement has been making its strengthfelt on both sides of the Atlantic.

In many regions of the world, however, the politics of food isless about good eating habits than the ability to eat at all. Despitethe dire prognostications of neo-Malthusians down the years,predictions of widespread famines in the developing world inthe 1970s as a result of population increases were effectively answered by the Green Revolution, in which the spread of newfarm technologies generated huge increases in agriculturalproductivity in Asia and an abundance of food. While the worldtoday is generally food secure on average, that average conceals a

huge divergence in access to food by income level and geographiclocation, with more than a sixth of the worlds population


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continuing to live in hunger. 1 Shifts in thefundamentals of world agriculture have givenrise to a new global food security challenge.

This emerging 21st

century food security challenge first garnered worldwide policy attention in large part due to the global foodcrisis of 2007-2008. Over just a few months,

the sudden spike in commodity prices left more than 100 millionadditional people without enough to eat. Riots broke out incountries around the world and governments wobbled and eitherfell, as in Haiti, or rushed to impose hasty export restrictions,further undermining already segmented global agriculturalmarkets. World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned at the timethat a decade of progress on hunger and poverty alleviation wasin danger of being reversed. The food price spike was temporarily brought to an end by the financial crisis in the second half of 2008and the resulting global economic downturn, with falling demandrelieving the upward pressure on energy and commodity prices.However, even in the course of the worst economic downturn sincethe Great Depression, world food prices stayed fairly high and

agricultural markets remained fragile and susceptible to furthershocks.

The early months of 2011 brought a second global food crisis onthe back of bad weather in Russia, Ukraine, and China. 2 The UnitedNations Food and Agriculture Organizations Food Price Index(FFPI) rose for the eighth consecutive month in February 2011,with world food prices soaring to all-time highs, surpassing eventhe peaks of 2007-2008. Wheat prices shot up by 74 percent, cornby 87 percent. According to the FAO, although the FFPI droppedback again in March from its peak in February, it averaged 232points in May 2011, 37 percent higher than in May 2010. TheWorld Bank warned at the time that another 44 million peoplehave fallen into poverty as a result of rising food prices since theprevious year. In 2011, for the first time in human history, the

1

Andrea E. Woolverton, Anita Regmi, M. Ann Tutwiler, The Political Economy of Trade andFood Security, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, July 2010.

2 Claire Schaffnit-Chatterjee, Where are Food Prices Heading? Short-term Drivers, Trendsand Implications, Deutsche Bank Research, March 10, 2011, www.dbresearch.com.

Shifts in the fundamentalsof world agriculture have

given rise to a new globalfood security challenge.


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Bread riots are among the oldest forms of socialunrest, and the rising costof food has been a trigger in this years uprisingsin North Africa and theMiddle East.

number of food insecure people worldwide surpassed the billionmark a grim new milestone.

The unfolding global food crisis is, in the first instance, a

humanitarian catastrophe. For the very poorest countries, many of them in sub-Saharan Africa, higher global food prices start a vicious cycle of hoarding, malnourishment, lower food production,and even higher prices. 3 In 2008, more than 40 countries curtailedor completely closed down cross-border flowsof food commodities as they struggled withthe crisis. But these restrictions, howeverunderstandable as a panic response, servedonly to further exacerbate the problem,narrowing markets and driving prices stillhigher. Large surpluses in some countrieswere thus unable to reach hungry people justover the border. Smallholder farmers, whosegreatest asset is their own labor, withdraw tosubsistence strategies if they cannot counton a broad market for their harvests, furtherreducing the food supply. Since early 2011, the Horn of Africa has

been suffering through a devastating food security crisis impactingmore than 10 million people. At particular risk are the millions of people largely women and children who already live at themargins of existence. For them, a small disruption in food supply can lead to long-term physical and mental damage and even death.

Food insecurity also has geostrategic consequences, with soaringprices contributing to political turmoil. Bread riots are amongthe oldest forms of social unrest, and the rising cost of food wasa trigger in last years uprisings in North Africa and the MiddleEast, dubbed the Arab Spring. Hardly felt in the United Statesand Europe, where basic commodities are a small portion of thetotal cost of diets comprised largely of processed food, spikesin commodity prices are felt much more acutely in developingcountries. The densely-packed cities of North Africa, heavily reliant on imported food, are particularly vulnerable. Althoughit is impossible to know to what extent, last years food crisis fed

3 John Simon and Susan Sechler, Africas once-and-future food crisis, Politico , March 9,2011.


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into the revolts and uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, andelsewhere.

The onset of the second food crisis in less than three years put

the world on notice that we have now definitively entered a newphase of global agricultural production and consumption. Thecommodity markets of the future will be characterized by increased volatility and recurring price shocks on the basis of a reversal of thelong-term downward trend of prices for agricultural commodities.Price fluctuations are being driven by a combination of a short-term supply shocks and longer-term structural growth in demand.In the short-term, supply-side factors such as weather events andrelated shortfalls in production, together with oil prices, exchangerates, and policy decisions such as export bans have all contributedto the food price spikes.

Beyond short-term market conditions looms the long-run questionof how to feed a growing and changing world. The planetspopulation surpassed 7 billion this year and will top 9 billion by mid-century. Demand for food will only continue to rise, withexperts predicting that even by conservative measures global

food production must increase by 70 percent simply in order tokeep pace with the number of mouths to feed. Changing diets,income growth, urbanization, natural resource constraints particularly water availability and a slowdown in the growth of yields of wheat and rice, the worlds most important staple crops,due to decades of underinvestment in agricultural research anddevelopment will only compound the problem, as will the effects of

climate change.

The long-term structural factors drivingdemand are here to stay and will continueto affect food prices for years to come. Howpolicymakers respond will be critical. Absentthe right interventions, this is a recipe forhumanitarian catastrophe and politicalunrest that will touch all sectors of the worldeconomy and have profound implications forsecurity and global governance. But the needto sustainably increase food supply in the longterm could also present great opportunities for

The need to sustainably increase food supply in the long termcould also present

great opportunitiesfor agriculture-leddevelopment for some of

the worlds poorest peopleand regions.


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agriculture-led development for some of theworlds poorest people and regions. Changesin agricultural production and farm practicesamong smallholders in regions bypassed by the Green Revolution hold out the prospect of massive productivity gains and improvementsin yields and could form an important partof rebalancing global supply and demand.Foremost among these regions is Africa.

The Challenge of African Agriculture

In recent decades, economic growth has been the engine that hasallowed hundreds of millions of people around the world to liftthemselves out of poverty, many of them in Asia. This growthlargely bypassed rural areas of sub-Saharan Africa, which stilllack fully functioning food economies. While agriculture is thelargest contributor to gross domestic product, national income,and domestic consumption in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as thebiggest source of hard currency earnings, savings, and tax revenues,and the main provider of industrial raw materials, its potential still

remains largely untapped. Africas lack of functioning food marketshas hampered broader economic development and continues tokeep the continent on the sidelines of the global economy.

As a consequence, agriculture has delivered little real benefit formost African farmers and consumers. In recent years, per capitafood output in sub-Saharan Africa has been around one-fifth of 1970 levels, making Africa the only region of the world whereper capita food production has declined in the last three decades.To make up for lagging productivity rates, African farmersexpanded production onto new land, often clearing forests andfurther stressing depleted soils. Over the same period, Africasshare of world trade fell in nine out of ten of its major exportcrops, and imports have soared even in commodities Africa caneasily produce, making the continent a net importer of food. Asa consequence, agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa generates $2per day or less in income for the vast majority of the hundreds of

millions of people it directly supports.

Africas lack of functioning food markets has

hampered broader economic developmentand continues to keep thecontinent on the sidelinesof the global economy.


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Until relatively recently, economists and development expertsbelieved that Africa should jump over agriculture andproceed on the basis of growth in other economic sectors, suchas manufacturing and services. However, the failure of thesedevelopment models to impact the baseline of hunger and poverty on the continent has resulted in a widespread acceptance thatsustained economic growth in Africa and the improvement of the lives of hundreds of millions of Africans will not occur unlessAfrica can feed its growing population. Such models also failed totake into account Africas productive capabilities and the fact thatits true potential lies in agriculture. Africa has around 20 percentof the worlds arable land, but less than 10 percent of this land is

cultivated. Accordingly, Africas economic development will requirea vibrant and growing agricultural and food sector.

Africa must develop market-oriented,integrated, sustainable, and competitiveagriculture and food systems capable of generating agricultural surpluses and sellingthem to support broader growth in theeconomy. This will help create opportunities

for the millions of African farmers who willultimately leave agriculture while at the sametime bringing the remaining smallholder

farmers into commercial relationships in the food sector. To dothis, Africa must dramatically increase agricultural productivity,production, and efficiency over the next decade. It will need newcrops and varieties, more irrigation and inputs, geographicalshifts in agricultural production, and better access for farmers

to functioning infrastructure that can both bring in supplies ataffordable prices and efficiently move production to market. UnlessAfrican agriculture is to become a significantly larger contributorto global greenhouse gas emissions and climate change, this willhave to be achieved on the same footprint or even a smaller one.

Facilitating this outcome will require an unprecedented level of cooperation and alignment among African governments, donors,and the private sector. Donors must play a catalytic role, improving

infrastructure and finding ways to use their social risk capital toleverage more investment from the private sector. Governmentsmust remove the barriers to increased productivity and efficiency.

Africa must dramatically increase agriculturalproductivity, production,and ef ciency over the

next decade.


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Businesses must build efficient supply chainsthat enable African consumers to purchasenutritious foodstuffs for 12 months of the year.Together, this will make possible a virtuouscircle of increased productivity and incomes.

Many of the problems that have kept Africasagricultural economy from taking off in thepast are still widespread today. The first isthe lack of economic empowerment for women. Women grow,store, and transport 80 percent of the food in Africa, but they andtheir children are far more likely to be undernourished than men.Women are responsible for much of the agricultural innovation,but receive only 10 percent of the extension services and financialsupport that is available from governments and own title to lessthan one percent of the land. Women (and their children) are thefirst to suffer from the failure of agricultural development, andthey suffer on both ends both as smallholder farmers and asconsumers. Further, when the implications of low productivity become apparent at the farm-level, the girls are the first to be takenout of school and put to work in the fields.

Lack of political clout is also a problem. Despite their numbers,rural populations have little political power in Africa. Most of the capitals of Africas coastal countries are seaports; most of thefarmers are in the hinterlands far from the sea. Governmentshave found it easier to feed urban areas with shipments fromabroad often concessional sales provided through aid in theabsence of political pressure to develop the means to transportfood from domestic farmers in far-flung and remote interiors. Theproblem is also one of missing public goods, in the form of thegovernment support necessary to build the storage capacity, roads,and information systems that are the underpinnings of functioningmarkets that would serve both the commercial and small farmsectors. It is not only that the infrastructure to connect rural areaswith urban markets was not built, but also that there are no policiesand programs to connect smallholder farmers to the infrastructurethat does exist.

Most smallholder farmers and their households thus survive yearto year in what is effectively a closed system, isolated and with poor

Lack of political clout isalso a problem. Despitetheir numbers, ruralpopulations have littlepolitical power in Africa.


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access to transport and market information, using few purchasedagricultural inputs such as fertilizer or pesticides, consumingmuch of what they produce, and having virtually no ties to theformal economy. The lack of transport and storage facilities meansthat much of the food produced in Africa is lost: an estimated 25percent of food grains are not consumed, while losses among lesshardy crops like fruits and vegetables and root crops can be ashigh as 50 percent. These losses are not only economic: increasedconsumption of fruits and vegetables is important for improvingnutrition and health.

The vicious circle of limited reach and high aversion to risk because of extreme vulnerability has come about because of underinvestment in African agriculture from both public andprivate sources. Opportunities to take small steps towards betterconditions have emerged through aid-funded initiatives or newgovernment policies, but the well-documented small-farmerexperience is that these efforts are not sustainable and usually failor fade away. When the donor support dries up, the farmers returnto survival mode and are no better positioned to meet the basicneeds of their families. This has been the tragic outcome of millions

of dollars in donor aid programs.The different sectors of Africas food economy largely exist asworlds apart. The huge small-farm sector stands in marked contrastto the small commercial sector, which represents as little as 2percent of agricultural production in some countries. Smallholderfarmers interact with the commercial sector mainly as laborerson large farms, in processing plants, or through contract-farmingarrangements. Poor policy choices in the public sector haveconstrained the success of both the commercial and the small-farm segments of African agriculture. African governments anddonor countries and institutions have shown a relative lack of interest in agriculture. Unequal terms of trade have been imposedby developed countries on Africa and by African countries on eachother. In addition, the historic failure to invest in storage, roads,railways, and ports has left the region with a desperately inadequatetransport system that adds hugely to import costs and export

prices. Much of this is the result of poorly informed and sometimesdeliberately obstructive government policies, especially toward thecommercial farm sector.


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The failure to develop a market-oriented, integrated agriculturaleconomy in Africa capable of generating and recycling agriculturalsurpluses has been catastrophic for Africas overall economy.Agricultural development has proven an essential prerequisite tooverall national economic growth in all countries, and economicgrowth is an essential component of food security. Agrarianeconomies like Africas need agricultural surpluses to develop.If there are surpluses that can be marketed, they will generatenet income not only for the farmer and her family, but also forthe national economy via taxes paid to governments and therecirculation of that investible surplus through the banking system,paving the way for new businesses, roads, and other investments

in the wider economy. This virtuous circle of development has notoccurred in much of Africa.

The implications of this have been profound. Per capita foodproduction in Africa is 19 percent below its 1970 level, and farmproductivity is only one quarter of the global average. An increasingshare of Africas food consumption comes from imports, and muchof those come in the form of international and bilateral aid. For theforeseeable future this will remain the case, although some of the

most creative aid programs are attempting to combine stimulatingAfricas own small farm sector with these import programs andare filling gaps in Africas food system. However, much more isneeded if agriculture is to provide the engine for poverty alleviationand economic growth in Africa, as it has in virtually all successfuleconomies.

Attaining real and sustainable food security for the continentrequires growth, and this means finding ways to provide Africasfarmers and entrepreneurs with the tools totransition away from subsistence farming andtoward market-oriented production systems.A key lesson of agricultural developmenteverywhere is that market-led opportunitiesare a more powerful driver for small farmproductivity than donor assistance.

To successfully develop African agriculture,the public sector both African governmentsand donor countries and institutions has

A key lesson of agricultural developmenteverywhere is that market-led opportunities are amore powerful driver for

small farm productivity than donor assistance.


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Much of the task of transforming Africanagriculture will fall not justto Africans but to external

governments and donor agencies as well.

a critical role to play. Building a food economy that makes anation or region food-secure requires combining public supportwith private investment. Africa has over 50 countries and a landmass more than three times that of the United States. Distancesare great, infrastructure is poor, and African governments haveoften adopted policies that impede the free flow of people, goods,and services from rural areas to urban markets as well as acrossnational borders. In terms of external challenges, donor policiesand programs are poorly aligned with each other, and developmentpolicies are not aligned with trade and investment policies. Allthis prevents the development of crucial regional markets and,therefore, of food security in Africa.

Poor governance both corruption and ineffectiveness hasbeen and remains a significant barrier to progress. However, thispicture is beginning to change, particularly in areas with a highpotential for commerce. The Regional Economic Communities(RECs) in Africa are becoming more effective governancestructures, and there have been few if any charges of corruptionleveled at them or at other regional or supranational structures inAfrica.

But much of the task of transforming Africanagriculture will fall not just to Africans butto external governments and donor agenciesas well. It will require a thorough alignmentof public and private investment by means of carefully crafted and transparent public-privatepartnerships with accountability factoredin, and advocacy for policies that empowermarket-based economic development.

Although donors have voiced strong support for the regionaland supranational integration required for a transformation of African agriculture to occur, this has not been well supportedby donor governments in practice. Their policies on aid, trade,and investment are often inconsistent with this commitment andsometimes even limit rather than expand opportunities. Tradecapacity building and other aid programs are often fragmented andpolitically driven, rather than targeted to address specific barriers,support competitive industries, and build regional markets.


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Domestic interest groups in developed countries have dominatedthe debates on trade at the expense of African producers, whohave lacked the resources, information, and access necessary toensure that policies address their needs. Institutionally, differentagencies and legislative committees in different countries eitherlack the broad mandate necessary to develop comprehensivepolicies or are reluctant to coordinate with one another for politicalreasons. Finally, donor policies in the United States and elsewhereare primarily focused on bilateral relationships with Africangovernments rather than on building regional cooperation.

The picture is not entirely bleak. A number of factors suggest thatthe story of agriculture in Africa may well be about to enter anew and more uplifting chapter. After decades of neglect, Africangovernments have at last begun to allocate greater attention,resources, and effort to the agricultural sector, aware that thecontinent has so much available but underutilized land andthat enabling Africa to feed itself and become a food exporteris now a strategic concern and attainable objective. At the pan-African level, macroeconomic and democratic reforms, risingnatural resource and commodity prices, and growth in real estate,

telecommunications, and banking led to a 7 percent growth ratesustained for ten years through 2007. This recent track recordis looking much shakier since the global economic crisis buthas strong structural roots and there are hopes for a similarperformance in the future. It is possible that this will give riseto more intra-regional trade and growth in regional demand forpreviously untraded staple foods produced by smallholder farmers.

The very statistics that underscore Africas agriculturalunderdevelopment can also be read as a source of optimism forthe future. Only 24 percent of African smallholder farmers useimproved seeds in cereal production compared with 77 percentin South Asia. Less than 4 percent of cultivated land is irrigated,and fertilizer is used at a rate of 13 kilograms per hectare in sub-Saharan Africa compared to 190 kilograms per hectare in East Asia.Crop losses due to lack of on-farm storage cost Africas farmers 30percent of their income each year, and mechanization rates stand at

somewhere between 1 and 10 percent of the world average. Thesefigures suggest opportunities for substantial improvements inproductivity in the future and they are predicated not on radical


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new practices but on the deployment of very basic existing, well known, and widely usedtechniques.

Whether Africas underutilized resourcescan be brought rapidly into use to realizethe continents potential to feed itself is stillan open question. Even with the additionalresources generated by the increasedprioritization of global food security, there issimply not enough donor money available fordonors to pay directly for major improvements

in the livelihoods of Africas hundreds of millions of subsistencefarmers. Donor funding must therefore be catalytic, triggeringmore private capital flows, and not operational if really largenumbers of Africas smallholder farmers are to benefit. It is notclear that this will be the case with many of the donor initiativescurrently underway.

Responses to the Food Crisis

The 2007-2008 food crisis resulted in an unprecedented levelof global public attention and political commitment to tacklingthe problem of food insecurity. At the G8 summit in Italy in July 2009, the leaders of the advanced industrial countries issuedthe LAquila Joint Statement on Global Food Security, expressingtheir commitment to take decisive action to free humankindfrom hunger and poverty through improving food security,nutrition, and sustainable agriculture and pledging to mobilize$22 billion over three years for a global effort characterized by acomprehensive approach to food security, effective coordination,support for country-owned processes and plans, as well as by the use of multilateral institutions whenever appropriate. TheLAquila communiqu went beyond emergency response and foodaid and placed a strong focus on the development of agriculturalmarkets, trade, and rural economic growth as the cornerstonesof food security. It promised to create a Global Partnership forAgriculture and Food Security as part of a renewed effort to

accelerate progress and reach the first Millennium DevelopmentGoal of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty andsuffering from hunger and under-nutrition by 2015.

Donor funding must becatalytic, triggering moreprivate capital ows, andnot operational if really large numbers of Africas

smallholder farmers are tobene t.


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The political attention and increased resources presently beingdevoted to global food security have created a new internationalpolicy and business environment that provides a window for afundamental change of approach on the part of governments,donors, and the private sector. A number of significant initiativesare underway on the bilateral, regional, and multilateral levels. 4 The European Union has created a 1 billion Food Facility (EUFF)and launched the EU Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture,Food Security, and Climate Change (JPI). At the multilateral level,the United States, Canada, Australia, South Korea, Ireland, andSpain together with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation havecollaborated in setting up a trust fund the Global Agriculture

and Food Security Program (GAFSP) at the World Bank as theprimary mechanism for disbursing funds that materialize as partof the $22 billion pledged at the LAquila Summit. In Africa itself,the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme(CAADP) has been launched to extend sustainable land and watermanagement practices, improve rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access, raise smallholder productivity,respond more effectively to food emergencies, and improveagricultural research to disseminate new technologies.

Since LAquila, the United States has been playing a strongleadership role on food security, launching the Feed the Futureinitiative based on a whole-of-government approach and promising$3.5 billion from fiscal years 2010 to 2012. Feed the Future isorganized around five broad principles (with specific actions tobe taken under each category): 1) comprehensively addressing theunderlying causes of hunger; 2) investing in country-led plans;

3) improving strategic cooperation; 4) leveraging the benefits of multilateral mechanisms; and 5) making a sustained commitmentto be held publicly accountable.

The priorities at the heart of the Feed the Future initiative whichinclude improving emergency responses to food crises, improvingnutrition, strengthening social safety nets, improving agriculturaldevelopment and smallholder productivity, building local capacity,catalyzing the private sector, and prioritizing directing assistance

4 Farming First has produced a very useful interactive map of food security initiativescurrently underway around the world, which can be found at www.farming rst.org/foodsecurity/.


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to women and children are the right ones in terms of avoidingthe looming crisis facing African agriculture. However, criticalelements are currently missing from the strategy in terms of implementation without which the food security initiative willstruggle to achieve success. As it stands, the initiative does notaddress fragmentation within and among U.S. governmentagencies. It does not provide for a robust alignment with therest of the donor community especially European and othergovernments with a similar perspective and approach. Despite astated commitment to working in partnership, it does not providethe means for all of those who need to cooperate across civil society and the private sector to do so. It does not have mechanisms for

developing new models for partnership on the ground that includetransparency and accountability. And it does not have a way tomonitor and measure progress and evaluate the benefits of policy changes and investment interventions, and is thus vulnerable towaning political support on Capitol Hill in the absence of a way todemonstrate results.

More generally, to date only a portion of the funds promised inLAquila has materialized. The era of fiscal austerity following

the financial and economic crisis is leading to a retreat from theG8 commitments. As public budgets are slashed, there are evenproposals for cuts in emergency food aid. The imperative to ensurethat scarce resources are fully leveraged is more pressing thanever. There is also a growing international coordination challenge.In Tanzania alone, the World Bank counted more than 240organizations and agencies at work on donor-financed agriculturalprojects. Without greater alignment and coordination, the risk

is that current food security initiatives will go the same way aspast project-by-project aid-driven approaches and bleed away theavailable resources without any real or lasting impact.

If African countries and donors do notdevelop Africas agricultural potential, it isclear that given the pressure of rising globaldemand for food outside investors will.While policymakers struggle to put in place

a concerted response to the challenge of foodinsecurity in Africa, events on the ground arecontinuing to move rapidly. In anticipation of

If African countries anddonors do not develop

Africas agricultural

potential, it is clear thatoutside investors will.


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a future in which their own populations willoutgrow their ability to feed them, investorsfrom countries as diverse as Saudi Arabia,India, South Korea, and Qatar have beenlooking for arable land on which to establishplantations to produce rice and other staplecrops in African nations like Ethiopia, Sudan,Tanzania, Kenya, and Mali. These leases aregenerally long-term and include tax holidays,with few environmental, labor, or socialsafeguards. They have caused civil unrest insome countries. The Malagasy government fell

after a scandalously one-sided agreement wasrevealed with South Korean Daewoo Logistics to take over half of Madagascars arable land to grow crops for export without payingrent. Experts are warning of a neocolonial grab for African land.

Since 2007, tens of millions of acres of land on the Africancontinent have been leased by foreign investors looking to ensurethe food security of their own populations. Ethiopia alone hasapproved more than 800 foreign-financed agricultural projects

since 2007. China has signed a contract with the DemocraticRepublic of Congo to grow 6.9 million acres of palm oil forbiofuels, while European biofuels companies have acquired orrequested another 10 million acres in Africa.

This growing interest in Africas agricultural potential representsan enormous opportunity, but the manner in which the investmentoccurs will be critical to whether or not it leads to enhancedfood security for Africas people. If land grabs continue withoutconcern for smallholder farmers, it could result in a dismalrerun of colonial-era extractive models of investment that dolittle or nothing to benefit Africa. Different types of investmentand different business models for agriculture in sub-SaharanAfrica are urgently needed to show investors and Africangovernments that there are ways to deliver both commercial andsocial returns that will lead to better development outcomes andenhanced food security. Alongside the new models of investment

it will be important to insist on mechanisms for transparency andaccountability, so that Africans can shine a light on the corruptpractices that lead their governments to participate in these one-

If land grabs continuewithout concern for

smallholder farmers, itcould result in a dismalrerun of colonial-eraextractive models of investment that do little or nothing to bene t Africa.


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sided leasing agreements, bringing pressureon governments and investors to do businessin ways that extend the benefits of theseinvestments to Africans themselves.

Africas food future is now. Changes arehappening in markets, among donors, andin African governments and leadershiporganizations that could make the vision of greater food security on the basis of a boomingAfrican food economy possible. The shiftingfundamentals of the global food system andthe unprecedented international political

commitment to food security mean that there is a window of opportunity to align public and private investment in support of an integrated commercial and small-farm approach to Africanagriculture that could redress the failures of past approaches andpolicies. The challenge is to find ways to leverage the availableresources and make the critical linkages that will allow for theemergence of food and agriculture as Africas new source of economic dynamism over the coming decade.

The following report lays out three of the possible areas in whichsuch leverage can be achieved, each of which holds out theprospect of high returns. It takes an Atlantic Basin perspectivebecause, although the causes of the food crisis are truly globaland the impacts are already being felt far beyond the boundariesof Africa, the wider Atlantic Basin region will have a critical roleto play in increasing agricultural production and ensuring futurefood security. If much of the increased pressure on the global foodsystem from the demand side stems from Asia in particular,from growing population and wealth and changing diets in Chinaand India then critical elements of a supply-side response willhave to come from the wider Atlantic Basin, north and south.The resources and potential of this region in terms of land,labor, capital, technology, agricultural inputs and maritime andtrade relations are huge. With the partial exception of foreigninvestment, it is the wider Atlantic Basin that is the most likely

source of much of what Africa requires to bring about a much-needed transformation of agriculture and food production on thecontinent.

The challenge is to ndways to leverage theavailable resourcesthat will allow for theemergence of food andagriculture as Africasnew source of economicdynamism.


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I. Africas DevelopmentCorridors: Pathways to Food

Security, Regional EconomicDiversi cation, and SustainableGrowthKatrin A. Kuhlmann 5

Africas Growing Food Crisis

S ub-Saharan Africa is at a crossroads of tremendousopportunity and significant challenge. With half of theworlds uncultivated arable land, the region is both thelast great agricultural frontier and a locus of vast humanitariancatastrophe in the making, a building crisis of hunger and foodinsecurity that will only be exacerbated by climate change.

Home to 12 percent of the worlds population, Africa today has 44percent of the worlds hungry. Millions of African men, women,and children struggle to exist on less than $2 a day, living in isolatedrural areas and depending upon what little they can grow for mostof their living. Yet recent events have shown that this desperately sad situation is not static. As global population and wealth increase,demand for food is increasing within Africa and throughout theworld. If harnessed to Africas advantage, this new demand couldrepresent an enormous opportunity for Africas poor farmersand consumers as well as a platform for agriculture-led growththroughout the economy. But absent such a transformation, if current trends are allowed to prevail, sub-Saharan Africas share of

5 Katrin Kuhlmann would like to thank Susan Sechler for her insightful suggestions andcontributions to the argument of this paper and Jung-ui Sul and Fatoumata Barry for theirresearch support. The analysis in this paper has appeared in prior works by the author andTransFarm Africa. See, e.g., Africas Development Corridors as Pathways to AgriculturalDevelopment, Regional Economic Integration and Food Security in Africa, Katrin Kuhlmann,Susan Sechler and Joe Guinan, Draft Working Paper, June 15, 2011 (Aspen Institute,Washington, D.C.).


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the worlds hungry is projected to increase to75 percent by 2025. Most of these people willlive in rural areas.6

Much depends on the response of internationalcapital markets, the donor community, privatesector companies, African governments, and,above all, Africas entrepreneurs. So far, mostare moving in the right direction, but the scale,

pace, and scope are still too constrained relative to the need and theopportunities that are unfolding. Recent history has shown whatthe future might look like if the current course is not corrected andthe response not accelerated. In the past three years, rising globalprices and strong demand, coupled with the weakness and isolationof much of the African small farm sector, have led to two majorfood price crises, resulting in destabilizing bread riots in urbanareas and an upsurge of deprivation among the poorest, whiletriggering a rash of national export restrictions that only pushedprices still higher.

The increase in global population and wealth has also touched

off an intense competition for Africas land and water resources.This makes it both more difficult and more important for Africasfarmers to take advantage of global demand by becoming thebackbone of thriving regional food systems capable of feeding thecontinents swelling numbers and reducing the dependence onexpensive food imports. It is clear that if Africa does not develop itsfood production resources for its own people, others will developthem for theirs.

A new ramped-up approach is needed, and needed quickly, as thewindow of opportunity to put Africas tremendous agriculturalproduction potential to use to feed its people and spur economicgrowth is closing. Climate change is taking an increasing andunexpectedly rapid toll, threatening to cut rain-fed farm yields by half, with severe impacts for the vast preponderance of African

6 International Food Policy Research Institute, Assuring Food and Nutrition Security in Africaby 2020 (2004).

It is clear that if Africadoes not develop its foodproduction resources for its own people, others willdevelop them for theirs.


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farming.7 Left unchecked, the deterioration of Africas productivecapacity will not only continue to wreak havoc in the region butwill be felt acutely worldwide.

African Agricultures Missing Middle

There is no simple solution to these problems. Africas ability to realize its economic potential and put its people on a path toprosperity and food security will depend upon its ability to buildthe current collection of fragmented and isolated communities andunderdeveloped, disconnected markets into an integrated, diverseAfrican regional economy capable of both creating opportunitieswithin Africa and trading with the rest of the world. This is a heavy lift. Only by developing more efficient, equitable, and extensivemarket systems that link Africas vast food production potential togrowing demand can current efforts to achieve sustainable foodsecurity be realized.

The potential to take this huge but essentialstep exists in part because Africas significantresources remain underutilized. Africapossesses nearly 20 percent of the planetsarable land, but less than 10 percent of thisland is cultivated at present. Most of Africasproduction across commodities, including its vast and largely untapped mineral depositsand virtually all of its agricultural products,leave the continent without any additionalprocessing or value added.

Africas agricultural sector spans two vastly different worlds: a small commercial sector capable of obtainingfinancing for its operations and turning a profit, and a vast, largely subsistence small farm sector that operates outside of systemsfor getting capital or selling goods. Between the two lies Africanagricultures missing middle, the underdeveloped link in valuechains that will build productive systems and tie smallholders intothe stream of commerce. The majority of Africas untapped human

7 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in its 2007 report that by 2020climate change could lead to a 50 percent cut in rain-fed farm yields in many African countries(Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report, 2007 ).As much as 96 percent of African agriculture is rain-fed rather than irrigated.

Only by developing moreef cient, equitable, andextensive market systems

that link Africas vastfood production potentialto growing demand cancurrent efforts to achieve

sustainable food security be realized.


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resources engaged in agriculture approximately 600 millionsmall producers exist at present largely outside of mainstreammarket systems, lacking capacity and technical knowledge and cutoff from the established commercial enterprises that could providea link to larger, more profitable markets. Focusing on this missingmiddle will unlock new innovation in African agriculture and isthe key to developing a vibrant agricultural economy. Functioningmarket systems that effectively integrate smallholder farmers wouldopen up a realm of possibilities beyond subsistence farming andenable farmers to sell more of what they produce, giving rise toincreased productivity, higher incomes, and lower and more stablefood prices.

From a broader developmental perspective, enhancing regionalmarkets and connecting farmers to them is absolutely essential. Notonly would markets open up economic opportunities, they wouldgive farmers and their families access to additional goods andservices, including education and life-saving health care.

Altogether, the emergence of a market-oriented, integratedagricultural economy in Africa capable of generating and recycling

agricultural surpluses would set the stage for the tremendousexodus from agriculture that must ultimately take place, providingbetter opportunities for those leaving farming and enhancingtheir ability to take advantage of those opportunities throughbetter education, health, and connection to the modern world.The farmers who stay behind would themselves be part of a vastly more efficient and lucrative production system a genuine food economy.

Given the magnitude of the challenge, solutions cannot beanything but comprehensive in their approach. Fortunately, onesuch solution exists in the Development Corridors, an Africanframework that presents an innovative approach to marketdevelopment by using existing roads and railroads that link mines and other investments with regional markets and ports tobuild a system that can open up opportunities for farmers andmove food, goods, services, and information. The promise of theDevelopment Corridors starts from the central role trade must play in Africas economic and food future and unlocks tremendous newopportunities in agriculture and across Africas economies.


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With greater institutional support andresources, the Development Corridors couldbe a key to unlocking regional investment andmarket development. If pursued with politicalsupport, strong and inclusive governance,the right international policies, and afocus on agriculture and equitable growthall along value chains, the DevelopmentCorridors stand to revolutionize Africanagriculture, enhance food security, and createmuch-needed opportunities for economicdiversification and sustainable development.

The Role of Trade and Marketsin Increasing Food Security

Building the political will to promote the kind of investment andtrade interventions that are required for Africas development willrequire that African governments, donors, and the private sectorrecognize trades importance in both broader development andfood security. Bluntly stated, Africa will remain underdeveloped

and food insecure if markets are not improved and Africas trade,both regionally and with the rest of the world, is not increased. It isessential to make generating the business and investment climatenecessary for trading systems to work efficiently at all stagesfrom production to consumption and from the local level to theinternational a priority.

Africas potential for enhanced trade remains untapped, and thereis no question that the continent is currently an under-trader,with the potential to go well beyond its current tiny share of worldtrade.8 Most African economies are isolated and underdeveloped,with few products to trade. These economies have failed to diversify and have seen falling market shares for traditional exports. 9

Another reason that African agriculture has been unable to takeadvantage of growing global markets for food is that the different

8 Africas share of world exports has declined sharply, going from about 5.5 percent in 1975

to about 2.5 percent in 2002. These losses in world trade have cost Africa almost $70 billionper year. Bora, Bouet and Roy, 2007.

9 Saswati Bora, Antoine Bouet, Devesh Roy, Research Brief: The Marginalization of Africa inWorld Trade, Washington, DC: IFPRI Brief, 2007.

The promise of theDevelopment Corridors

starts from the centralrole trade must play in Africas economicand food future andunlocks tremendousnew opportunities inagriculture and across

Africas economies.


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sectors of Africas food economy exist asworlds apart. The enormous size of the small-farm sector stands in stark contrast to thesmall size of the commercial sector, which hasa disproportionately low share of sub-SaharanAfricas agricultural production as low as2 percent in some countries. Cash crops suchas coffee, cacao, and cotton are the exception,with much higher commercial percentages,but these crops represent a small percentage of African agriculture overall.

Major gaps in the food production valuechain and high front-end costs limit theattractiveness of investment opportunities.Consequently, regional reliance on foodimports has grown speedily; commercial

agriculture in Africa has lost market share in 90 percent of itsexport products and has, at the same time, failed to penetratedomestic regional food markets because of its weak links to Africanconsumers and the smallholder farmer segment.

The gap between the top of Africas agricultural pyramid and the very large base of smallholder farmers robs both of opportunitiesto become integrated into more dynamic and diverse regionalfood systems like those that exist in the United States and Europe.Smallholder farmers are denied the benefits of learning from thecommercial agricultural sector and are barred from the potentialfor spin-off industries, upward mobility, and increased productivity that comes from being linked to markets.

On the other side, this disconnect also robs the commercial sectorof opportunities to expand commercial production and developregional markets that could provide the African consumer witha more diverse and reliable array of nutritious foodstuffs thanone limited to locally-grown crops. Most of the commercial foodsectors links to finance, production, distribution, marketing,and trading are in the international economy, and it has had littlesuccess selling into local or regional markets in Africa. In Africanagriculture, as in mining and forestry, the vast majority of exportedcommodities leave the continent without any processing, cutting

Commercial agriculturein Africa has lost market

share in 90 percent of its export products andhas failed to penetratedomestic regional foodmarkets because of itsweak links to Africanconsumers and the

smallholder farmer segment.


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off the potential for added income from itsproducts.

Enhanced trade will provide opportunities

that can strengthen the missing middle inAfrican agriculture and provide incentivesfor the commercial sector to work withsmallholder farmers, contributing toeconomic growth and giving rise toaccompanying increases in income and accessto food. It will also expand the availability of food by buttressing domestic food suppliesand opening up access to new crop varietiesand technologies. 10

Not surprisingly, African regional trade remains well belowits potential. Having access to regional markets is particularly important in sub-Saharan Africa, where so many countries areeither landlocked without access to ports or small enough thatlocal markets cannot provide adequate scale for demand tocreate economic opportunities. Of the 30 landlocked developing

countries worldwide, half are in Africa, as are 16 of the worlds 34coastal transit countries that provide critical port access for theselandlocked countries. 11 In terms of size, 35 percent of Africascountries have populations of fewer than 5 million and nearly half have populations of fewer than 10 million. 12

Ensuring the physical movement of food from areas of surplusto areas of deficit is perhaps the most critical function of Africasmarkets. The legacy of arbitrary colonial boundaries and past

power struggles has meant that moving food from areas of surplus

10 Michiel van Dijk, African Regional Integration: Implications for Food Security, AgriculturalEconomics Research Institute (LEI), March 16, 2011. Available at: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1788157.

11 Jack I. Stone, Infrastructure Development in Landlocked and Transit Developing

Countries: Foreign Aid, Private Investment, and the Transport Cost Burden of LandlockedDeveloping Countries, Geneva, Switzerland, UNCTAD/LDC/112, June 28, 2001.

12 Steven Haggblade, Unscrambling Africa: Regional Requirements for Achieving FoodSecurity, Michigan State University, October 2010.

In African agriculture, asin mining and forestry, thevast majority of exportedcommodities leave thecontinent without any processing, cutting off the potential for addedincome from its products.


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to areas of deficit is often prevented. 13 Thesefragmented and arbitrary market designations accompanied by incredibly burdensomepolicy and regulatory environments haveleft many of Africas poor and landlockedcountries at the mercy of their neighborsinfrastructure and policy environments. Notsurprisingly, regional trade in both agricultureand food has increased only moderately overthe last two decades, with the biggest gains inEastern and Southern Africa. 14

Better access to regional markets will also encourage farmers toproduce more, increasing incomes and increasing the availability of food for Africas hungry. Currently, many African farmers, the vast majority of whom are women working to feed their families,are not connected to market systems at all, making food difficultto come by despite the fact that most African economies are soheavily focused on agriculture. 15 In a year when crops are good,these farmers are able to sell and barter surplus produce in villagemarkets, but because they cannot reach larger markets, they lack

the motivation to consistently produce surpluses, even if it werepossible. No farmer will look to produce more than the family canconsume if she can neither store nor sell that surplus.

Many of the problems that have held back Africas trade in the pastare still widespread today. Unlocking Africas untapped potentialfor expanded trade and equitable development will depend uponimproving both hard and soft infrastructure. Hard infrastructure meaning roads, railways, ports, and energy systems isnotoriously weak and underdeveloped in Africa. In many cases,infrastructure simply does not extend to the rural areas that need

13 For example, political borders separate surplus millet and sorghum producers in southernMali and Burkina Faso from de cit markets in half a dozen surrounding countries; surplusmaize- and bean-producing zones of Uganda from de cit markets in Kenya, southern Sudan,and Rwanda; food surplus northern Mozambique and southern Tanzania from intermittentlyde cit markets in Malawi and eastern Zambia; and livestock exporters in Mali, Mauritania, andNiger from coastal markets all across West Africa. Haggblade, 2010.

14 Regional trade in agriculture has increased from 15 percent to 19 percent; regional trade

in food has increased from 15 percent to 20 percent.15 In some countries, up to 90 percent of rural livelihoods are focused around agriculture.World Bank, World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development , Washington, DC2008.

Fragmented and arbitrary market designations haveleft many of Africas poor and landlocked countriesat the mercy of their neighbors infrastructureand policy environments.


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it most. The World Bank estimates that half of infrastructure projects in Africa are notplaced where they would need to be in orderto maximize economic benefit. 16 Furthermore,only about 20 percent of public investment ininfrastructure historically has gone to ruralareas.17

While physical infrastructure concernsare significant, gaps in Africas policy,regulatory, and institutional systems softinfrastructure and the numerous supply-side and capacity challenges facing farmers and other producersalike present perhaps the greatest obstacles and if addressedcan yield significant results. But this will require both politicalwill and the shared efforts of both government and the privatesector. Currently, despite the signature by African governmentsof numerous agreements to the contrary, Africas national andregional markets are still blocked by a host of barriers that limitopportunities for trade and investment. As a result, Africas marketsare often unable to generate economies of scale sufficient to attract

the sort of private sector interest needed to fuel growth, increaseexports, and, ultimately, spur poverty alleviation.

Given Africas vast size and the pervasive barriers to inclusive andefficient regional food markets that exist, an ambitious framework is needed that embraces all of Africas vast territory from itsisolated interior to the sea. Initiated by Nelson Mandela when hewas president of South Africa, the Development Corridors area comprehensive system that touches every country in Africa,potentially linking them together through stronger infrastructureand better policies connecting rural and urban communities tocreate functioning regional market systems and build opportunitiesacross economic sectors and sovereign states. The DevelopmentCorridors not only enhance the ability of countries to traderegionally and internationally, they also present a way to equitably spread the benefits of trade, including greater access to economic

16

World Bank, World Development Report 2009: Reshaping Economic Geography ,Washington, DC, 2009.

17 Vivien Foster & Cecilia Briceo-Garmendia, PowerPoint presentation based on AfricasInfrastructure: A Time For Transformation, World Bank, 2009. Presented March 2010.

Unlocking Africasuntapped potential for expanded trade andequitable development willdepend upon improving both hard and softinfrastructure.


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opportunities and food, harnessing trades potential as a lever of broad-based development.

The Vision for an Economically Integrated Africa

From the roads of ancient Rome to the 19 th century canalsand railways of the United Kingdom and the United States,development tends to happen along corridors. 18 The TennesseeValley Authority is a particularly good example of a DevelopmentCorridor: a public-private partnership that was established tobring electricity, navigation, investment in fertilizer production,and economic development to a region of the United States hitparticularly hard by the Great Depression.

Corridors are also natural markets and trade routes for all products,including food. Since ancient times, trade has taken place alonglinear corridors. 19 One of the most significant trade corridors,the ancient Silk Road that covered 4,000 miles and connectedChina, India, the Middle East, and Central Asia to markets in theMediterranean and Europe, is once again being developed. Andin India, plans are afoot for a massive new $90 billion industrialcorridor including nine special industrial zones, power systems,and new ports and airports linked to a high-speed freight line that will stretch from Delhi to Mumbai, encompassing a region thatcontains one-seventh of the countrys population. 20

Nelson Mandelas vision for economic growth and security insub-Saharan Africa hinged upon economic policies shared acrossregions, greater collaboration between business and government,and more efficient transportation between Africas vast interior

and maritime trading lanes of the sea. Shortly after he becamepresident of South Africa in 1994, Mandela charged his staff atthe Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), many of whomfought alongside him in the struggle against apartheid, withcreating a way to implement his vision. The department created theconcept of African Development Corridors, which are referred

18 Peter Hall, World Cities, Mega-Cities, and Global Mega-City-Regions, 2004 Globalizationand World Cities (GaWC) Annual Lecture, Loughborough University: January 2004.

19 John Arnold, Best Practices in Management of International Trade Corridors, The WorldBank Group, Washington, D.C., December 2006.

20 Bruce Stokes, Failure to Launch, National Journal , February 12, 2011.


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to by various titles in the literature and wereintended to generate a new African industrialrevolution by turning infrastructure aroundnatural resources into regional economicecosystems connecting farmers and otherbusinesses to vibrant markets. 21 As envisioned,the Development Corridors would generateemployment, enhance community welfare, andincrease economic development and security.

At the heart of the motivation for theDevelopment Corridors was the recognition that Africasrudimentary transportation infrastructure is preventing Africanentrepreneurs from benefitting as either sellers or buyers from regional and global markets, ultimately keeping millionsof Africans locked in poverty. Mandelas vision for economicgrowth and security in sub-Saharan Africa hinged on a regionalapproach to all aspects of governance, including shared economicpolicies. Yet he understood that African nations would neverfunction peacefully and provide freedom to their people throughharmonized policies to promote the movement of people, goods,

and services across borders if there were no way to tap into itseconomic potential as a uniting force between rural and urbanareas within countries and between countries themselves.

Mandela was especially concerned that Africas vast numbers of small mostly subsistence farmers be included in value chainsand benefit from regional development strategies. Accordingly,the original objective of the Development Corridors was not justto build stronger trade and transport routes for commercial usebut simultaneously to bring deep, sustainable development toAfricas regions and farmers. This was to occur through public-private partnerships that would build the secondary and tertiary infrastructure needed to open up the corridors surroundingrural areas for agribusinesses and other small and medium-sizedenterprises (SMEs) and create better access to urban, regional,and global markets for farmers and other rural businesses. Thecombination of public and private investment through which

lucrative mining concessions could support infrastructure that21 Rachel Tate Can Development Corridors Now Produce Sustainable Domestic Outcomes inMozambique? BISA Conference Paper, April 25-27, 2011.

Development Corridorswould generateemployment, enhancecommunity welfare,and increase economicdevelopment and security.


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could also benefit agriculture otherwiseunlikely to ever be able to carry theinfrastructure costs is one of the key elements of a spatial development initiative(SDI). Its premise is relatively simple: use theexisting but underperforming infrastructureconnecting mines to ports to build out acomprehensive market system that connectsrural areas to cities and farmers to commercialsystems.

Leveraging public support and privatesector investment, Africas initial tradeand transport routes would be turned intoDevelopment Corridors by using anchormining and infrastructure projects to help

attract additional investment capital, and, as the corridors grow,boost economic growth, diversify economies, expand exportsand foreign exchange, increase skills and technology transfer, andcreate jobs and boost local incomes. 22 This process of geographicconsolidation of development initiatives around market-driven

business opportunities is referred to as densification, which meansenhancing the development benefits through both backward andforward linkages to improve supply chains, facilitating the ability of SMEs to provide more goods and services locally, and linkingagricultural development to other investment. 23 Aligning publicand private investment around a market-based development planwill amplify the broad benefits for farmers and other entrepreneursof turning transportation routes into Development Corridors.

Building on the Corridors

At first, both politics and lack of private sector interest inagriculture limited the possibilities for realizing Mandelas vision.Within Africa, leadership was not yet ready to fully embracea regional approach, so the Regional Economic Communities

22 Dave Perkins and Glen Robbins The Contribution to Local Enterprise Development

of Infrastructure for Commodity Extraction Projects: Tanzanias Central Corridor andMozambiques Zambezi Valley, Making the Most of Commodities Programme (MMCP)Discussion Paper No. 9 March 2011.

23 Perkins and Robbins (2011).

The original objectiveof the DevelopmentCorridors was not justto build stronger tradeand transport routesfor commercial usebut simultaneously tobring deep, sustainabledevelopment to Africasregions and farmers.


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(RECs) and the African Union took on regional integration ina piecemeal fashion, which limited early development of thecorridors. Furthermore, while the corridors needed businessto thrive (as experience with successful corridors in SouthernAfrica demonstrated), business was mainly interested in resourceextraction and other industrial development but not in agriculture.At that time, there wasnt much money to be made fromagriculture, because there wasnt much demand for the food Africawas producing.

This lack of attention to agriculture has been reflected in theattitudes and resource allocation of the national governmentsalong the corridors, whose officials in many cases not only failto help create opportunities for farmers but also pass laws thatslow the permitting processes and subject farmers to many newfees and taxes. There has also been a problem with the nationalgovernments commitments to building and maintaining thesecondary roads and the farm-to-market roads essential to connectmore remote producers. Inefficiencies such as unnecessary checkpoints and weigh stations tend to keep agribusinesses andother companies that do not own anchor investments out of the

corridors.Things are changing, however, and agriculture is becoming partof the focus once again. Increased global demand for food andfor Africas natural resources both agricultural and mineral represents a shift in economic fundamentals and a majoropportunity. The impacts of climate change on Africa will alsoraise the premium on distribution and transportation systemscapable of moving food in and out and necessitate the reclamationof farmed-out soils which, in turn, will require technology transfer, irrigation, and increased use of inputs such as fertilizer,preferably via the development of a homegrown African fertilizerindustry. Nonagricultural investment in areas such as miningwill provide additional sources of demand; mining operations inthe African interior will need to be supplied with food, and thiscould be produced by local farmers rather than imported. Suchsemi-guaranteed markets could, in turn, provide an opportunity

to upgrade current farm practices and increase productivity in advance of entry into more competitive regional and globalmarkets.


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The corridors are now receiving increasing support among broadAfrican leadership, including the African Union (AU), the RECs,and the AUs Comprehensive African Agriculture DevelopmentProgramme (CAADP) and New Partnership for AfricasDevelopment (NEPAD) as well as from international institutions,including the United Nations Economic Commission for Africaand a number of donors, most notably the United KingdomsDepartment for International Development (DFID). With Africa-wide and international support, a number of corridors now existor are in varying stages of development. NEPAD officially workswith 26 priority corridors, and a number of others have sprung upas well. The South Africans, using the SDI approach, have provided

help with management to several successful corridors, starting withthe Maputo and Walvis Bay Corridors in Southern Africa and nowextending to additional corridors. Agricultural growth corridorswith strong private sector participation are also being developed inEastern and Southern Africa.

While realizing Mandelas vision and buildingan Africa-wide market will rely on the supportand participation of African institutions,

including the RECs, the corridors approachpresents a promising route for navigating someof the complex

Documents

Filling in the Gaps—Critical Linkages in Promoting African Food Security: An Atlantic Basin Perspective