Africa cannot
achieve self-sufficiency in agriculture without engaging and building the
capacity of its smallholder farmers. This was the submission of Venkataramani
Srivathsan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Olam Africa, the
Middle East and North America regions, who spoke during a panel discussion on a
BBC agro webinar event tagged ‘Agriculture – Africa’s Future’, held on Tuesday,
June 8, 2021.
According to
Venkataramani Srivathsan, providing training and financing opportunities for
the 80 million small-scale farmers on the continent would boost food security,
food safety and job creation in the agro value chain.
He said, “The
COVID-19 outbreak was a setback for the African continent. The global health
crisis took its toll on the continent’s food supply value chain thereby
disrupting vital agro activities which led to the escalated level of food
insecurity.”
He added that
effective capacity-building efforts, access to revenue-boosting
agro-technology, the assembly of robust irrigation infrastructure and the
implementation of an effective micro-financing framework were necessary to help
African smallholder farmers scale their operations, encourage massive youth
participation in Agriculture and drive food security on the continent.
“Olam works
with 2.5 million smallholder farmers in Africa and is investing to assist them in
creating wealth for their communities and respective economies at large. We
invest in research to make high yielding seed available to the farmers. We are
also tapping our global expertise in the agro value-chain to help the farmers
adopt modern agro practices while extending loans to them through our
participation in various anchor borrowers and out-growers initiatives across
the continent”, Venkataramani Srivathsan said.
Olam is a
leading agribusiness conglomerate which supplies crops, ingredients and
packaged foods to the global market. It is actively involved in supporting the
African continent build self-sufficiency in food production by investing
extensively in various wheat, rice, dairy, maize, tomato, hatchery and poultry,
and animal feed production development programmes on the continent. The BBC
regional agriculture development webinar, therefore, engaged the agribusiness
firm as one of several key players on the continent’s agro value chain, to
discuss how to stimulate growth and ensure sustainability in food production in
Africa. This engagement aims to guarantee food security, employment generation
and foster agro-based economies on the continent.
Besides
Venkataramani Srivathsan, other panellists who featured on the webinar were
Damian Ihedioha, Division Manager, Agribusiness Development Division, African
Development Bank (ADB), Hon. Beauty Manake, Assistant Minister, Ministry of
Agricultural Development & Food Security, Botswana; Dr Kulani Machaba,
Regulatory Affairs Leader, Africa & Middle East, Corteva Agriscience and
Amrote Abdella, Regional Director, Microsoft 4Afrika. Zeinab Badawi, BBC World
News presenter moderated the panel.
Damian
Ihedioha, Division Manager, Agribusiness Development Division, African
Development Bank (ADB) posited that a vibrant African SME ecosystem was germane
to enhancing the continent’s food supply chain. He called on policymakers
across the continent to invest in building capacity along the agro value chain
by strengthening the SME ecosystem and incentivizing youth participation in
agriculture.
Hon. Beauty
Manake, Assistant Minister, Ministry of Agricultural Development & Food
Security, Botswana, highlighted the importance of intra African trades in
stimulating growth in the agro value chain and reducing the escalating levels
of reliance on food importation from other continents.
She said,
“Africa does not trade with itself. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, farm
produce that couldn’t be transported to their destination market overseas got
spoilt. Hence, by building a framework policy that encourages intra Africa
trading and developing local infrastructure that ensures food is smoothly
delivered to the last mile from the farms, the agro landscape in Africa will
explode.”
She further advised
governments on the continent to build agricultural villages and provide vital
market linkages for smallholder farmers to sell their produce.
Meanwhile, Dr
Kulani Machaba, Regulatory Affairs Leader, Africa & Middle East, Corteva
Agriscience, emphasized constant access to farming inputs and maximal
utilization of high-yielding seed varieties by farmers as key to stimulating
growth in the continent’s agro value chain.
He explained,
“Rice seed varieties harvest yield in Africa is 2 tons per hectare, 4 tons per
hectare in Asia and 10 tons per hectare in Latin America. While each continent
has access to high-yielding seed varieties, the difference is how farmers in
each clime maximize the cultivation of the seed varieties.”
He also
mentioned that policymakers need to create a conducive operating environment
for private investors to participate effectively in developing the agro value
chain.
Amrote
Abdella, Regional Director, Microsoft 4Afrika, advocated the wider adoption of
science and technology to boost access to farming and market data. According to
her, “Lack of access to data impedes growth in the agro sector. Farmers and
policymakers need constant access to information that highlights what is being
produced on the farmlands and what the market demands are to understand
development along the value chain and proffer solutions where necessary.”
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