DFID Annual Report 2008 - International Development Committee Contents


Joint memorandum submitted by Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, FARM-Africa, Harvest Help and Send A Cow

DFID'S APPROACH TO AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA

    "We must help smallholders address problems of limited and insecure landholdings, lack of access to inputs and markets, poor rural infrastructure and inadequate market information".

    Letter from the British Prime Minister to the Japanese Prime Minister, 10 April 2008[10]

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

      In the past few years, investment in agriculture for development has featured high on the donor agenda. In the run up to the 2008 World Development Report and at the newly established International Donor Platform for Rural Development, there has been a lot of discussion on the need to increase the quality and quantity of support to agriculture, especially in low income, agriculture-dependent countries. Recent hikes in the international prices of staple foods have also led to new rhetorical commitments to support smallholder agriculture as a means to reduce the vulnerability of low income food deficit countries to volatile international prices. Yet, so far very few donors or governments have committed new money or shown tangible support for smallholder farmers. In the case of DFID, support to rural livelihoods as a proportion of its total bilateral programme in Africa reduced from 5.33% in 2004-05 to 3.17% in 2006-07.[11]

      We believe that DFID needs to increase its support to smallholder farmers and increase the effectiveness of that support. It can do this by:

      (i) placing hunger reduction and improving rural livelihoods at the heart of its approach to agriculture;

      (ii) ensuring that DFID country teams implement DFID's agricultural policy and prioritise agriculture;

      (iii) developing a comprehensive strategy on agriculture that focuses on long-term, sustainable production; and

      (iv) ensuring that the research it supports is focused on, and involves, poor farmers.

    INTRODUCTION

      1.  Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, FARM-Africa, Harvest Help and Send A Cow all work with smallholder farmers and livestock keepers in a number of African countries. We know from experience that the challenges in supporting smallholder farmers can be overcome and that approaches which are effective in enabling more productive, sustainable livelihoods can be developed. But poor farmers often receive little support from governments and donors and concerted action, including by DFID, is required.

    FACTUAL INFORMATION

    International developments

      2.  There is widespread recognition that increased support to smallholder farmers in Africa is essential if poverty and hunger are to be reduced. In his Foreword to the World Development Report 2008, Agriculture for Development, the President of the World Bank Group commented that accelerated agricultural productivity growth requires "a sharp productivity increase in smallholder farming combined with more effective support to the millions coping as subsistence farmers, many of them in remote areas". The authors of the World Development Report also concluded that the enormous potential of agriculture to contribute to development has been "vastly underused".[12] A separate World Bank report found that "the agriculture sector has been neglected by governments and the donor community" and concluded that rapid growth in agricultural incomes in Africa is achievable if improved seeds, water, infrastructure, credit and extension, among other measures, are made available at the same time or in optimal sequence.[13]

      3.  The importance of supporting smallholder farmers was reaffirmed by the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) in April 2008. That assessment argued that smallholder farmers need to be placed at the heart of agricultural development.[14] The assessment concluded that "Targeting small-scale agricultural systems by forging public and private partnerships, increased public research and private partnerships, increased public research and extension investment helps realize existing opportunities" and that "Significant pro-poor progress requires creating opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship, which explicitly target poor farmers and rural labourers".[15]

      4.  The current world food price crisis has led to a welcome call for increased support to agriculture by leading international and national political leaders and researchers. The UN General Secretary Ban-Ki Moon urged the international community to seize the "historic opportunity to revitalise agriculture" as a way of tackling the food crisis.[16] The International Food Policy Research Institute identified "scale up investments for sustained agricultural growth" as one of the priority actions to deal with the current crisis.[17] And the Prime Minister made a welcome call for the G8 to support smallholders (see quote at the beginning of this memorandum).

    Progress by DFID

      5.  The case for increased support by DFID to agriculture is, in our judgement, overwhelming. The International Development Committee, the Public Accounts Committee and DFID's own Evaluation Department have made strong calls for increased support.[18] There is international consensus that support to smallholder farmers is essential to improving agricultural productivity, and that increased agricultural productivity is essential to reducing poverty in agriculture-dependent low income countries. And the world food prices crisis means that the time for action is now. Given this context, what progress has DFID made?

      6.  There has been a number of notable developments over the last year including:

      —  a review of implementation of its agriculture strategy by DFID's Development Committee at its meeting in November 2007, a result of which recommendations on how to increase support were made to Ministers;

      —  continued support to the Malawi seed and fertiliser subsidy programme, contributing, according to DFID's Annual Report, to the largest maize surplus ever recorded, benefiting two million households;

      —  a focus on getting "research into use" in Malawi, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Nigeria through the Research into Use Programme;

      —  identification of Uganda, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and India as priority countries in which the agriculture policy will be implemented, with Malawi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and a West African Country also being considered;

      —  plans to make a contribution to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) to support "the institutional costs of AGRA" rather than programme funding;

      —  a commitment to increase funding for research into sustainable agriculture to £80million a year by 2010;

      —  a commitment to provide £120 million a year to boost the agricultural sector in poor countries, with more funding to come; and

      —  continuing support of the NEPAD Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme.[19]

    KEY ISSUES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

      7.  We recognise that some progress has been made by DFID and we welcome, for example, the announcement of increased support to agricultural research and to the agricultural sector in poor countries. But we believe that this investment will not have any impact unless there is a much greater investment at the grassroots to ensure that existing knowledge, let alone new knowledge is adopted by farmers in an appropriate manner. This includes, amongst others, scaling up and resourcing effective national agricultural extension services. Otherwise this investment will have no impact. To increase the effectiveness of its approach to agriculture we believe that:

      —  DFID should place reducing hunger and improving rural livelihoods at the heart of its approach to agriculture.

      —  The Permanent Secretary and the Management Board should ensure that DFID teams prioritise support to agriculture, and that agriculture and rural livelihoods are prioritised in DFID's Country Assistance Plans.

      —  DFID should develop a comprehensive strategy on agriculture that covers the support provided through research, its bilateral programmes, regional initiatives and multilateral organisations.

      —  DFID should ensure that the research it supports is focused on, and involves, poor farmers.

    Approach

      8.  We are concerned that DFID's 2005 Agriculture Policy Paper, which continues to provide the basis for DFID's engagement, is focused solely on agriculture's role in achieving economic growth.[20] In our experience, agriculture in low income agriculture-based economies serves many functions. These include pro-poor economic growth, the protection of biodiversity, environmental conservation, providing culturally appropriate food, and transforming rural livelihoods. We believe that if DFID prioritises only economic growth in its support for agriculture, we will not see a significant transformation of rural livelihoods in low income countries, given that these require different types of interventions. In Malawi, for example, this shift has led to DFID's agricultural intervention focusing solely on support for national fertiliser subsidies and ensuring that the national subsidy programme contributes to the development of a private sector input market. While this would be a very useful contribution if sustained, this will not transform rural livelihoods by itself. A more holistic approach is needed. This will include support for market development, rural infrastructure, and developing appropriate farming technologies together with semi-subsistence farmers.[21]

    Leadership

      9.  We believe that stronger leadership on, and commitment to, agriculture is needed from DFID's senior management. The interim evaluation of DFID's agriculture strategy concluded that "[a] bigger attempt must be made to communicate to country offices the need to prioritize agriculture. This... presupposes commitment at the highest levels within DFID".[22] A year on from that conclusion, we remain unconvinced that such commitment exists. The review of the agriculture policy, which was due to be completed by the end of 2008, will now only begin in December this year. Furthermore, in a recent letter, Gareth Thomas wrote that DFID is still "considering carefully the recommendations of the International Development Committee and the Public Accounts Committee conclusions".[23] The reduction in the number of livelihoods and agriculture specialists, which the interim evaluation highlighted, remains a problem. The delay in the review, the fact that DFID is still only considering the committee's previous recommendations and the continuing lack of technical expertise do not suggest the degree of urgency that we would expect.

    Strategy

      10.  We believe that DFID needs to take a more strategic and joined-up approach to its support to agriculture and smallholder farmers. Though there have been some welcome announcements of increased support (as outlined above), it is difficult to see how they fit together. DFID could maximise the effectiveness of its support by ensuring that the support to agriculture it provides through research, through its bilateral programme, through regional initiatives (such as the Alliance for A Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP)) and through its support through multilateral institutions is part of a joined-up strategy. Such a strategy, which could be developed quite quickly if the commitment exists and would also enable progress to be reviewed annually. The development of a strategy and its annual review need not be a time intensive exercise. Such a strategy would help DFID to facilitate coordination and dialogue between regional initiatives such as CAADP and AGRA.

    Research

      11.  The additional resources for research into sustainable agriculture are welcome and DFID should be commended for consulting on the approach that it should take. We also welcome DFID's adoption of the IAASTD report, which makes very challenging recommendations on the need to scale up investment in science and technology that benefits small-scale resource-poor farmers. The emphasis that DFID is placing on the participation of farmers in research is of particular importance.[24] To make effective use of these resources for research, we would urge DFID to emphasise the importance of local and traditional knowledge and encourage researchers and scientists to work more closely with farmers and local communities.




10   Source: http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/Page15234.asp Back

11   Derived from DFID, 2007, Statistics on International Development, table 21. Back

12   World Bank (2007), World Development Report 2008 Overview: Agriculture for Development, pp v & 7. Back

13   World Bank, 2007, World Bank Assistance to Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: An IEG Review, (see http://www.worldbank.org/ieg.) Back

14   A useful summary of the assessment is contained in GreenFacts 2008, Agriculture and Development: A summary of the International Assessment on Agricultural Science and Technology for Development. Back

15   International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, 2008, Global Summary for Decision Makers. Back

16   BBC website, 3 June 2008. Back

17   The International Food Policy Research Institute 2008, High Food Prices: The What, Who and How of Proposed Policy ActionsBack

18   House of Commons International Development Committee 2007, Department for International Development Annual Report 2007, HC64-I; House of Commons Public Accounts Committee 2008, Department for International Development: Tackling rural poverty in developing countries, HC172; DFID 2007, DFID's 2005 Agriculture Policy: an interim evaluation, Evaluation Report Ev 672. Back

19   Sources: (1) Minutes of the Development Committee, 13 November 2007, available at http://www.dfid.gov.uk/aboutdfid/dev-committee/dcmeeting13nove07.asp., (2) DFID 2008, DFID Annual Report 2008, (3) DFID Press Release of 22 April 2008, "UK announces aid package to tackle global food prices". Back

20   DFID 2005, Growth and poverty reduction: the role of agriculture. Back

21   Internal note of meeting between Christian Aid and DFID Malawi in April 2008. Back

22   DFID 2007, DFID's 2005 Agriculture Policy: an interim evaluation, Evaluation Report Ev 672, p xi. Back

23   Letter from Gareth Thomas MP to Clare Short MP, 20 May 2008. Back

24   DFID 2008, DFID Research Strategy 2008-13, Working Paper Series: Sustainable Agriculture, p 19. Back


 
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