World Bank Highlights Priority Areas for Africa’s Agriculture Devt

Gilbert Ekugbe

Worried over the agricultural sector diminishing share in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most African economies, the World Bank has listed priority areas that would play key roles in transforming Africa’s food sector.

In its latest economic update report on Central African Republic (CAR) titled, “Weathering Growing Risks: Addressing Macro-Fiscal Challenges and Unlocking the Potential of the Agriculture Sector,” the multilateral institution, highlighted five priority areas vital for agriculture development in CAR and other African countries on the continent to include the need to build an institutional framework, increase access to finance, provide access to markets, ensure land rights and ownership and investing in farming inputs and equipment.

According to the World Bank, decades of conflict, instability, and uneven progress on the structural reform agenda have badly damaged the agricultural institutional framework, advising that establishing a regulatory framework for rural finance, a national farmers’ database with groups’ classification and adopting the agro-pastoral land code could help strengthen the capacity of farmers and herders.

It also stated that access to basic capital for farming activities is still a major bottleneck, pointing out that rural finance regulatory framework and low-interest loans from microfinance institutions and expansion of mobile banking services could help transition farmers from the informal to the formal credit market and from subsistence to commercial agriculture.

The report added that poor road conditions severely hamper farmers’ access to markets, stating that improving the quality of roads and transportation is vital for the movement of agricultural products from rural farms.

On land rights and ownership, the statement added that outdated land laws do not favor agricultural development as there is no legal instrument for managing and securing agricultural land.

“An agro-pastoral code, setup by the Ministry of Agriculture, to guide the acquisition and securing of agricultural land is a step in the right direction to enable the efficient allocation of land for pasture and crop farming,” the report read.

World Bank also stated that manual farming is the norm in CAR, maintaining that with less than 1 per cent of farmers able to afford the use of tractors and tillers. “Similarly, farmers are likely to use cheaper alternative fertilizers to grow their crops. Efforts are needed to not only to enhance availability of agricultural machinery but its use by farmers,” the report urged.

The statement also noted that bold and sustained reforms to revitalise agriculture, as a significant contributor to poverty reduction, are urgent, as CAR’s economy faces overlapping crises.

“Higher food and fuel prices, disruption in supply chains, political turmoil following the adoption of the cryptocurrency law, and the impact of the war in Ukraine, are slowing economic growth in CAR, with risks tilted to the downside,” World Bank added.

The report highlights the importance of agriculture to women, who represent more than 78 per cent of agricultural labor in CAR. Empowering them is essential for the well-being of families and rural communities and overall economic productivity, as well as for improving food security and reducing poverty