Le Programme de productivité agricole pour l’Afrique australe (APPSA) a collaboré avec 41 300 agriculteurs chefs de file au Malawi, au Mozambique et en Zambie qui ont communiqué des informations sur les technologies, les innovations et les pratiques de gestion à leurs collègues agriculteurs dans leurs communautés respectives et ce, au profit de plus 750 000 ménages.
L’APPSA, qui a été lancé en 2013, est un projet d’une durée de six ans appuyé par la Banque mondiale et destiné à promouvoir une approche régionale au développement et à la diffusion des technologies agricoles au Malawi, au Mozambique et en Zambie. La coordination du projet était assurée par le Centre de coordination de la recherche et du développement agricole de l’Afrique australe (CCARDESA). Le projet a pris fin en janvier 2020 dans les trois pays mentionnés plus haut mais est actif en Angola et au Lesotho pour une période de six ans à compter de 2020.
L’APPSA développe et diffuse des technologies à l’intention des agriculteurs au sein et entre les pays participants en Afrique australe. Il renforce les capacités des systèmes nationaux de recherche et de développement (R&D) hôtes ainsi que la collaboration régionale.
Le principal défi auquel l’agriculture est confrontée consiste à savoir comment s’assurer que les technologies nouvelles et les pratiques de gestion parviennent aux agriculteurs pour améliorer la productivité et la production de leurs exploitations. Pour relever ce défi, l’APPSA a facilité la recherche publique et donné une impulsion aux systèmes de vulgarisation des pays participants pour qu’ils puissent collaborer avec les agriculteurs qui assurent un lien avec la collectivité agricole pour ce qui est de promouvoir les technologies produites par le projet.
Un agriculteur chef de file est un agriculteur innovateur et prospère habituellement sélectionné par la communauté pour diriger diverses activités dont l’organisation de formations portant sur les méthodes et les technologies agricoles au profit des collègues agriculteurs. Il/ elle est en contact permanent avec les agents de recherche et de vulgarisation dans le but de s’informer des nouvelles technologies pour les présenter à la collectivité agricole.
Dans le cadre de l’APPSA, les agriculteurs chefs de file ont mis en place plus de 5 000 parcelles de démonstration pour diverses technologies et pratiques de gestion. Ils ont en outre organisé plus de 3 000 journées champêtres au cours de la période de six ans couverte par le projet. Les journées champêtres avaient pour objectifs de faire connaître les technologies ou techniques améliorées ainsi que les résultats provenant des parcelles de démonstration mises en place avec l’appui de l’APPSA. Au total, 7 968 foires aux semences et salons de l’alimentation ont été organisés. Les salons de l’alimentation étaient axés sur l’ajout de valeur aux légumineuses, au maïs et au riz. L’APPSA a assuré la promotion des variétés de semences auprès des collectivités agricoles et du secteur privé pour la multiplication des semences en vue de garantir aux agriculteurs un accès facile à ces semences.
Pour en savoir plus, veuillez cliquer sur le lien ci-dessous pour télécharger et lire un témoignage de réussite concernant ce sujet : ccardesa.org
The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) ex-Pillar IV Africa Regional and Sub-regional Organizations for Agricultural Research and Innovation project (CAADP XP4), is funded by the European Union (EU) under the Development Smart Innovation through Research in Agriculture (DeSIRA) initiative and administered by IFAD.
Programme goals and objectives
The programme which brings together the major continental and sub-regional organizations AFAAS, ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF and FARA, aims at contributing to Agenda 2063 and to the climate-relevant CAADP goals as set in the 2014 African Union’s Malabo Declaration in advancing Accelerated African Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared Prosperity and Improved Livelihoods.
The objective is to enable agricultural research and innovation, including extension services, to contribute effectively to food and nutrition security, economic development and climate mitigation in Africa. This will be achieved by improving the capacity, effectiveness and positioning of the Regional and Sub-regional Agriculture research and extension organizations as well as National-Agriculture-Research-Systems, and by promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing among the organizations and relevant European institutions.
Programme outputs and outcomes
The five outputs of the programme are:
1. Strengthened Capacity of African regional and sub-regional agricultural research organizations to perform their individual mandates and to better work together; 2. Multi-stakeholder Partnerships for Innovation established and in operation;
3. Strengthened national policies, regional institutional arrangements, and market access;
4. Knowledge Management & Communication for decision support, sharing innovation and advocacy related to climate-relevant agriculture transformation; and
1. improved capacities of countries to; prioritize, plan and use climate-relevant technologies and innovations, advocate and mobilize investments in agricultural research and innovation, formulate and implement policies; and
2. improved collaboration amongst institutions to; enhance the coherence of actions, advance a common vision and agenda and to strengthen Africa’s voice in global platforms on research and innovation.
Today marks International Workers’ Day, a day set aside to pay tribute to and honour the contributions made by workers globally, for the betterment of society. The importance of this day cannot be lost on us.
Even though this year’s celebration comes to us in rather very difficult and unusual times, we wish to commend the tireless and valiant efforts of the frontline “soldiers” in the battle against an invisible enemy, COVID-19; those who who are directly braving the odds so that the rest of us can remain alive and tell the stories to generations yet to come. We salute you and we wish you stay safe and alive.
We take this opportunity to celebrate African farmers — the main beneficiaries of our work in agricultural research and innovation. They work hard all year round, even on workers’ day, and under difficult conditions, to ensure we are supplied with the basic needs of food and fibre. We also gratefully acknowledge the various other players in the agriculture and food value chain and in particular those engaged in research and innovation to sustain and increase productivity and profitability. The lockdowns instituted across the globe to contain the spread of COVID-19 have shown how indispensable farmers and other agriculture value chain actors are at all times.
FARA is working in partnership with the Sub-Regional Agriculture Research Organisations (ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF and NAASRO) and AFAAS to roll out tools and practices aimed at accelerating the deployment of technologies and innovations for mitigating the adverse impacts of COVID-19 on the continent’s food and nutrition security, rural incomes, jobs and resilience to climate shocks.
On behalf of the Board of Directors and Management of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, I wish you all a happy International Workers’ Day, wherever you are working from. Keep safe. Practice the health and safety protocols, and surely, we shall see the back of this pandemic before long.
Rome, 20 April 2020 – With the COVID-19 pandemic and economic slowdown threatening the lives and livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable people, the UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) today committed US$40 million, and launched an urgent appeal for additional funds, to support farmers and rural communities to continue growing and selling food.
IFAD’s new multi-donor fund, the COVID-19 Rural Poor Stimulus Facility, will mitigate the effects of the pandemic on food production, market access and rural employment. As part of the broader UN socio-economic response framework, the Facility will ensure that farmers in the most vulnerable countries have timely access to inputs, information, markets and liquidity. On top of its own contribution, IFAD aims to raise at least $200 million more from Member States, foundations and the private sector.
“We need to act now to stop this health crisis transforming into a food crisis,” said Gilbert F. Houngbo, President of IFAD. “The fallout from COVID-19 may push rural families even deeper into poverty, hunger and desperation, which is a real threat to global prosperity and stability. With immediate action, we can provide rural people with the tools to adapt and ensure a quicker recovery, averting an even bigger humanitarian crisis.”
With their movements restricted to contain further spread of the virus, many small-scale farmers are unable to access markets to sell produce or to buy inputs, such as seeds or fertilizer. Closures of major transport routes and export bans are also likely to affect food systems adversely. As entire production chains are disrupted and unemployment rises, the most vulnerable include daily labourers, small businesses and informal workers, who are very often women and young people. The return of workers from cities affected by lockdowns will put further strain on rural households, which will also stop receiving much needed remittances.
About 80 percent of the world’s poorest and most food insecure people live in rural areas. Even before the outbreak, more than 820 million people were going hungry every day. A recent United Nations University study warned that in a worst-case scenario, the economic impact of the pandemic could push a further half-billion people into poverty.
“This pandemic is threatening the gains we have made in reducing poverty over the past years. To avoid serious disruption to rural economies, it is essential to ensure agriculture, food chains, markets and trade continue to function,” said Houngbo.
“A majority of the world’s most impoverished people are already suffering the consequences of climate change and conflict. An economic downturn in rural areas could compound these effects, generating more hunger and increasing instability, especially in fragile states.”
Provide inputs for production of crops, livestock and fisheries to small-scale producers so that they can weather the immediate effects of the economic crisis.
Facilitate access to markets to support small-scale farmers to sell their products in conditions where restricted movement is interrupting the functioning of markets, including providing logistics and storage support.
Provide targeted funds for rural financial services to ensure sufficient liquidity is available and to ease immediate loan repayment requirements to maintain services, markets and jobs for poor rural people.
Use digital services to share key information on production, weather, finance and markets.
IFAD has significant experience in working in fragile situations improving the resilience of rural populations. For example, in Sierra Leone during the Ebola outbreak, IFAD-supported banks were the sole providers of banking and financial services in affected areas. They provided timely assistance during the outbreak and supported the renewal of the rural economy after the crisis passed.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, IFAD was already stepping up its programmes and calling on member states to increase investments in rural development to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 – ending hunger.
“A timely response to the pandemic is an opportunity to rebuild the world’s food systems along more sustainable and inclusive lines and build the resilience of rural populations to crisis, whether related to health, climate or conflict,” said Houngbo.
IFAD has received requests from governments in more than 65 countries to help respond to the impact of the pandemic. It has already adapted its projects and diverted funds to support this.
Regional body and UN agency join forces to minimize lockdown’s impact on the continent where one in five goes hungry
16 April 2020, Rome – The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the African Union (AU) and international partners today described the food and agriculture system as “an essential service that must continue to operate during periods of lockdown, emergency, curfew and other containment measures”.
In a joint declaration, they committed to supporting access to food and nutrition for Africa’s most vulnerable; providing Africans with social safety nets; minimizing disruptions to the safe movement and transport of essential people, and to the transport and marketing of goods and services; and keeping borders open on the continent for the food and agriculture trade.
The document was adopted at a gathering co-organized by the AU and FAO and convened virtually. All 55 AU member states were represented, 45 at minister level. The debate was moderated by the AU Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, Josefa Sacko.
In his opening remarks, Director-General QU Dongyu said quick, strategic action was needed to lessen the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food security in Africa. “Border closures restrict trade and limit food availability in many countries, particularly those dependent on food imports,” he said. He expressed support for measures that do not lead to disruptions in food supply chains: these must be “kept alive,” he stressed.
Angela Thoko Didiza, Minister for Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development of South Africa, joined Qu in opening the debate. The Minister, whose country currently chairs the AU, cautioned against any moves to weaken inter-regional trade. Both officials highlighted the toll taken by lockdowns in a continent where informal markets, rather than supermarkets, provide a lifeline for most consumers.
FAO’s Chief Economist, Maximo Torero, pointed to growing evidence of logistical strains in food markets – strains which Qu suggested should be mitigated by “shortening the chain”: producing more, better, and locally if possible.
Minister after minister intervened to outline the challenges posed by the pandemic, in a region of the world where a fifth of the population is undernourished. The CEO of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), Ibrahim Mayaki, warned of risks to social stability if food and cash were to run low among Africa’s urban residents. Many government representatives described strenuous efforts to bolster welfare benefits, often at great cost to national budgets.
Echoing these concerns, the European Commissioner for Agriculture, Janusz Wojciechowski, outlined an EU support package for Africa that should eventually exceed $20 billion. The World Bank’s Simeon Ehui also detailed support initiatives, including the possibility of re-purposing $3.2 billion in uncommitted funding. Speaking for the African Development Bank, Martin Fregene concluded with details of a COVID-19 response programme that includes targeted technical and financial support.
