Report: African Countries That Invested in Agriculture Had Best Productivity and Economy
A report released early this month by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has indicated that the countries which paid intense attention to farmers and food production in the past ten years have achieved the most successful development in African history.
"The countries that made the biggest investments in agriculture were rewarded with sizeable jumps in both farm productivity and overall economic performance," said the report.
It noted that agriculture has had its biggest impact in countries that moved quickly to embrace the African Union's Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which called for African governments to allocate 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture with a view to gain six percent annual growth in the sector.
Sitting in Mozambique in 2005, African leaders endorsed CAADP, also known as the "Maputo Declaration", making a commitment to allocate at least 10% of their countries budgets to agriculture.
Ollivier Girard/CIFOR