Foreign Development Assistance to Agriculture and Food Security in Africa in the last Decade: Lessons for Tomorrow

There are well-founded fears that it is unrealistic to expect Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to halve the proportion of people who suffer hunger by 2015. Recent efforts of African governments to meet the MDG1 have resulted in a number of initiatives including the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) framework that calls for 6% agricultural growth rates, the Maputo Declaration calling for 10% of total public spending to be on agriculture, and the 2006 Abuja Declaration calling for an increase in fertilizer use from 8 – 50 kg/ha by 2015. CAADP estimates that an average investment of US$18 billion/year will be required to trigger sufficient agricultural growth rate to meet MDG1. Meanwhile, budgetary allocation to agriculture in many African nations is low and an analysis of trends in foreign development assistance to Africa over a 10-year period (1995-2004) showed that the annual commitment to agriculture out of the total assistance of US$230 billion declined from 11% in 1995 to 6% in 2004. This decline could be traced to the frustration of donors and African governments alike at the failure of agriculture to achieve sufficient progress towards food security and poverty reduction. Nevertheless, there is evidence from the past that where projects have been successful, governments provided political leadership and financial support; organized farmers groups actively participated in decision-making; and that close public-private-partnership existed. Based on the lessons learned from previous projects and the subsequent more favorable rules of engagement of donors with beneficiaries, the paper concludes that the challenges and responsibility for getting agriculture back to the front-burner of the development agenda is largely that of African governments.Africa, Millenium Development Goals, Agriculture, Farmer, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty, Health Economics and Policy,

A Hedonic Analysis of Cattle Prices in the Central Corridor of West Africa: Implications for Production and Marketing Decisions

Detailed weekly sales transactions data for the period January 2000-June 2001 from three frontier markets in the central corridor of West Africa were analyzed to identify the factors influencing short-run, intra-year cattle prices. The empirical results indicate that in addition to market location and seasonality of supply and sales, market participants show systemic preferences for specific cattle attributes (sex, weight, condition and finish) and are willing to pay premium prices consistent with their preferences. Communicating this information to producers can assist them to tailor their production and marketing decisions to meet market expectations and thereby improve their competitiveness, profitability and intra-regional livestock trade. Innovative policy and institutional approaches to improve market information dissemination and ease other constraints that tend to dampen supply response, even in the face of favorable prices, are discussed in the paper.livestock markets, hedonic price model, market information, West Africa, Livestock Production/Industries, C21, D4, Q13, Q17,

An expost economic assessment of the intervention against highly pathogenic avian influenza in Nigeria

This study assesses the intervention against avian influenza in Nigeria. It applied a simple compartmental model to define endemic and burn-out scenarios for the risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria. It followed with the derivation of low and high mortality risks associated to each scenario. The estimated risk parameters were subsequently used to stochastically simulate the trajectory of the disease, had no intervention been carried out. Overall, the intervention costs US$41 million, which was yearly dis- bursed in various amounts over the 2006-2010 period. The key output variables (incremental net benefit, disease cost, and benefit cost ratio) were estimated for each randomly drawn risk parameter. With a 12$ 63.7 million, incremental net benefit to US$27.2 million, and benefit cost ratio estimated to 1.75

Turning waste to wealth: harnessing the potential of Cassava peels for nutritious animal feed

In Nigeria, processing cassava for food and industry yields around 15 million tons of wet peels annually. These peels are usually dumped near processing centres to rot or dry enough to be burned. Rotting heaps release methane into the air and a stinking effluent that pollutes nearby streams and underground water, while burning produces clouds of acrid smoke. However, when properly dried, peels can be an ingredient in animal feed. Previous attempts over two decades to use peels in animal feed failed to yield profitable options for drying wet peels at commercial scale, but recent research suggests that cassava peels can be processed into high-quality cassava peel (HQCP) products to be used as nutritious, low-cost animal feed ingredients. The core innovation was to adopt the same steps and equipment used for processing cassava roots into gari, the main staple food in the country. When dried, 3 tons of wet peels yield a tonne of healthy and energy-rich animal feed, containing nearly 3,000 kilocalories per kilogram of dry matter (kcal/kgDM). Adopting this innovation at scale in Nigeria’s poultry and fish sectors alone has the potential to turn approximately 3.6 million tons of wet peels into 1.2 million tons of feed ingredients capable of replacing approximately 810,000 tons of largely imported maize. The innovation has great potential to increase feed availability and lower its cost while saving cereals for human consumption, reducing the import bill, creating new business opportunities, and protecting the environment. This research was initiated by CGIAR centres and taken up by the CGIAR Research Program on Roots, Tubers and Bananas (RTB) over the past decade with strategic input from the CGIAR Research Program on Livestock to accelerate development of the innovation, and this chapter documents the potential and progress in taking this innovation to scale

Assessment of practices, capacities and incentives of poultry chain actors in implementation of highly pathogenic avian influenza mitigation measures in Ghana

The animal health services-seeking behaviour of animal owners related to prevention and control of animal diseases may influence their decisions as to whether or not to use services provided by the public or private sectors. The specific objective of this paper was to assess the practices, capacities and incentives of actors involved in highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) control to provide information for prevention and control in Ghana. Questionnaires were designed based on specific practices, incentives and capacities associated with each mitigation measure that was being assessed. Two peacetime preventive mitigation measures (biosecurity and reporting) and two outbreak containment measures (culling with compensation and movement control) were selected for evaluation. Supply chain actors were characterised based on baseline information. Tables were generated showing proportions of respondents in the various response categories in Likert-scale type itemised questionnaire. Mean scores (and their standard deviations) for the various actors with regard to mitigation measures were calculated. Pair-wise comparisons were done using t-ratio statistic and significance of differences were determined at a Bonferroni adjusted P-value of 0.0024. The study found statistically significant differences between certain actors for practices (biosecurity, reporting, culling and compensation and movement controls), incentives (reporting and movement control) and capacities (reporting and movement control). The findings provide lessons to help improve education and messages on HPAI and to help provide technical assistance targeted at specific actors to prevent and control future HPAI H5N1 outbreaks in Ghana

Foreign Development Assistance to Agriculture and Food Security in Africa in the last Decade: Lessons for Tomorrow

There are well-founded fears that it is unrealistic to expect Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to halve the proportion of people who suffer hunger by 2015. Recent efforts of African governments to meet the MDG1 have resulted in a number of initiatives including the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) framework that calls for 6% agricultural growth rates, the Maputo Declaration calling for 10% of total public spending to be on agriculture, and the 2006 Abuja Declaration calling for an increase in fertilizer use from 8 – 50 kg/ha by 2015. CAADP estimates that an average investment of US$18 billion/year will be required to trigger sufficient agricultural growth rate to meet MDG1. Meanwhile, budgetary allocation to agriculture in many African nations is low and an analysis of trends in foreign development assistance to Africa over a 10-year period (1995-2004) showed that the annual commitment to agriculture out of the total assistance of US$230 billion declined from 11% in 1995 to 6% in 2004. This decline could be traced to the frustration of donors and African governments alike at the failure of agriculture to achieve sufficient progress towards food security and poverty reduction. Nevertheless, there is evidence from the past that where projects have been successful, governments provided political leadership and financial support; organized farmers groups actively participated in decision-making; and that close public-private-partnership existed. Based on the lessons learned from previous projects and the subsequent more favorable rules of engagement of donors with beneficiaries, the paper concludes that the challenges and responsibility for getting agriculture back to the front-burner of the development agenda is largely that of African governments

An expost economic assessment of the intervention against highly pathogenic avian influenza in Nigeria

This study assesses the intervention against avian influenza in Nigeria. It applied a simple compartmental model to define endemic and burn-out scenarios for the risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria. It followed with the derivation of low and high mortality risks associated to each scenario. The estimated risk parameters were subsequently used to stochastically simulate the trajectory of the disease, had no intervention been carried out. Overall, the intervention costs US$41 million, which was yearly disbursed in various amounts over the 2006-2010 period. The key output variables (incremental net benefit, disease cost, and benefit cost ratio) were estimated for each randomly drawn risk parameter. With a 12intervention was economically justified under the endemic scenario with high mortality risk. On average, incremental benefit under this scenario amounted to US$ 63.7 million, incremental net benefit to US$27.2 million, and benefit cost ratio estimated to 1.75

A Hedonic Analysis of Cattle Prices in the Central Corridor of West Africa: Implications for Production and Marketing Decisions

Detailed weekly sales transactions data for the period January 2000-June 2001 from three frontier markets in the central corridor of West Africa were analyzed to identify the factors influencing short-run, intra-year cattle prices. The empirical results indicate that in addition to market location and seasonality of supply and sales, market participants show systemic preferences for specific cattle attributes (sex, weight, condition and finish) and are willing to pay premium prices consistent with their preferences. Communicating this information to producers can assist them to tailor their production and marketing decisions to meet market expectations and thereby improve their competitiveness, profitability and intra-regional livestock trade. Innovative policy and institutional approaches to improve market information dissemination and ease other constraints that tend to dampen supply response, even in the face of favorable prices, are discussed in the paper

An Expost Economic Impact Assessment of the Intervention against Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in Nigeria

The risk of spread of HPAI in Nigeria was derived by using a compartmental model to outline endemic and burn-out scenarios. Two paths, low and high mortality risks, were associated to each of the scenarios. The estimated risk parameters were then used to stochastically simulate the trajectory of the disease; without intervention and with an intervention. The intervention costs the country US$41 million obtained through a World Bank IDA loan of US$ 50million yearly disbursed over the 2006-2010 period. The key output variables (net social welfare gain – with incremental net benefits as proxy, disease cost, and benefit cost ratio) were estimated for each randomly drawn risk parameter. On average, the results show that such an intervention would make economic sense under the endemic scenario with high mortality. The discounted costs (12% discount rate) of the disease without intervention would have amounted to US$145 million in total over the 2006-2010 period. The model indicates that the intervention could possibly have generated cost savings amounting to US$ 63.7 million, incremental net benefit of US$22.2 million, and a benefit cost ratio at 1.75 over the five-year period considered