Rwanda got the highest score, on Agricultural Transformation in Africa, and emerged 2017 Best performing country in implementing the seven commitments of the June 2014 Malabo Declaration.

The country scored 6.1 out of 10 when the 3.94 benchmark was set as the minimum score for a country to be on track of achieving the Malabo targets by 2025. Rwanda is followed by Ethiopia, with 5.3.

The report, which is part of the designed Biennial Reporting Mechanism, was done by the African Union Commission and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) Agency together with the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Member States, in collaboration with other partners.

“We wish to acknowledge the tremendous efforts made by all Member States, despite the numerous challenges faced to increase readiness for providing individual quality country reports, and we particularly wish to acknowledge efforts of the Republic of Rwanda for reporting highest performances in 2017 for achieving the Malabo Declaration,” reads part of the report.

The Malabo Commitments were translated into seven thematic areas of performance such as enhancing investment finance in agriculture; ending hunger in Africa by 2025; halving poverty by 2025 and upholding the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP).

It also includes inclusive agricultural growth and transformation; boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services; enhancing resilience of livelihoods and production systems to climate variability and other related risks; and strengthening mutual accountability to actions and results.

The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme was adopted by the African Union Assembly of Heads of State and Government in 2003 in Maputo, Mozambique as the flagship programme of the African Union for agriculture and food security.

It sets broad targets of 6 per cent annual growth in agricultural GDP (output), and allocation of at least 10 per cent of public expenditures to the agricultural sector.

Commenting on the report, the Minister for Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr Gerardine Mukeshimana, stressed the importance of agriculture in poverty eradication in Africa.

While the country needs to improve agriculture financing, the minister highlighted Rwanda’s major areas of improvement including policy, gender, foreign investment, and crops irrigation.

Overall, Africa did not perform well in implementing the commitments for agriculture advancement with many countries failing to even get the minimum required score.

“This performance implies that we are not progressing well in line with our wish as a continent, to be the bread basket of the world. It requires countries to put in more efforts,” said Mukeshimana.

The minister said the areas that Rwanda needs to focus on include fighting malnutrition especially stunting among children, which stands at about 38 per cent.

“We still have a long journey to make to address stunting. That is why these days, the Government put in more efforts in providing free nutritious fortified flour for porridge to vulnerable children and expectant mothers, as well as promoting several programmes for milk, and egg production from small livestock to fast-track eradication of malnutrition among children,” she said.

According to the chairman of Rwanda Youth in Agribusiness (RYAF), Jean-Baptiste Hategekimana, by end of February, there will be over 1,000 university graduates in agriculture sector to help farmers [under an internship programme].

Currently, the organisation has close to 1,300 members grouped into five clusters namely crop production, livestock production, agro-processing (animal and crops), other agro-services, which include packaging, inputs, extension services, mechanissation, among others, and information communication technologies (ICTs) for agriculture.

“We still need to take bold steps forward. We need more innovations, more inventions, and agriculture diversification,” he told The New Times.

More efforts needed to increase agric funding

Rwanda’s agriculture financing stands at 7.5 per cent.

Hategekimana said access to finance is still a challenge which affects implementation of youth’s agricultural and livestock projects.

“Youth do not have collateral, and own no land. If you ask them for collateral, you are hindering their business,” he said.

The minister said that they are currently working with the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning to develop a comprehensive programme on agriculture financing.

According to information from the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning, about Rwf11.5 billion was allocated on seeds and fertilisers in line with developing rural areas in 2017/2018 fiscal year.

About 1,367 hectares of land will be covered under hillside irrigation, while 3,106 hectares of marshlands will also be irrigated.

Equipment to help farmers irrigate crops on 5,844 hectares will be provided this year, officials say.

African Union to launch the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard; towards achieving agricultural transformation

The African Union will, during the Assembly of the AU Heads of State and Government, launch the Africa Agriculture Transformation Scorecard (AATS) and present the Inaugural Biennial Report on the Implementation of the June 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared prosperity and improved Livelihoods.

The AATS, the first of its kind in Africa, captures the continent’s agricultural progress based on a pan-African data collection exercise led by the African Union Commission’s Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA), NEPAD Agency and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in collaboration with partners, which has gathered data on up to 43 indicators.

The AATS tracks progress in commitments made by AU Heads of State and Government through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the Malabo Declaration to increase prosperity and improved livelihoods for transforming agriculture.

The AATS captures 23 performance categories and 43 indicators for each of the 55 AU Member States. The indicators chosen to track the performance categories were defined on the basis of the strategic objectives derived from the Malabo Declaration.

In the Malabo Declaration, AU Member States committed to report on a biennial basis, the progress in achieving the 7 commitments of the Declaration with the first report to be presented at the 30th AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government.

Preceding this, the “Inaugural Biennial Report on the Implementation of the June 2014 Malabo Declaration on Accelerated Agricultural Growth and Transformation for Shared prosperity and improved Livelihoods,” was endorsed by Ministers of Agriculture during the 2nd Specialized Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment that was held in October 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

“No other agriculture evaluation tool in Africa’s history has ever brought together the AU, all the continent’s regional trade organisations, the private sector, the international development community and all African governments to build Africa’s agriculture and agribusiness markets,” said DREA’s Director Dr. Godfrey Bahiigwa.

“The aim is that the AATS will encourage performance across AU Member States, and also provide a tool that can be used by every actor engaged in agriculture, across governments, the private sector, and non-state actors.”

In 2017, the AUC conducted and facilitated 6 training sessions respectively in West (in French and English), East, Central, Southern and North Africa regions, with 156 national experts trained including CAADP Focal Persons, Monitoring and Evaluation Specialists and Statisticians from Ministries of Agriculture and other line ministries.

Almost all AU Member States participated in the training and familiarized themselves with the Malabo Declaration, targets and indicators, and the biennial review reporting format, which has further embedded the culture of mutual accountability in Africa.

The work that has gone into delivering Africa’s most comprehensive agricultural data set has been enormous, but with this new tool set, the AUC has delivered on the Heads of State’s mandate to create tools which, when implemented, will take Africa’s economic growth to a next level.