Transforming African agriculture is a Yara sponsored report written by the Economist Intelligence Unit
This paper is an investigation into new kinds of public-private partnerships in agriculture and how they are changing development in Africa.
- New partnerships are a rising force: Big business and smallholder farmers are forming new connections aimed at linking participants into global supply chains rather than excluding them. This is changing the shape of aid, business and development in Africa.
- Agricultural corridors have been one leading approach to drive new growth by linking infrastructure and institutional development such than rural producers have greater market access. This leverages a multifaceted approach to deliver large scale investment and entrench a sustainably long time horizon.
- Pioneering governments have realised than spending more is not enough. While some nations have dramatically increased their investments in agriculture, this is a sector which requires multiple partners and a commitment to business engagement in order to flourish.
- Interests are aligning more closely. While food security is on the minds of government leaders, business has a rising interest in growing their presence in African markets and finally a new generation of African leaders increasingly driving their own growth and development agendas and changing the way they work with donors and business. This is setting out a new agenda for agriculture.
- These partnerships can drive wider rural development. While it remains early days, it is clear that the traditional roles of business, government and international aid are changing in Africa. Local areas of systemic improvement can catalyse further change and development. These shifts are incipient but the formation of new ways of thinking and the creation of new partnerships have already begun.
