Sweden Strengthens Africa’s Food Security

By Staff

NAIROBI — Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Nairobi-based Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) have announced  a new partnership to invest US $8 million to accelerate AGRA’s effort to improve markets, soils and access to high-yield crop varieties for smallholder farmers, particularly women farmers.

 “We’re pleased to invest in both mid and long term efforts to address food security in Africa; this is a very important issue for Sweden,” said Development Minister Gunilla Carlsson. “AGRA’s innovative approach to partnerships in solving this issue through support to smallholder farmers makes them a good partner for our efforts. We are particularly keen to focus on women farmers as they are crucial to improve food security and agriculture productivity. In order to succeed, they must have equal access to resources, education and expertise. ”

 AGRA has been partnering with the private sector, farmer and non-governmental organizations as well as governments in 13 sub-Saharan countries to help smallholder farmers access the necessary tools and opportunities.   African governments have shown their commitment to smallholder farmers through the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Program (CAADP), which aims to boost agricultural productivity in Africa.

 “This new investment from Sweden’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs will have an immediate impact because these countries are particularly well-prepared to transform their farm sector,” said Namanga Ngongi, AGRA’s president.  “We’re very excited to see AGRA programs and our value-chain approach to boosting food security attracting such strong international support.”

 Today in sub-Saharan Africa, women grow the majority of domestically produced food but often find it more difficult than their male counterparts to obtain improved seeds, farm equipment, credit, extension services, and legal rights to the lands they cultivate. Yet studies have shown that when African women have equal access to farm inputs, education and expertise, yields increase dramatically.

 The Sweden-AGRA partnership will allow AGRA to deepen its work with seed, soil, market and farm policy programmes in sub-Saharan Africa with a strong focus on addressing challenges facing women farmers. 

 “This persistent inequality is not just unfair to women, it is unfair to all Africans because we will not achieve the Green Revolution we urgently need if the majority of our farmers continue to work without basic inputs or land rights simply because they are women,” Ngongi said in a statement sent to newsrooms.

To address this, AGRA will use a portion of the Sweden investment to seek policies that clarify laws and traditions in many African countries that assign property rights primarily to men and leave many women farmers at risk of losing lands they have been cultivating for years. Ngongi noted that secure land rights are critical to encouraging women to invest in new technologies such as the use of high-yield seeds, adopt sustainable soil, land and water management practices.

 AGRA and the Government of Sweden are optimistic that the new investment, to be allocated over the next two years, will improve food security and enhance the role of women in the targeted countries where many successful programs already are up and running.