Agriculture in Africa has a massive social and economic footprint. More than 60 percent of the population of sub-Sahara Africa comprise of smallholder farmers, with about 23 percent of sub-Saharan Africa ‘s GDP comes from agriculture. YUet Africa’s full agriculture potential remains untapped in a recent analysis, we determined that Africa could produced two to three times more cereals and grains which would add 20percent mare cereal and grains to the current 2.6 billion tons of output. Similar increase could be seen in the seen in the production of horticulture crops and livestock.          

Agricultural production and production in the Africa is largely constrained by natural factor, policy and adaption of technologies. These constraints have inhibited the rural economy’s potential onto alleviate poverty employment creation and income generation meet growing food needs driven by rapid population growth and urbanisation to stimulate overall economic growth, given conserve natural resources.  


Despite these challenge Africa has a significant irrigation potential that remains unexploited. Irrigation can play an important role in increasing agricultural productivity, expanding area under production and stabilising agricultural production in situation of adverse weather condition.

Investment in agriculture is key for economic growth and job creation among Africa’s farmers, but significant constraints remain before they can fulfil that potential. That’s according to Grow Africa’s Enabling Environment survey. 

It found that, while private-sector investors in African agriculture report improvements in the “enabling environment” ­– the overall factors that allow investment into a country – progress is too slow to unlock the sector’s potent ial to drive economic growth. 

Companies were asked to rate their satisfaction with 14 aspects of the enabling environment, report on whether the situation had improved or worsened over the previous year, and indicate the urgency of improvement in each of the 14 areas. Less than half of respondents felt that their country’s enabling environment was conducive to their investment and 64% said it was “very important” that the enabling environment improved enough for them to successfully implement their investment plans.

1. Access to finance

Lack of access to affordable finance is consistently cited by private-sector investors within the Grow Africa network as the number one obstacle to implementing projects on the ground. 

 

Only 35% said they could access appropriate finance for their investment. There were more respondents (67%) citing the need for improvement in this area than in any other aspect of the survey. This is also the area in which least improvement was reported – only 13% of respondents said access to finance had improved over the past 12 months.

 

2. Cross-sector collaboration

Cross-sector collaboration is increasingly recognized as a key component of successfully being able to execute investment commitments. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents recognized that companies cannot overcome specific constraints within value chains and market systems, unless they work with public-sector partners, and they called for improvements in this area. 

 

3. Infrastructure

Dissatisfaction with the quality of physical infrastructure was higher than for any other aspect of the survey, with 55% of respondents saying their needs were not being met. Among the most critical needs cited were access to a stable electricity supply, the ability to transport goods, and public investment in irrigation. Indeed, only 40% of Africans enjoy a reliable electricity supply, a recent report found. This was the second highest priority for improvement according to respondents.
 

4. Skills

While finding skilled labour came in at number four of the top constraints listed by respondents, it was also one of the areas in which the most companies saw progress, with 29% noting an improvement in their ability to access labour with appropriate skills and experience. Nevertheless, they also noted that:

 

   • Smallholders lack the skills to increase quality
      and quantity of production, and the cost of  
     training is prohibitive for companies.

   • Farmer organizations can be poorly managed.

   • There is a shortage of commercial managers  
      to oversee operations.

 

5. Policies

Among other concerns expressed by respondents was the lack of support by government – only 30% of companies felt that their investment was supported by effective national policies for trade, agriculture and investment.

 

6. Business Environment 

They also cited a lack of efficiency on the part of government – only one-quarter (29%) said that administrative and regulatory formalities were dealt with efficiently, particularly land issues and lack of clarity on land ownership.

In many cases, policies are signed off at regional and sometimes national level, but not implemented consistently, or at all, at a local level. This could be due to lack of administrative capacity, but in some cases, the policies have not been sufficiently anchored with the private sector and not holding a local content perspective.

The governments are paying attention to the need to improve the enabling environment in order to attract private sector investment and development funding as well as expanding the marketing bases based on regional intergrations.  

To succeed, three things are needed:

1. Political will of the Government 

2. Greater accountability and measurement of progress on agricultural targets. 

3. Improved dialogue between ministries and the private sector (PPP & PPD)

4. Efficient use of AfCFTA, Fairtrade, AGOA, and Multi, Bilateral & Private sectors.