Four African Ministers of Agriculture got together today for a timely discussion on food security at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS). The conversation focused on how the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) and the U.S. Feed the Future initiative shape agricultural priorities throughout Africa.  Each Minister from Kenya, Liberia, Mali and Mozambique gave a sketch of the scope of successes and continued efforts and challenges to meet the potential of economic growth and the opportunities that have risen due to agriculture, and of course, the overall endeavor of achieving food and security for the citizens of each of their respective countries.

Read the ReSAKSS flagship report, Monitoring African Agricultural Development Processes and Performance: A comparative analysis for in-depth analysis of trends in GDP growth, agricultural development, and poverty and hunger indicators from the 1990s to the present.

The Ministers discussed of the standings in development through the CAADP process and generally praised the Programme for its support through their journeys to succeed in agricultural growth.  The Malian minister of agriculture, Aghatam Alhassane, discussed the country's allocation of government funds beyond the CAADP goal of 10 percent investment.  "Mali has surpassed the Maputo Declaration expectations by allocating 13 percent to investment into agriculture.  Our growth rate is nearly 5 percent, primarily due to agriculture," Alhassane explained.

View Mali's Agricultural Investment Plan and CAADP Post-Compact Review (both in French).

Liberian minister of agriculture, Florence Chenoweth, praised CAADP for uniting the continent with a program that Africans "own."  She continued by saying that farmers and agricultural stakeholders at all levels of involvement are informed of the CAADP process.  With the $46.5 million received to promote agricultural growth through the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) fund, Liberia has been "planning, not guessing" at the tasks of developing agriculture.  Chenoweth illustrated that over $17 billion of foreign investment has gone into Liberia, where $5 billion of that investment has gone into agriculture, creating 71,000 jobs and reaching into other realms linking agriculture to various economic activities.

View Liberia's Agricultural Investment Plan and Technical Review of Liberia's Plan by CAADP.

Not far from the Liberian praise for CAADP, Sally Kosegei, the Agriculture Minister of Kenya raved about the successes of private sector investment, and how it has led the way in securing food for the nation.  However, Kosegei was very critical of the supply-chain, marketing and logistics failures where one side of the country can be very prosperous in the agricultural outputs and the other experiencing hunger.  Because of the vast differences in terrain around the country, flooding can wipe out one side of the population and on the other side of country citizens could be experiencing devastating droughts.

See recent successes in Kenya from ReSAKSS coverage "Kenya - On its Way to Food Security" and the recent workshop "Standardizing Trade Data Methodologies."

Additional call for private sector investment was clear in Mozambican agriculture minister José Pacheco's remarks.  Of the potential of Mozambique's 36 million hectares of arable land, only 10 percent is presently utilized.  The country is ripe for development in more than just the present successes in self-sufficiency of cassava and  maize.

View presentations and papers from the event  Dialogue on Promoting Agricultural Growth in Mozambique.

The general sentiment is that the international interest and concern for agricultural growth and food security in Africa is expanding.  The concern in agriculture and food security in the continent dives into the expanses of international security and extensive political, economical and diplomatic efforts.

Video and photos from dialogue to come.