AgDPG Key Messages

1. Incentivize and enable the private sector: The focus of MAAIF’s work should be on its core public sector functions, to include a) guiding and stimulating farmers and private sector operators to improve production and productivity; and b) creating an enabling environment for the private sector to develop and invest in the agriculture/agribusiness sector.  Any direct involvement in areas normally the domain of the private sector, such as provision of agricultural inputs and building agro-industrial structures, should be well justified and contain a clear exit strategy.
2. Build resilience: With approximately 70% of farming households being subsistence farmers, the sector lacks the production capacity needed to underpin a drive to agro-processing, agro-trade and commercial agriculture, at scale. The vulnerability of these farming households must be addressed through appropriate economic growth and social protection measures, all of which will contribute to building resilience. In all of its work, MAAIF should seek to strengthen the resilience of farm households – addressing the impact of COVID-19 on the agricultural economy, reducing the risk faced by farmers as a result of seasonal weather fluctuations (example –  ag. insurance), and mitigating the impact on agriculture of climate change (example – development of CC-tolerant seeds).
3. Unpack agricultural finance: National planners and decision-makers need to be made aware of the wide range of agricultural finance mechanisms/programs currently available and planned in the country, for each of the major categories of farmers and others working in the different agriculture value-chains.  At the same time, the newly-drafted national Agricultural Finance Policy should be widely distributed and its major provisions disseminated to stakeholders working throughout the agriculture industry.
4. Support data gathering and use: Detailed statistics on the productivity and production of the major agricultural enterprises are now being made available from the intensive field survey program that is being undertaken by UBoS, in collaboration with MAAIF, that was started in 2018.  Provision of sufficient financial and human resources should be assured for these efforts to be continued and expanded where appropriate.  Sector and macro-economic planners should be encouraged to make use of these data and provide decision-makers with analyses of them to inform the design of policies and programs, and to track progress more broadly.