Farm Africa CEO speaks at Clinton Global Initiative forum in New York

18 November 2011

Benefits of private sector investment in agriculture in eastern Africa

Farm Africa CEO, Nigel Harris, recently spoke at a prestigious New York gathering of global leaders entitled “Sustainable Food Systems”.

The event was organised by the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI), an organisation  established in 2005 by President Bill Clinton, 42nd President of the United States. The organisation’s mission, according to its website, is “to inspire, connect and empower a community of global leaders to forge solutions to the world’s most pressing challenges.”

Nigel used his address on “Sustainable Consumption” to an audience of leaders from the public and private sectors to focus attention on the positive impact the private sector can have on development when it provides investment and opportunity to smallholder farmers.

He started by observing that the vast majority of the world’s poor are smallholder farmers; and that if this is to change,  political, commercial and civil society leaders need to acknowledge that smallholder farmers represent an essential link within global food chains.

Nigel explained that greater private sector partnership with smallholders really could transform farmers’ lives, enabling them to move beyond subsistence-level farming and to become instead rural entrepreneurs, capable of building a prosperous rural Africa.

Farm Africa’s Cassava project in South Sudan in partnership with SAB Miller

To demonstrate just how beneficial working in partnership with smallholders can be for the private sector and government actors, Nigel pointed to an innovative project established by Farm Africa in South Sudan. The project is a partnership between four actors: the private sector (South African brewing multinational, SABMiller); government (South Sudan); civil society (Farm Africa); and, most crucially of all, local communities (smallholder cassava farmers).

This public, private, non-profit partnership is brewing beer from cassava. SAB Miller purchases the cassava from smallholders, extracts the starch which will be used to brew beer at SABMiller’s operation in Juba.

The partnership has transformed the smallholders’ cassava from mere susbsistence crop into a commercially viable cash crop: not all the cassava produced will be bought by SABMiller – farmers are able to sell surpluses in the local market as well. This is transforming the lives of small holders in South Sudan who are now generating long-term and sustainable income from cassava.

The additional income can be used by smallholders to develop their lives, and those of their families and communities, by being able to pay for educational and health expenses as well as re-investing in their farm businesses.

Nigel concluded by stressing to his audience that the smallholder farmers he has met in eastern Africa have the potential to be an essential part of sustainable global food supply chains. But for this to happen, the private sector needs to follow the example of companies like SAB Miller in providing investment and creating opportunity.

Also speaking at the briefing were: Martha Stewart, Founder of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia; Stephan Habif, Vice-President R and D Operations North America, Unilever; and Jacques Diouf, Director General Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).