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Queen’s Speech

My Lords, we are covering a wide-ranging agenda today and I want to speak about African agriculture. I sat on the APPG for food, agriculture and development, and chaired some of the sessions. We received evidence from a most eminent and international group of witnesses. I have spoken before in this House about world food security and I believe that the world as a whole will be able to feed itself over the next 40 years. But, without serious and focused investment, sub-Saharan Africa will not. Africa contains 23 of the 30 least-developed countries in the world. There nearly 80 per cent of the population depend for their livelihood on agriculture. Yet Africa's agricultural performance is the worst in the world. It has appallingly low yields; it loses a high percentage of its crops, both before and after harvest; it uses only a tiny proportion of its rainfall for irrigation; and it has little infrastructure in terms of training, transport, microfinancing, crop storage or even local markets. The farmers, 70 per cent of whom are women, have little understanding of how to sell their surplus crops to earn an income and thus pull themselves out of poverty and their neighbours out of famine. However, there is huge potential for agricultural growth in Africa. It has abundant resources and 12 times the land area of India with only half as many people to feed. International Food Policy Research Institute data show that doubling the productivity of food staples across Africa by 2015, which is certainly physically possible, would raise GDP growth to 5.5 per cent, lift 70 million people out of poverty and turn Africa from a food deficit region to a surplus region with 20 per cent to 40 per cent lower food prices. Most people now recognise that it needs an agricultural revolution to take Africa out of poverty. Asian Governments kick-started their green revolution by spending 15 per cent or more of their budgets on agriculture. This, for instance, allowed Vietnam to turn itself from being a net importer of rice into being the world’s second largest exporter and allowed China to take 400 million people out of poverty by focusing on smallholder agriculture. Smallholder agriculture is definitely part of the solution in Africa and should not be viewed as part of the problem. Agriculture is the key. The World Bank estimates that a 1 per cent increase in agricultural GDP in Africa reduces poverty by four times as much as a 1 per cent increase in non-agricultural GDP. Donor countries now spend less than 5 per cent of ODA on agriculture. It was 18 per cent 30 years ago, but we took our eye off the ball. The UK gives a smaller share to agriculture than most others—a mere 1.37 per cent of its total African aid in 2005-06. With our own efforts so weak, how can we possibly chivvy African Governments to fulfil their vital 2004 Maputo commitment to invest 10 per cent of their budgets into agriculture? We have to get our own house in order. We are at last seeing a turnaround of the outrageous slashing of agricultural R&D budgets which has occurred in this country over the past 30 years. However, the main point I wish to make today is that any R&D is still completely useless unless it is translated into work on farms and in communities. I know from my own experience in the UK that such knowledge transfer is a two-way process, a partnership between growers and scientists, and if the pipeline between the two is fractured then everyone is wasting their time. Blue sky research with no bearing on the grower’s ability to produce is pointless. We used to have a revered reputation for agricultural extension in Africa, which we are losing. So, please, let us have less talk about DfID not having a "competitive advantage" in agriculture, which is, frankly, meaningless nonsense. As far as African agriculture is concerned, you do not need major scientific breakthroughs. Today’s seeds, with fertiliser and good practice, could double or triple production on many farms if only the lady farmer could find the training, arrange the finance package, find a way to improve her storage or to sell her crops and then have a road to transport them away, or even be able to own and register her land to allow her to invest in it, and so on. You hardly need trained farmers and scientists for that; you only need to apply concerted pressure and help to the different areas of local governance. It is vital that DfID’s country programmes fully support the overall agricultural agenda. At the very least we should be putting 10 per cent of our ODA into agriculture in those countries that are upholding their Maputo commitment—that is, we should be helping those that help themselves. I repeat, agriculture is the key and DfID must be in there helping to unlock that potential.