Transforming Africa's Agriculture for Shared Prosperity
Participants at the 10th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) partnership meeting has recognised CAADP as the expression of reclaimed ownership of agricultural policy by African States and citizens of the continent.
CAADP is the African Union and NEPAD continent-wide structurewithin which African countries plan to accelerate economic growth, eliminate hunger, reduce poverty and enhance food and nutrition security, through agriculture-led development. To date, fifty out of fifty-four countries in Africa are using the CAADP structure in agricultural planning.
The 10th CAADPP Partnership Platform, which started on Tuesday 18 March 2014 in Durban, South Africa, has evolved to become a forum for those in the partnership to report on and discuss progress in a number of areas including collective financing and other public and private funding instruments.
Kenya seeks Food and Drug Control Administration's e-governance programme
Gujarat government's e-governance initiative has generated interest from Kenya's drug regulators. Impressed by the systematic performance of Xtended Licensing and Laboratory Note (XLN), developed and adopted by Food and Drug Control Administration (FDCA), Kenya is likely to introduce a similar model in the African country.
A delegation led by Dr Ahmed Mohamed, director of inspection and surveillance team from the Pharmacy and Poisons Board (PPB) had visited Gujarat FDCA earlier this month. The self-licensing software has enabled the FDCA to regulate the sales and manufacturing aspects related to drugs, food and cosmetics, issuance of licenses, among other things. The software enables online registration of all the pharmacists and chemists, preventing multiple illegal enrollment of pharmacists to ensure public safety.
India to unlock Africa's agribusiness potential
India has begun moves to help Africa set up agri-business centres, seed incubators, modern laboratories and joint projects as part of an enhanced partnership in agriculture to achieve food and nutrition security, promote entrepreneurship and create a trillion-dollar food market by 2030.
Proposals for such sectoral cooperation will be bounced this week at the Asia-Africa Agribusiness Forum meeting in which agriculture ministers of some 15 African countries will take part. The details, official sources said, could be worked out and decisions taken at the Africa-India Summit this year in Delhi.
Africa is well-endowed with resources but it lacks much of the expertise to unlock their commercial potential by restructuring its agriculture industry to a more profitable form of agribusiness.
Kenya looks to India for farm mechanisation
Kenya is planning to mechanise its agriculture and looking to India for farm equipment that will bring down production costs. The East African country is also bringing in policy changes to transform the sector from subsistence farming to commercial agriculture.
"We are looking at India for mechanisation support. Currently, we have around 15,000 tractors but there is a severe deficit. The requirement is for 100,000 tractors," Felix Koskei, Kenya's cabinet secretary for agriculture, livestock and fisheries, told IANS in an interview.
"After having discussions with the manufacturers we will start talks with the Indian government. We have already spoken to Indian companies like Sonalika Tractors, Apollo and many others," added Koskei, who was here for the Asia-Africa Agri-Business Forum meeting organised by the Indian government in association with industry chamber FICCI.
He noted in this context that Kenya had secured an $80 million line of credit from Brazil to buy 2,000 pieces of farm equipment.
