Examining new ways to drive sustainable development in Africa
On 3 December 2020 Syngenta Agro AG hosted an insightful online seminar on “Achieving a sustainable reset in agriculture” as part of the virtual Sustainability Summit 2020. The focus was on examining ways to unleash the potential of agriculture to drive sustainable development in Africa
In her opening address, Dr Petra Laux, Head of Business Sustainability at Syngenta, said that producing more food more sustainably will unlock transformative ripple effects benefiting farmers, communities, consumers and the continent. Syngenta’s commitment to sustainability is reflected in the company’s Good Growth Plan, which seeks to ensure that agriculture functions within the boundaries of the planet. Since the programme launched in 2013, Syngenta has increased the average productivity of the world’s major crops 20% without using more land, water or inputs, increased biodiversity and soil fertility, reached 20 million small-holders, increasing their productivity by 50%, and enabled the safe use of the company’s products, training over 4 million people in Africa on health and safety.
The key challenges farmers face globally are the impact of climate change on crop yields, animal health and the ability to do business. Syngenta’s new Good Growth Plan helps farmers combat climate change by accelerating innovation, investing $2 billion in sustainable agriculture by 2025 and devising two sustainable break-throughs every year. Syngenta is striving for carbon-neutral farms, remains committed to biodiversity and soil health and will reduce its own carbon emissions by 50% in line with the Paris Agreement.
African farms are only producing at 40% of their potential and will fall far short of the production needed to feed the population by 2050. For every 10% increase in farm yields, poverty falls by 7%. Syngenta’s Technology Innovation Agronomic Support helps increase yields sustainably by removing market barriers, providing access to farmers, training on agronomic practices and linking farmers to markets. Syngenta’s digital tool AgriClime helps farmers offset the risks of adverse weather conditions during growing season for possible cash-back. Syngenta is also helping farmers become more resistant to pest infestation with solutions at all stages of the crop cycle.
In a panel discussion, Dr Michael Charles, Head of Southern Africa Cluster, IFRC Southern Africa, said that African agriculture is under pressure from the impacts of climate change. In some cases (Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Zambia being the worst), up to half the population is food insecure. Urban food insecurity is now becoming more common especially with the impact of Covid-19. Food prices have hiked 20% just as jobs are being lost and remittances disappear. However, the pandemic can be used to solve the food crisis. Funding previously withheld from “expensive” relief efforts has appeared miraculously – the private sector’s responsibility is to tap into these funds most effectively. Solving the food crisis will entail digital transformation. Technology must be brought down to the smallholder farmer so that they can link up with the bigger markets. Renewing focus on smallholder farmers is therefore key. Moving from subsistence to commercial status is the prime directive. The private sector, government and other humanitarians need to help make the shift from a short-term profit concern to long-term food security concerns. The IFRC has a 10-year strategy focusing on zero hunger.
For smallholder farmers to be supported, Solidaridad’s Managing Director for Southern Africa Mandla Nkomo said that it’s necessary to have a food systems approach that can properly locate the role smallholders play in the food system and how the food system itself makes the right kinds of inputs available to farmers who need them, how the system provides the training and knowledge that farmers need to produce and market their goods, and the transport and logistics that actually gets the produce to buyers. It’s startling that a country like South Africa – top of the African food security rankings by production – also has a third of the population that is food insecure. This cannot be delinked from the 2 million agricultural households, particularly in the former homelands, that have minimal participation in food production and have become food consumers even though they are sitting on productive land. This would unravel the paradox of why food insecurity can exist in a country that is technically food secure.
Zambia has had a maize surplus for over a decade yet Zambia has the highest figures for severe and acute malnutrition for children under five years old. Unless the levers and drivers that can make the food system more responsive to people’s needs are targeted, efforts to combat food security will be in vain. It starts with smallholders – who are by no means a homogenous group, with many different potential “pathways to prosperity”. A one-size-fits-all approach would tend to prescribe the wrong means. Transformation entails appreciating this diversity, finding the gaps and unleashing technology and better resource efficiency is the way to go. Digitalisation is critical in this regard. For example, soil-testing services had been non existent for 80% of producers because digital soil testing was unavailable to farmers. In a case study, Solidaridad has used digital scanners to provide soil tests to over 4000 small farmers in less than six months. If a million small farmers could understand their soil in this way, transformation would undoubtedly accelerate.
Bennie van Zyl, General Manager of TLU, said that one of the biggest challenges facing farmers in South Africa is uncertainty in the policy environment. Land expropriation without compensation is frightening investors off. Government should rather be the farmer’s best friend to foster productivity and food security. One reason that South African farmers are able to be net exporters despite farming on marginal land is a solid knowledge foundation. Unfortunately extension services are no longer what they used to be, so disseminating knowledge is a challenge. Another issue is security from theft and violent crime. On top of that, service delivery failures caused by government corruption is hampering productivity. Finally, financing – especially for small-scale farmers – is a pressing challenge.
The rules of economics and the logic of the market are invariable; private ownership is a sound foundation for investment. The market is the only criterion for success or failure. Luckily, our farmers are very innovative. With regard to achieving sustainable development, entrepreneurs need to stick to the basics of economics and the laws of nature, which always seeks a balance and punishes those who misuse their land. At the same time, governments must do their utmost to assist farmers because agriculture is the bedrock on which all economies are built.
Todd Dugmore, a grower and alumnus of the Syngenta Leadership Academy, said that financial sustainability is indispensable – there can be no triple-bottom-line without it. Reflecting on his experience at the Syngenta Leadership Academy, he said that it’s paramount to give farmers the opportunity to develop their skills – not necessarily technical farming skills, but also the soft skills. Farmers in South Africa need to expand their skills sets especially people skills. It’s necessary to find out who you are as a farmer and also to listen to others to find out who they are. If you only have a hammer in your tool box, you will want to hammer every problem. Finding out how to communicate and build better relationships is essential for farmers who want to succeed in the “connection economy”.
Responding to the question of how to respond to sustainability challenges going forward, Dr Michael Charles recommended a unified approach that nonetheless takes different contexts into account. When it comes to smallholder farmers, standard policies are necessary to support them to thrive within their communities. “Africans shouldn’t be begging for food – the more we can learn from each other and support our smallholders, the better for us.” Communities have their own unique know-how – it’s necessary to listen to how they achieve solutions and share the lessons with other communities.
Dr Petra Laux said that it’s necessary to make global lessons work in the local context. Syngenta seeks to adapt global research principles to what is happening on the ground and thereby co-develop local solutions.
Mandla Nkomo said that not nearly enough is being invested in agriculture on the continent, especially in terms of research. Africa’s has staggering biodiversity in terms of livestock systems and crop systems but people have lost the skills to grow their own unique produce. Research often does not make the leap from the lab to the field. As a biochemist, he has found it more rewarding to create solutions in loco with farmers in the field and bringing the findings back to the lab than vice-versa.
Bennie van Zyl added that every farmer should do their own research on their own land – soil varies from farm to farm. Economies of scale demand that farmers pool resources to create a better environment. Resources (eg combine harvesters) can be shared for mutual benefit. At the same time, farmers need to have an innate sense of urgency and responsibility for on-the-spot decision-making.
From a climate change perspective, Todd Dugmore said that winters in his region have been unseasonably cold and summers have been fiercely hot. Research to help farmers survive these extremes is more important than ever before. “It’s an adapt-or-die situation.” Increasingly, a systemic approach is required – failure to pay sufficient attention to any aspect of the system risks catastrophic failure.
Touching on climate change, Dr Petra Laux said that developing better, more drought-resistant, pest-resistant seeds is an important focus for Syngenta.
Dr Michael Charles raised the topic of forecast-based financing. Instead of reacting to disasters, humanitarian organisations in conjunction with meteorological services can predict disasters and anticipate where and what type of funding will be necessary. Swift community intervention and support becomes possible, whether it’s a case of predicting cyclone impacts in Mozambique or bringing relief to drought-stricken areas.
Given the choice of three major interventions to assist smallholders, Mandla Nkomo would begin with the soil. Africa has the most arable land in the world but their health is unknown: a massive campaign to profile African soil health is called for. Then it’s necessary to help smallholders integrate their cropping and livestyle systems. Sustainable food production is impossible without sustainable crop and livestock systems in rural areas – farmers shouldn’t have to choose between the two. Finally, the rural-urban nexus needs to develop towards sustainability. Africa is the world’s biggest cocoa exporter – yet farmers in cocoa-producing areas are still in extreme poverty. This needs to be turned around.
With regard to the uptake of greener methods of farming, industrialised agricultural systems are in fact trying to adopt more sustainable production methods. However, smallholder farmers have always been using regenerative models – but the incentives to produce sustainably have not been there. Inappropriate inputs are provided without researching the state of the soil, for example. Regenerative agriculture forces us to do things in an integrated fashion – the water, soil and carbon cycles must work together.
Todd Dugmore said that there is an automatic move towards regenerative farming driven by rising input costs and decreasing margins – forcing farmers to become better farmers.
Bennie van Zyl added that population growth throughout the world demands that the production process has enough yield to put enough food on the plate, which complicates the question. Perhaps more research is required into determining the best balancing act between safeguarding resources and food production.
Regarding the economic viability of smallholder farming, Mandla Nkomo said that it’s necessary to ask how to get the most out of even the smallest farms, as has been a focus in China. Diversification of activities is the way forward here. By way of example, Solidaridad has a soy-bean programme: farmers were locked in a poverty trap by growing maize all the time and needed an alternative. How to grow soy in areas where there isn’t an established seed system? Incrementally, farmers were assisted to become profitably productive. The next problem was that farmers were now commodity producers of both maize and soy selling to traders in the capital in exchange for, say, poultry. The next stage was to capacitate farmers to produce poultry and eggs in order to create shorter cycles of production. Given the local climate, though, the right kind of fowl had to be sourced. These problems once solved, funding becomes much easier. However, there’s a myth that rural areas can’t be funded. Cellphone networks make fantastic profits in rural areas – if corporates can make money in rural areas, financiers can fund them too. Kenya’s Mpesa is a case in point, integrating millions of people who have never inside a bank into the financial system.
Bennie van Zyl said that 68% of the population is already urbanised – the commercial sector must produce food for them. For smallholder farmers, it’s a socio-economic reality that many are still dependent on social grants. What can be done to help them to be more productive and raise their yields? A commercial farmer can be defined as a farmer who produces food for a market, even if it’s only ten crates of tomatoes. Finance models today not only use land as collateral but look at your business plan too. Smallholders often sit on very good soil but aren’t using it properly at this stage. It’s also a mindset issue – farming for today rather than building to grow better for tomorrow.
