Last month I participated in several meetings on African agricultural development during WEF Africa. One discussion focused on WEF’s collaboration with the Tanzanian government to advance agriculture, the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), with heads of state, agriculture ministers, USG officials and several major companies investing in Africa. An initial document, the Tanzania Investment Blueprint, outlines the needs and opportunities in agriculture in the corridor.
Frank Braeken at the Frontier 100 Forum in Cape Town
Frank Braeken, Executive Vice President from Unilever and Frontier 100 member, highlighted the strengths of SAGCOT, which includes significant support from President Kikwete of Tanzania, a focus on small holder farmers as the engine of business growth, the establishment of an independent catalytic fund, and backing from a coalition of global companies including Unilever, Yara, General Mills, Syngenta and others.
USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah participated in the event, voicing support for SAGCOT from the Obama administration’s Feed the Future program. Feed the Future has committed $2 million to the catalytic fund, opening the door for more funding in the future. Administrator Shah commended this effort and said that once the world knows there are new mechanisms for advancing African agriculture like SAGCOT, the donor community will step up.
Frontier 100 members Patrick Devenish (Group Chief Executive AICO Africa Limited) and Ram Karuturi (Managing Director, Karuturi Global Limited, Ethiopia) participated in the conversation and underlined the importance of input from successful African companies who have sound business models to scale production and improve the lives of small scale farmers. Mr. Devenish has significant investments in cotton seed in Tanzania and invests along the supply chain to include small scale farmers. He noted that good government policy makes a significant difference in his investment decisions.
IGD will continue to support these efforts by linking opportunities to Frontier 100 CEOs, coordinating with Feed the Future programs in Tanzania, and promoting needed policy interventions to remove barriers to agricultural development. Along with WEF and Feed the Future, IGD hopes to draw on SAGCOT as a model for other countries to advance both business and government investments in African agriculture.
