By Prossy Nandudu
For African agriculture to tap into services such as financing, markets and machinery subsidies among others, there is a need for a special team that will interface with the service providers on behalf of farmers.
The call was made by Pr Robert Kayanja from Yohua Life Ltd while making a presentation on Bulk Grain Production for Sustainable African Food Systems: A Myth or Reality.
“For agriculture to succeed, there is a need for negotiators. Because there is no way you can grow food at the rate of 10% on the money given by commercial banks,” Kayanja said.
Kayanja said although the blame usually goes to the Government for not intervening, it is the farmer negotiators that have failed to push it to realise the needs of the farming communities.
“It is a shame that we are still importing food when instead we should be the ones selling food to the nations with the deficit. Even in government, those people who leave the country to go and negotiate for loans should be able to understand what is for the farming communities in the countries,” Kayanja said.
The same applies when acquiring land for production, according to Kayanja.
He explained that to succeed in getting land in Karamoja, he worked with negotiators, who included clan heads and then landowners.
“We need to negotiate, there will not be land wrangles because nobody is here to take their land, but people need someone who can make use of their land and agree on a fair percentage for both parties.
He, however, added that for the negotiations to be delivered, the team should be composed of farmer’s aggregators and the landowners.
“All the three must be together because when a landowner comes, he comes with capital on the venture. So, he must have his share, when an aggregator comes, he or she has the market for whatever you are producing and then the landowners like we went into Karamoja and even built a relationship,” he added.
He made the call on Friday while officiating at the 10th African Grain Summit under the theme Defining Africa’s Place in the Global Grains Trade for Sustainable Foods Systems at Speke Resort Munyonyo in Kampala.
The three-day event attracted technology providers from Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Germany, Ukraine, Nigeria and Ethiopia among others.
Technologies exhibited at the summit include hematic storage bags, plastic and metal silos that can take in one tonne, grain processing and storage facilities, and aflatoxin testing kits.
Speaking at the event, Gerald Masila, the executive director of the Eastern African Grain Council, said the conference was focusing on finding space for Africa in the Global grain trade.
“We know that Africa is a big continent with arable land but the highest number of imports into the African continent are because of the low productivity and other challenges in agriculture. So, we are discussing policy issues and recommendations that will be passed onto the government,” Masila said.
For Africa to increase production, Marcos Brandalise, a technology provider from Brazil called for the adoption of agriculture conservation, through minimum tillage of land for sustainable farming.
He also called on governments in Africa and the private sector to support smallholder farmers with machinery to make them more productive.
Eng David Perry from Perry Engineering, a UK company in the production of grain processing and storage facilities, and aflatoxin management technology called for fair financing regimes for importers of processing machinery.
Other suggestions in the meeting were the adoption of alternatives to grains when feeding livestock like insect foods to make food items like fish and soybeans available for human consumption as opposed to the current competition between humans and livestock for the same crops.
