Nairobi, Kenya
September 25, 2013

The Africa Agriculture Status Report: Focus on Staple 2013 Crops was inspired by the need to have an accessible and reliable resource publication depicting the status and trends of African agriculture.  Given the role agriculture plays in the African economies, it is critical to have such a resource to inform the designing of policies and strategies based on current and accurate information on key indicators.  The chapters in the report were guided by the value chain concept. The concept runs from production, through post-harvest handling, to processing and marketing of the commodities, to consumption. It takes into consideration the input-output markets, be they domestic, regional or global.  Collective action as a tool in agricultural transformation is also considered, since it plays a key role in addressing the constraints faced by smallholder farmers.  The aim of the status report is to have an ongoing data collection effort on key agriculture indicators that are tracked on a regular basis and reported in subsequent publications.

This report is divided in two sections:  The first section focuses on agricultural growth, competitiveness, factors of production (land, soil fertility, seed production, agriculture financing), output markets, capacity building, agriculture policy, farmer organizations, women in agriculture and extension advisory services.  The chapters outline the current status and the interventions offered by various players in the field of agriculture.   The second section is a collation of both macro and micro data from the selected countries.  The micro data was provided by the Ministries of Agriculture and Bureaus of Statistics in the respective countries.  The macro data was from institutions that track key indicators on a regular basis such as the World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organizations and The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.  The expectation, moving forward, is to track the micro data on a regular basis and avail these data to actual or potential consumers of the information. 

Click here to download the full report 

Website: http://www.agra-alliance.org

Published: September 27, 2013