NAIROBI, Kenya. 9 December 2013. Today, the Alliance for a Green Revolution
in Africa (AGRA) announced a five-year project that seeks to increase
incomes of smallholder farmers through the creation of an enabling policy
environment in Africa. The initiative –*Micro Reforms for African
Agribusiness (MIRA) *– will identify, prioritize and reform specific
agricultural policies and regulations that currently deter or limit private
investment in small- and medium-sized agribusinesses operating in
smallholder agricultural value chains.
Over a period of five years, AGRA aims to motivate at least 25 significant
policy or regulatory reforms in selected countries, leading to measurable
increases in private sector investment in local agribusinesses. The
project, funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation, is expected to
increase the number of smallholder farmers accessing improved technologies
supplied by agribusinesses operating in local staple food value chains. It
will also help them access stable, predictable income-generating market
opportunities. This enhanced access to input and output markets is in turn
expected to lead to increased smallholder productivity and incomes, and
reduced poverty for smallholder farm-dependent families.
“We are very excited about this new initiative,” says AGRA President Ms.
Jane Karuku. “It will help African Governments unlock agricultural
potential in their countries by supporting their efforts to develop
progressive agricultural policies that will attract increased private
investment in smallholder agricultural value chains. The initiative aims
reform retrogressive agricultural regulations that deter rather than
encourage such investment”.
“The MIRA project will provide African Governments with access to high
quality local and international technical assistance for identifying,
prioritizing and reforming specific agricultural regulations,” says Dr.
Steven Were Omamo, AGRA’s Director of Policy and Advocacy. “Current
regulations often discourage private investment in small- and medium-sized
agribusinesses that serve the needs of smallholder farmers. The project
will help build the capacity of African Government leaders and analysts to
make better-informed, economically-robust assessments and decisions about
which regulations need to be reformed in order to facilitate increased
private investment in smallholder value chains.
The MIRA project has four key objectives:
· To strengthen African Governments’ demand for regulatory reforms,
by supporting efforts to identify and assess regulations that
unintentionally limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains;
· To support African Governments’ efforts to reform regulations
that limit private sector investment in smallholder value chains;
· To promote reformed regulations to local and international
private sector investors, in order to raise awareness about improved
agribusiness-enabling environments in Africa; and
· To enhance the capacity and commitment of African Governments to
continuously review, assess and reform regulations that limit private
sector investment in smallholder value chains.
By the end of the project, three major outcomes are expected:
· Reformed agricultural policies and regulations creating more
conducive environments for private sector investment in local
agribusinesses operating smallholder value chains in five countries;
· Increased private sector investment in the “throughput capacity”
of existing and new local agribusinesses – those supplying inputs to
smallholders and/or purchasing farm outputs from them; and
· At least 25 significant policy or regulatory reforms that induce
measurable increases in private sector investment in local agribusinesses
operating in smallholder agrifood value chains.