African governments have been called on creating conducive environments to motivate the private sector to invest in agriculture sector and take a lead in agribusiness.
The call was made on November 06, during the official opening of the second African Union private sector and agribusiness forum that is taking place from 5th to 7th, in Kigali.
Speaking during the forum that brought together about 100 participants including government officials from AU Member States, members of the private, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr. Gerardine Mukeshimana, said that the government of Rwanda has worked to improve the Doing-Business Climate to attract foreign and domestic private investment.
“These initiatives have resulted in 70 percent of registered investments coming from foreign investors and joint ventures with foreign investors in the last two years,” said the minister, noting that the Government of Rwanda recognizes the significance of agriculture and agribusiness to the country’s economy.
Rwanda was the first country to sign up to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program known as CAADP; and to date over 10% of the national budget goes to agriculture.
As results, agriculture and agribusiness are playing a significant role in Rwanda’s economy; having contributed 33% of the GDP in 2013.
With increased commercialization, the agriculture sector has been the driving force for about 45% of poverty reduction in the last decade.
Minister Mukeshimana mentioned that the government recognizes the need to do more to transform the agriculture sector from subsistence to market-oriented farming and agro-processing.
In this context, the minister highlighted, three of the four pillars of the EDPRS II all include emphasis in agro-business.
These include Economic Transformation that strives to develop the Agribusiness Value chain by connecting farmers and buyers, improving market information and infrastructure, improving the productivity and sustainability of Agriculture by training farmers,
Others are connecting farmers and cooperatives to agro-processing, and providing access to capital to grow local investments; and providing more technical training and create employment in agro-processing, transformation of agriculture products.
Giving her remarks, the commissioner of rural economy and agriculture of the African Union, Rhoda Peace Tumusiime, emphasized that there is a need to accord high priority to the critical role played by women and youths and support them to unleash their potentials to the fullest in driving the agriculture and agribusiness sector.
The commissioner also added that the African Union will keep working closely with both governments and members of the private sector to ensure that the agribusiness gets to the next level.
“As the African Union Commission, we will continue to pursue mutually beneficial long-term relationships that we see building between the private sector and our governments that will be based on mutual understanding of incentives, roles and expectations of the public and private sectors for the benefit of African citizens,” she said.
On the second day of the forum, participants kept discussing on how to improve agribusiness in Africa and boost intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services, among other areas.