Urgent issues for consideration   (Reprint due to printer error)

Introduction

The "Ten Issues Plan for Agricultural Transformation," Daily Observer, January 8, 2008 is a gold mine that lays the groundwork for considering interactions between economic policy and agricultural and non-agricultural growth.  I find myself in agreement with some of the issues raised (although the wheel has already been invented) and hope to see an automatic development of a number of the issues raised when certain growth determining pre-conditions are met.

It is difficult to comment on a document with which one is fundamentally in sympathy.  In part this is because, professional development practitioners serving in the capacity of a commentator cum contributor cannot reiterate those ideas with which they agree.  However, the comments below are predicated on the fact that so much has been left out that deserves attention and could stimulate further thought.

Generally, sub-Saharan Africa economies, especially those in the West African Semi-Arid Tropics (WASAT), within which we are, are faced with inadequate knowledge of policy and ineffective administration of development.

Any agenda for transformation, especially one in the agricultural sector, must recognise the difference between the two and address them in different ways.  The impossibility - indeed the danger - of attempting to address an issue as complex as national agricultural transformation in one full swoop, with inadequate support administration, must be recognised.

One of the major reasons why developed countries and, Asian and Latin American, became self-sufficient in food and are able to provide relief to developing countries is that their agriculture is based on modern science and technology; hence productivity is high.  There have generally been profound social and economic transformations, especially in institutional support in these countries.  These are the achievements that made Malthus irrelevant and put him to eternal rest.    

Rationale
 
I belief that any proposed 'issues plan' for agricultural transformation should be made to hinge upon and revolve around the resource-poor small holder farmer and, should (1) take cognizance of the farmers' current practices and identify successes and shortcomings;

(2) determine and understand in as much detail as possible all relevant aspects of soils, vegetation, climate, fauna, pests, diseases, and so forth;

(3) devise sound agricultural practices and technologies that are in harmony with the extent and nature of the country's natural resources and ecological base;

(4) insure that available agricultural practices and technologies enable farmers to increase production and productivity while conserving natural resources.  To achieve these objectives, production practitioners and farmers must relate very closely.  Farm systems advisory service should be used as an invaluable tool in coordinating the production practitioner and farmer consultations - and thus in the development of packages and/or plans for accelerating agricultural growth.

The average Gambia farmer is operating below subsistence level, hence the level of food and income poverty in the rural areas.  The farmer is the person who must improve productivity and therefore should be party to the formulation of technologies aimed at improving his or her lot.  

To be able to do this, constraints that prevent him from yield increases, yield stabilization and self-reliant production "take-off" should be identified.  Only when these constraints are removed can farmers be outward looking - and produce surplus for the growing mass of urban dwellers as well as for export promotion and import substitution.  Furthermore, everyone living in the rural area is not a farmer.

Development programmes and projects should create other forms of agricultural support services employment for the non-farmer - agriculture could be purposively used as a development tool in generating industry and commerce.  Farmers must be provided with initial, time bound, adequately supervised institutional supporting services essential for growth of production and should be able to see tangible benefits of their efforts.     

The Need for a Methodological Approach

To inform ourselves more fully on the items outlined in the ten issues plan, and to make an in depth contribution to the debate for a wider understanding of the agricultural transformation process, we need to be informed that the wheel has long been invented.  What is required now is to come up with the necessary modifications on the wheel, that hinges upon and revolves around a methodological framework starting with select critical "issues for consideration" linked to a consolidation phase.    

ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION

Modern agricultural transformation a la Green Revolution is characterized by technological innovations based on scientific discovery (which has put the Malthusian Theory to rest).  This was inaugurated in Asia and Latin America and developed gradually, accompanied by economic and socio-cultural changes that frequently were mutually supportive.  If we must emphasize sustained and stabilized surplus food and cash crop production during the short-term, as a pre-condition for a successful agricultural transformation, understanding and implementing the following must be our new frontiers:   

What is transformation?

Transformation carries an implicit connotation of trying to improve on an existing system that has been acceptable and/or fashionable at a certain time.  On the other hand, transformation refers to a process.

One possible definition of agricultural transformation could be that it is a process through which an agrarian society, design strategies to achieve increased control over its agricultural production environment, increased control over its own production destiny that enables its component participants/partners to gain increased control over themselves through sustained and stabilized surplus production, for own consumption as well as export promotion and import substitution.

In the light of the above definition, a subsistence society and/or community that has been cultivating, for example, 5 hectares of assorted crops (per household) for its subsistence needs, but now has a more realistic explanation (through on-farm advisory service and use of improved technologies) of the production process and is consequently producing a marketable surplus from 2 hectares of the same assorted crops (per household) - this agrarian society is transforming very fast and its transformation can be measured by an index of sustainability and stability.

The first ingredient of the transformation process is molded by existence of diverse values in the society which clash, conflict, and evolve into something new but do not suppress other value systems.  

The second ingredient of this process is innovation rather than limitation.  The transforming society learns from experience of others, assimilates innovations that it considers useful through a process of conscious selection geared to stabilizing increased production and productivity gains.

 The third ingredient of this process, which has been the missing link in our agricultural and rural development transformation systems, is our inability to institutionalize the  targets-based production system: to produce and stabilize surplus production on a sustainable basis through soil fertility, fertilizer use-rate and use-efficiency management trilogy.

 Stabilized technical change leading to productivity "take-off"     is an inevitable pre-condition for a successful transformation process.  The trilogy is about putting agricultural science and technology to work to fill bellies, diminish poverty, create employment and, provide support for export promotion and import substitution.

Generating these conditions requires enabling the production environment initially, through supervised subsidies, preferably on a declining scale over a very short time frame.