World Bank Approves US$90 million for East Africa’s Agricultural Productivity Program

Washington, June 11, 2009 - The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors has approved US$90 million to strengthen agricultural productivity and growth in the East African region. The program will benefit Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania with an allocation of US$30 million each. 

The East Africa Agricultural Productivity Programwill support the three countries to strengthen  regional cooperation in the generation of technology, training and dissemination programs for regional priority commodities, including dairy, cassava, rice and wheat.  

Agriculture accounts for two-fifths of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in East Africa and it is the primary source of income for more than two-thirds of the population. It is key to poverty reduction and better livelihoods for the people of three countries—which have a combined population of nearly 160 million.  

Agricultural technology is fundamental to growth in productivity and will enable agriculture to play a transformative role in Africa’s economic development. This program will contribute to the growth, structural change and food security of the three East African countries.  Advanced technologies are necessary to empower farmers improve their responsiveness to food price shocks through increased access to inputs, including seeds of improved cultivators and improved livestock. This program will support the three countries to lower barriers of movement of technologies across borders and increase the regional space for inputs markets that are presently constrained by the small size of national markets.  

Improved regional agricultural technology systems can deliver benefits to food security in the short run and also boost longer term economic growth. The recent sharp increases in the prices of food, especially cereals and oilseeds, created hardships for consumers but also created opportunities for farmers in the region.   

The program will support efforts to scale up and develop national research programs into Regional Centers of Excellence that will take a leading role in technology generation, dissemination and training on a regional basis. It is part of the Bank’s regional agricultural strategy to support activities that will be coordinated across three or more countries and generate benefits that spill over country boundaries.  

“The program will support Tanzania to establish a Regional Center of Excellence for Rice, aimed at improving rice production through better access for farmers to improved varieties, management practices and post-harvest technologies; germplasm collection and preservation; strengthening seed systems; strengthening capacity of national institutions for rice improvement, enhance agro-processing and value addition; and strengthening collaboration with regional and international institutions involved in rice research and development” said John Murray McIntire, World Bank Country Director for Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi.

This program will complement the agricultural investment programs that are being implemented in the three countries. In Tanzania the program will complement the US$ 220 million credit for Accelerated Food Security Program (AFSP) approved by the Board on June 9, 2009 and the on-going Agricultural Sector Development Program (ASDP) supported by the World Bank (US$ 90 million) and other Development Partners to achieve greater food security through increased agricultural productivity, food production and farm incomes.