Agricultural transformation centres in Africa: practical guidance to promote inclusive agro-industrial development

With 65 percent of the world’s most arable, uncultivated land, abundance of fresh water and more than 60 percent of the economically active population engaged in agriculture, Africa presents invaluable agricultural potential. Nonetheless, the continent’s dependence on food imports continues to increase. In line with its mission to spur sustainable economic development and social progress, the African Development Bank launched the Feed Africa strategy, whose objective is to contribute substantially to the transformation of African agriculture by 2025, and to reverse Africa’s dependence on imported foods. As part of this strategy, the Bank is promoting the establishment of staple crops processing zones (SCPZs), which are agrobased spatial development initiatives, designed to concentrate agroprocessing activities within areas of high agricultural potential. These zones include an agroprocessing hub, a number of agricultural transformation centres (ATCs) and agricultural production areas. The centres are intended to be community-based rural institutions providing a mix of hard and soft infrastructure and services to smallholders and agripreneurs. They aim to reduce on-farm and post-harvest losses, improve quality, aggregate production and create efficiency in transportation by linking them to the agroprocessing hubs within the SCPZs for further value addition. Under the technical supervision of FAO, this publication analyses the applicability of the ATC concept to the African context, by assessing the feasibility of establishing ATCs in three African countries: Zambia, Côte d’Ivoire and the United Republic of Tanzania, for selected value chains. The findings represent a preliminary attempt to better understand the practical and nuanced implications of promoting the establishment of ATCs in Africa as part of the broader SCPZ concept under the Feed Africa strategy.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	186514 Rankin, M. (ed.), 184100 FAO, Rome (Italy) eng, 1423211763760 Rizzo, C. (ed.), 1423211777227 Sanginga, P. (ed.), 1423211777228 Oladapo, O. (ed.), 1423211777229 Nyambe, M. (ed.), 1423211777230 Mwesige, D. (ed.), 183029 African Development Bank, Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) eng
Format:	Texto biblioteca
Language:	eng
Published:	Rome (Italy) FAO/AfDB 2019
Subjects:	agricultural development, sustainable development, agroindustrial sector, community organizations, technological changes,
Online Access:	http://www.fao.org/3/CA3008EN/ca3008en.pdf
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