The United Nations has said that organic farming has rich potential in Africa but is increasingly under-funded. Hence the UN is calling for increased funding, as a survey conducted by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) revealed on Monday 5 September in Rome that organic farming offers an excellent and lucrative export opportunity for Africa.
It noted in the survey that access to finance is harder to come by than five years ago. In the survey, 64 per cent of organic farmers, exporters, and experts from 16 African countries said the situation had not changed while 23 per cent said they felt that access to financing had become more restrictive in the last five years.
Malick Kane and Henrique Pacini, authors of the survey said that the most critical areas in terms of the need for external funding highlighted by stakeholders in organic agriculture, were certification and marketing, and the purchase of equipment.
Kane noted that while established organic exports like coffee and cocoa benefited most from the access to finance, the survey noted that crops like organic pineapples, mangoes, bananas and even potatoes have enormous export potential.
Meanwhile, Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), noted under the survey that funding for Africa’s agriculture in general has come under pressure in recent years, falling to an average of 2.7 per cent of national budgets in 2013.
It said that the fall happened in spite a 2003 African Union commitment to allocate 10 per cent of national budgets to this sector.
