For as long as I can remember, people have been talking about the potential for Africa to become a major global food supplier. All the pieces of the puzzle are present – Africa has plenty of underdeveloped arable land, decent access to water (this varies geographically of course), and a lot of un or underemployed people who could be put to productive work on modern farms. Sadly, though, the dream of an African agricultural revolution always seems to struggle to get off the ground. There are a lot of roadblocks. Some countries, like Zimbabwe, have problematic legislation related to land that inhibits investment. In many places, arable land is in the hands of small, family subsistence farmers who are notoriously unproductive compared to farming peers in Europe and Asia. Rules around foreign ownership of land prevent global agri-businesses from entering some markets, and a lack of infrastructure makes getting agri products to market a challenge. It’s nice to dream of a food utopia in Africa, but there’s a lot of hard work to be done before that becomes a reality. – FD
ALEC HOGG: Well, the world’s population is growing exponentially, with many more mouths to feed. Food security is an issue that you hear about everywhere you go into these big forums around the world, including the World Economic Forum in Davos. Africa uses – apparently – less than 25 percent of its arable land. Maybe we can help ourselves in terms of food security. Mark Titterington is Head of Corporate Affairs MEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) at Syngenta. Mark, let’s just get those numbers right. We hear them all the time at these conferences, at the World Economic Forum and elsewhere; that Africa has so much arable land, which it doesn’t utilise. What are the accurate or up-to-date numbers there?
MARK TITTERINGTON: Well, as you say, Africa had huge potential and we at Syngenta believe the continent has the ability to not only feed itself, but also to become a major world food exporter. We can talk about what the figures actually say, but the fundamentals are the same. Africa has land that it can certainly use in many places. It has the right climate, the right soil, and it has an abundance of talent I’m sure, in the people that work here, that can help it to achieve the potential it has.
ALEC HOGG: Yes, that’s the apple pie and cream that you’re giving us. Obviously, we know that people are able to do these things if given the opportunity, but what’s the number, Mark? Sixty percent of the world’s untilled arable land is apparently in the African continent. Is that accurate?
MARK TITTERINGTON: Yes, it’s pretty close to being accurate. As I say, it’s not just about the land, though. It’s about what we do with it. The soil is there. In many places, the water is there. All we need to do is make sure that growers have access to the right technologies, whatever their scale of farm, that they have the knowledge on how to use them in order to grow their crops as sustainably as possible. That’s what Syngenta and companies like ours are about and why we’re excited about the prospects for African agriculture.
ALEC HOGG: It’s not new, though. It’s been tried all over the place. What’s been hindering it so far and what might you be doing that will be different?
MARK TITTERINGTON: Well, it’s partly what I’ve been talking about here at the Farmer Conference in Cape Town. It’s about equipping the people with the skills and the technologies that they need to succeed. Let me give you some practical examples. We’re working with Grain South Africa and the Agriculture Business Chamber here at the Free State University to set up Grain Academy, which is going to enable the next generation of agri-business leaders to succeed in terms of responding to the food security challenge here. We’re working with cocoa growers in West Africa to raise the standard of production and ensure that they have guaranteed access to the market. We’re doing similar things with horticulture centres in Kenya, so we all need to get a little bit more tangible and practical about what we’re doing in order to enable Africa to succeed. I’m sure it can.
ALEC HOGG: No doubt, you’ve been following the experiment in Nigeria that has been put on Goodluck Jonathan’s agenda as the number one…a very energetic Agriculture Minister, who is trying to transform the agricultural sector there. They don’t seem to be making too much progress, though. What are the blockages?
MARK TITTERINGTON: Again, this takes time. Nigeria probably does benefit from one of the most visionary agriculture leaders on the continent, and – dare I say it, – the world. As I’ve already alluded to, I think it’s in part, getting the right technology into the right people’s hands. There we’re talking about the right quality seeds, the right quality inputs such as crop protection, pesticides, and fertilisers – things my company is involved in – it’s about making sure that the growers have access to the knowledge and the skills that the need to grow productively. We all have to take a look at ourselves, whether we’re an industry, in government, or indeed, in the NGO sector and say ‘have we got the right reach to the growers to enable them to succeed’. I think my company is trying to address that through some of the commitments we’ve made but collectively, we all need to raise our game.
ALEC HOGG: Yes, but be more specific. The Nigerians have said they have legal blockages. They had a situation where everything had to be centralised, and that wasn’t working that well. Have they been able to break those obstacles down?
MARK TITTERINGTON: I think they’re starting to, and with many governments on the continent… One of the reasons that we have made the commitment to invest here is that we believe that the governments are beginning to take the right steps to unblock some of these processes, whether they’re in terms of the regulatory frameworks of in terms of attracting companies such as mine, to invest. We wouldn’t have made the announcement, which we did in 2012, if that weren’t the case. This takes time. We’re not going to transfer this overnight.
ALEC HOGG: So from your perspective – or from Syngenta’s perspective – when you see governments doing the right things…when you see them freeing up the marketplace and making it possible to get seeds and to get fertiliser to where the takkie hits the tar, that’s enough of an encouragement for you to put a little bit of money behind it. What is going to really excite you, though? What is going to make a company like yours, plough billions of Dollars into the continent?
MARK TITTERINGTON: I’m not going to comment on the figures, Alec. Look, we’ve gone into Zambia in the last 12 months, working with MRI seeds – huge possibilities there in terms of white maize. We’re excited about the possibility of working with the stakeholders there on conservation agriculture (minimum tillage). That will improve the soil. We’ve expanded our footprint in places like Nigeria, Tanzania, and Mozambique, and all because we think that there’s a possibility to work there, and that the governments are starting to address the right environment that is going to make these places attractive for companies like Syngenta.
ALEC HOGG: So a big tick there for Tanzania, Mozambique, and some of the other countries that you mentioned. In South Africa, is the regulation…are the processes working in the right direction as well?
MARK TITTERINGTON: Yes, we’re established here in South Africa and have been for many years. We have not only a commercial organisation, but we have RND capability here. We just opened a seed-care institute in South Africa. We have other production facilities, so this is the right base for us – a good springboard into the rest of Africa – and we remain positive about this country as indeed, we do about Africa as we whole. We do need to guard against any form of pessimism if you like, about agriculture in South Africa and really focus on the positives because the fundamentals are really there and that’s why we’re excited to be here.
ALEC HOGG: I can see why you’re Head of Corporate Affairs. That was Mark Titterington, Head of Corporate Affairs for Europe, Middle East, and Africa at Syngenta, focusing on the positives.
After the break, we’ll take a look at equities and property funds listing on the JSE this morning.
