Agricultural Growth Corridors: Beira & Dar es Salaam

Overview

The Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor (BAGC) initiative was tabled at the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 2009. The aim is to bring together private and public sector stakeholders to stimulate a major revival of agriculture along the corridor, with significant social and economic benefits for the region.

Introduced at the Africa World Economic Forum in Dar es Salaam in May 2010, The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) aims to stimulate major investment in  commercial agriculture in southern Tanzania and through to Zambia, Malawi and DRC in ways that deliver direct benefits for smallholder farmers and rural communities. SAGCOT has attracted the personal support of H.E. President Kikwete as a means of implementing Tanzania’s Kilimo Kwanza (“agriculture first”) initiative

The adoption of these corridor approaches is not new but other initiatives have tended to focus on road and rail improvement and associated infrastructure. In this case there is an established and direct link between infrastructure and agricultural market development.

Background

Prorustica and key partners are piloting a new type of agricultural development known as Agricultural Growth Corridors. These aim to improve input efficiency and infrastructure management in Mozambique and Tanzania as a catalyst for wider agricultural growth across the region.  

The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania and the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor are the two initial corridor initiatives that are bringing together public and private-sector stakeholders to stimulate a major revival of agriculture along the corridors, with significant social and economic benefits for the region.

For many parts of Africa with high agricultural potential the urgent challenge is to catch up with international competitors, many of whom already benefit from good infrastructure and mature agribusiness clusters. Achieving this will not be easy: the private sector is reluctant to invest in agricultural situations in Sub-Saharan Africa unless it can be assured of access to affordable infrastructure, and a supportive policy and business environments; conversely governments and state utility companies are unlikely to commit significant public resources to building out infrastructure in rural areas where there is only limited commercial farming activity, and hence low demand for services.

The agricultural growth corridor model is a way of breaking the impasse and catalysing large volumes of private investment and enabling high potential agricultural regions to become internationally competitive.

At the forefront of Partnership development, Prorustica’s role has been to work on the development of the concept, build investment blueprints to offer partners a roadmap for commercial agricultural development and develop partnership secretariats to manage and coordinate implementation. We are focused on drawing in commercial agribusiness operations (including outgrower programmes) within the corridors to help create economies of scale and improve competitiveness.

Partnership

Prorustica was tasked with co-partners in leading in the development of the concept and the main investment blueprints for the two programmes. Prorustica is also establishing the partnership principles and the Secretariats that will coordinate activities along the corridors.

Prorustica has identified local partnership secretariats in Dar es Salaam and Beira who will work with us to coordinate activities including relevant finance to help “crowd in” commercial agribusiness operations  within the corridor. The secretariats will also help to ensure public and private sector programmes and investments are properly targeted and coordinated along the corridor.

We are also working with these Partnerships to identify areas with high agricultural potential and reasonable possible access to existing backbone infrastructure to enhance commercial agriculture. We are also analyzing the constraints on commercial agriculture and explaining how these can be honestly and openly addressed through management and mitigation.

The strength of the partnerships will depend on a mixture of incentives, benefits and goodwill. These include a commercial focus in line with broader government agendas, the inclusion of both smallholders and commercial agribusiness entities and responsive, pro-active coordination of access to financial and technical support.

Achievements

• The Concept of Agricultural Corridors launched in UN General Assembly in New York in 2008 and endorsed at the World Economic Forum in Davos in  early 2009
• BAGC and SAGCOT Concept Notes endorsed by respective Governments with green light given to develop full investment Blueprints and Partnership Framework
• The BAGC is underway after the Investment Blueprint was endorsed by the main partners at Davos in early 2010 and has already attracted substantial funding from development partners
• Eight multinationals, a number of development partners and the Government of the United Republic of Tanzania have provided funding for the development of an SAGCOT Investment Blueprint, to be presented by H.E. Kikwete at the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2011