In 2003, African leaders pledged to increase support for agriculture.  Known as Maputo Declaration, African leaders agreed to allocate at least 10 percent of budgetary resources to agriculture and to achieve 6 percent growth in agriculture sector to reduce poverty and food insecurity.  

“Ripe for Change: The Promise of Africa’s Agricultural Transformation”, published by the ONE Campaign, reviews the accomplishments and the shortcomings since 2003 and provides ten recommendations to accelerate broad-based agricultural growth in Africa. The report recommends African leaders to:

1. Make time-bound commitments to meet the Maputo pledge of spending at least 10% of national budgets on effective agriculture investments, through transparent and accountable budgets.
2. Eliminate the gender gap in agriculture.
3. Strengthen land governance and security of tenure rights.
4. Reduce barriers to intra-regional trade.
5. Increase R&D investment to at least 1% of agricultural GDP and bolster extension services.
6. Integrate sustainability and climate resilience into national agriculture plans.
7. Priorities the reduction of post-harvest loss in national agriculture plans.
8. Design nutrition goals into agriculture sector strategies.
9. Foster an enabling environment for smallholder integration and responsible private sector investment.
10. Accelerate implementation of agriculture plans and ensure pro-poor results for smallholder farmers

The report can be downloaded here (PDF).