The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) launched its inaugural report on the state of African agriculture recently. The report takes an in-depth look at the staple crop value chain in 16 countries across Africa and brings together data and analysis from over 15 national and international organizations, including ministries of agriculture, the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the International Fund for Agricultural Development. The inaugural Africa Agricultural Status Report focuses on staple crops, such as cereals and root-crops, around 75% of which are produced in Africa, rather than imported. The report reveals that:

• While a number of countries invest heavily in R&D and develop their agricultural sector, others are lagging behind. Africa has the world's lowest capacity in personnel involved in agricultural research with only 70 researchers per million inhabitants.
• Declining soil fertility threatens crop yields and agricultural development in a number of countries. 
• Outdated national and regional laws and regulations restrict the development of Africa's seed markets. The average length of the seed release process is around three years in most sub-Saharan African countries.
• Low cost and subsidized food imports weaken African agricultural markets, along with poor access to credit, trade restrictions and high transportation costs. Although agriculture represents as much as 40% of GDP in some African countries, only 0.25% of bank lending goes to smallholder farmers.
• Women, who represent the majority of Africa's smallholder farmers, are heavily disadvantaged under current land rights systems. This is reducing their ability to access credit, agricultural technologies and services. Evidence shows that women in Africa are five times less likely than men to own land.

The report is available from AGRA's website with the following link: http://www.agra.org/. The news release is available at: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309040427.html.