Common Futures

Common Futures: India and Africa in Partnership
maximum mutual benefit in the context of food security, it is essential to
review progress and assess the shortcomings of previous commitments.
Greater focus on co-designing partnerships with improved transparency and
monitoring of project plans and deliverables, as well as simpler bureaucratic
procedures that take language barriers into account could be of universal
benefit.
It is likely that the India-Africa development engagements will focus on
lessons from India’s Green Revolution. The Indian private sector’s potential to
invest in developing Africa’s agricultural, irrigational, and other infrastructure
and investments in training and capacity-building programmes to enhance
productivity will also potentially be significant areas of partnerships. However,
the focus should not be limited to food production because production on its
own does not guarantee food security.
Domestically, in addition to improving the performance of agriculture
and diversifying produce, the key priorities of the Indian Government as
articulated under the current Five Year Plan (2013 – 2017) include reducing
vulnerabilities of small and marginal farmers with special focus on women and
other disadvantaged groups. Hence, the impacts of large scale international
land investments on the land rights of local communities, and the impacts
of investments in rural infrastructure on smallholder farmers need to be
discussed further.
Finally, both India and Africa are facing dual challenges -of feeding a growing
population, and of adapting to the changing climate and its impacts on
agriculture. Climate change and its perceived impacts are more discernible
in the African continent at present. Consequently, the region is pioneering
grassroots techniques for making traditional farming adaptable to climate
change. As rainfall patterns and soil values are changing drastically in India as
well, the government should invest in opportunities for two-way facilitation
of capacity building and mobilization, to spread knowledge and best practice
inputs at micro levels.
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