Interview with Antoine Lekpa Gbegbeni, Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, and Rural Development, a priority sector for Togo. Contributing 23.51 billion pounds to the country's gross domestic product, the agricultural sector is a priority sector for Togo and attractive to both domestic and foreign investors.
What are the main challenges you face as part of the Togo 2025 strategy?
Placing emergence at the heart of its ambition, Togo has made remarkable progress over the past ten years and has set itself high economic growth and social and human development objectives for the years to come.
The agricultural sector is a pillar of the Togolese economy, employing 70% of the labor force and contributing 23.5% to the GDP. The country is blessed with a high availability of land, estimated at 3.6 million hectares of arable land, of which only 45% is currently exploited and 15 % of forests. The soils are rich and predisposed to crops. The area of irrigable land is estimated at 536,800 hectares and the annual water availability is 10 billion m3 of surface water and 5.7 billion m3 of groundwater. The country enjoys a tropical climate suitable for crops, with rainfall ranging between 1000 and 1500 mm per year.
The speculations produced are:
– cereals: corn, paddy rice, sorghum, fonio, millet
– legumes and oilseeds: cowpea, voandzou, soybean, peanut, sesame, cashew
– root and tuber plants: cassava, yam, sweet potato, potato, tarot, etc.
– fruits: orange, grapefruit, pineapple, lemon, guava, papaya, mango, mandarin, avocado, banana, etc.
– market garden produce: tomatoes, onions, peppers, carrots, lettuce, cabbages, etc.
– cash crops: cotton, coffee, cocoa, shea, oil palm, coconut, etc.
– animal sectors: poultry, cattle, goats, sheep, pigs,
– fish production with 4 types of fishing: maritime artisanal, industrial, continental, fish farming.
With the ambition of giving new impetus to the Togolese economy and society, a Togo 2025 strategic plan was developed by the government. The vision of the Togo 2025 strategic plan for Togolese agriculture is "A productive, high-value-added agriculture, driving economic value for farmers and the country's growth." To achieve this, three projects and one reform have been defined as priority projects for the agricultural sector by 2025. These projects are: improving agricultural productivity and yields, accelerating the Incentive Mechanism for Agricultural Financing Based on Risk Sharing (MIFA), expanding the Kara agropole in partnership with the private sector (the country's pilot agropole out of a total of ten planned by 2030), and reforming agricultural land policy.
The implementation of these projects in the new roadmap adopted by the government in October 2020 should ensure food security in Togo by covering 100% of the population's food and nutritional needs sustainably through national production and strengthening agro-industrial processing. This particularly involves encouraging the production and processing of high value-added sectors, improving the income and living conditions of the population, balancing the trade balance and creating sustainable jobs.
To improve productivity and yields on farms, a soil fertility map with appropriate fertilization recommendations has been developed. This map will allow the establishment of a specific fertilizer production unit to help optimize the use of agricultural inputs on farms. In addition, particular emphasis is placed on agricultural development, water management, mechanization, the promotion of quality inputs, harvest/post-harvest management, and the intensification of phytosanitary and animal disease monitoring.
To facilitate access to land for vulnerable groups and boost agricultural production, the establishment of planned agricultural development zones (ZAAP) has begun in each canton of the country, with the objective of developing 400 ZAAPs by 2025. ZAAPs are developed sites with an average surface area of 100 ha with facilities for mechanization, irrigation, good agricultural practices and marketing of production. It is envisaged to expand some ZAAPs to at least 500 ha in order to have larger production blocks.
In an effort to support the development of sustainable livestock production in Togo, a diagnosis of the livestock sector was conducted with a view to developing a strategy to increase the national availability of meat and dairy products. Similarly, the establishment of development zones for cattle production (ZAPB) was launched. Furthermore, the creation of work-study training institutes for development (IFAD), the development of livestock slaughter areas in different regions of the country and the implementation of the artificial insemination project will contribute to the sustainable development of the various animal sectors.
Is the agropole project the armed wing of your ministry?
To accelerate economic growth, facilitate job creation, and generate wealth, particularly in rural areas, Togo has opted for a strategy of expanding the link between agriculture and industry based on agropoles. Thus, the strategic plan for the development of agropoles in Togo, adopted by the government on September 29, 2017, structured the entire territory into ten agro-food processing zones (ZTAs) or "agropoles."
Through this instrument, the government intends to mobilize private investment in agri-food processing by establishing agro-industrial parks benefiting from the most suitable infrastructure, a one-stop shop, and harmonized and incentivized procedures. The agropole is a space for large-scale production and agro-industrial processing of promising sectors. It is a model aimed at promoting private investment through incentive and attractive measures.
The 10 agropoles planned in Togo are: Kara, Oti, Haut-Mono, Centre, Moyen-Mono, forest zone, peneplain, Bas-Mono, Littoral, and Lake zone. The pilot project in the Kara region, called the Kara agropole, is currently being operationalized with support from the African Development Bank (AfDB), the West African Development Bank (BOAD), and the South Korean Saemaül Foundation. The Kara agropole focuses on a range of promising sectors: soybeans, corn, rice, sesame, cashews, poultry, and fish.
What role do organic farming and sustainable financing play in agriculture?
Organic farming is playing an increasingly important role in the Togolese agricultural sector. Indeed, in 2020, Togo positioned itself as the world's leading exporter of organic products to the European Union market, supplying 51,000 tonnes, representing revenues estimated at 50 billion CFA francs. This performance is driven by soybean production, which increased from 25,000 tonnes in 2015 to 154,000 tonnes in 2020, reaching 250,000 tonnes in 2021.
Organic sectors have proven to have high potential for developing agro-industry, especially for fruits and vegetables, and for contributing to increasing export earnings. In order to ensure the sustainability of agricultural production systems, a synergy is being developed with agroecology to, on the one hand, contribute to integrated management of soil fertility and, on the other hand, contribute to the construction of an optimized food and nutrition system, by reducing or even eliminating risks related to food quality.
Indeed, beyond the market aspects, the health of the population is also at stake, taking into account the pathologies which are in certain cases attributed to the presence of pesticide residues in food as well as the water used in households.
To develop organic farming in Togo, measures are being taken. These include:
– the development and validation of a traceability system in agro-industrial value chains in Togo, with the support of UNIDO and UNDP;
– the project to set up a reference laboratory for innovations and analyses of agro-industrial products;
– the definition of participatory guarantee systems (PGS) to place on the market products meeting minimum levels of quality standards and whose conformity is jointly assessed by the stakeholders.
– the development of a strategy for the development of organic farming and agro-ecological farming to frame all interventions within these two complementary sectors.
What can external aid contribute to the development of the national agricultural sector?
The priorities of the agricultural sector are known and development partners will be able to support agricultural production, processing and marketing as well as rural development as a whole.
Beyond development aid, the agricultural sector roadmap places particular emphasis on private sector investment. Investment opportunities in the Togolese agricultural sector remain:
– the development of agricultural production areas through the development of planned agricultural production areas, in particular agropoles and irrigated areas;
– agricultural inputs with mass production of high-yield certified seeds as well as chemical fertilizers and organic fertilizers in connection with the soil fertility map and fertilizer formula recommendation sheets;
– agricultural mechanization with manufacturing, assembly and distribution, agricultural mechanization centers, rental of agricultural equipment;
– irrigation with the installation of water reservoirs, hydro-agricultural dams, drilling, irrigation materials and equipment;
– production support infrastructure, including access and access roads, stores and storage warehouses, etc.;
– beef production, development of sites for breeding and dairy production;
– integrated poultry farms (60% of demand not met by national production);
– fish farms (75% of demand for fish not met by national production).
The incentive measures provided by the State to support the private sector include, among others, tax benefits with a special tax provided for imports and a tax credit based on the size of the investment; mobilization and land security with the implementation of the agro-land reform; structuring producers and facilitating their access to financing via a dedicated public-private body, in particular the incentive mechanism for agricultural financing based on risk sharing (MIFA).