Whats new about what Agra is doing?
We are going to be putting 40% of all our investment in core countries: Tanzania, Mozambique, Ghana and Mali – what we call “portfolio one countries.” Within those countries, we are drilling down to focus on the “bread basket” areas of high population density, with relatively good infrastructure, relatively good market access, and good agro-ecological environments to stimulate productivity growth. The rational for that is very simple. The amount of investment needed in infrastructure for agricultural transformation in Africa is huge – roughly $11 billion a year – which means that those infrastructural investments can’t be done everywhere. Whether it’s rural roads, electrification or irrigation, what has been done before is to scatter investments everywhere, so there is no density of investment in critical zones where one can get productivity growth. We need to turn that around and target those breadbasket areas, to rapidly raise their production and drive down the price of food. That d
