Identifying an effective and efficient mechanism to boost the investments in agribusiness, particularly in the developing world, is one of the daunting tasks development partners, the international community, and other stakeholders face in the contemporary world. First of all, authorities find it challenging to invest in this sector given the low yields in terms of forex earnings. Secondly, development partners face difficulties raising such money needed to boost agribusiness, especially with such a multitude of problems as the coronavirus, climate change, and refugee problems compounded by the Russia-Ukraine War. Amidst such issues, the discussion of finding a matching approach to channel remittances into sustainable agribusiness investments is timely and relevant. Below are my suggestions;
1. Increase investment partnerships, for instance, FAO partners with World Bank, IMF, Green Climate Fund (GCF), and the local authorities in the host country. In this way, a consolidated fund aimed at agribusiness can be created, which bolsters the sector;
2. Digitalize these programs for better data capture, and avoid duplication of data both at the grassroots, implementation, and policy levels;
3. Diversify the entry-points into the agribusiness investments. For instance, most donor countries prefer to transact with the central governments. However, with the excessive bureaucracy associated with these authorities, the policy and implementation programs are constantly delayed, if not abandoned altogether, making the programs' final beneficially suffer. Thus, development partners should create a corridor of dealing with other stakeholders such as NGOs, who are directly involved in such development activities. Noteworthy, particularly in the developing world, this might be problematic as the central governments sometimes find it difficult for such other entities to receive external funding. It is a commonplace that many NGOs and other civil society organizations have had their activities terminated in most developing countries, particularly those whose democracy is debatable.
All said, the debate continues, however, the global policy dynamics also play a pivotal role, and there is a need for continued bargaining and negotiations, as some of this funding at times does not come in time as required. On the other hand, the requested funding will come less than requested.
Dr. James Mawanda