FEATURE

Making agriculture a central part of international development

By Odimegwu Onwumere

Being good is a huge investment in any individual’s life; it does not fail. It is very important especially in the present times that majority of the people can no longer differentiate between what they want and what they need. Dr. Kanayo Francis Nwanze has earlier defined his. His feat at the UN's Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) continues to tell the light-featherweight individuals that there is no obstacle anywhere, except that which a person has refused to surmount.

On Wednesday 13 February 2013, he was re-appointed to a four-year term as president of the IFAD, having begun his term as IFAD’s fifth President on 1 April 2009. His appointment and re-appointment show that patience is a very vital tool for living in the world.

Working in this organisation that was created 30 years ago to undertake rural poverty which is regarded as the arrowhead of the droughts and famines of the early 1970s, Nwanze has brought transformation in the IFAD by holding stoical to the agenda of reformation. So they say, for-the-duration-of his ten years as Director-General of the Africa Rice Centre (WARDA), he transformed the centre from a provincially attentive institution into a worldwide acknowledged research institution. How else a person does prove accomplished in his or her career?

Nwanze is part of the success story of the IFAD today, which has invested more than US$10.6 billion in low-interest finances and funding that have fostered roughly-speaking, over 350 million very poor rural women and men augment their incomes and afford for their families since 1978.

The history of IFAD will never be complete if Nwanze is not mentioned due to the pride he has brought into the union that supports close to 250 programmes and projects in 87 developing countries, and is a global partnership of OECD, OPEC and other developing countries. The Delta State born-Nigerian Nwanze has given his word in making sure that IFAD sustained to serve that which it was formed.

Nwanze made this hope available in a speech where he said that he would endeavour to spawn vivacious pastoral areas that could ensure what he regarded as, a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural and urban areas.

Nwanze-led IFAD is vibrant today amongst the three United Nations food agencies in Rome along with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP).

Many regard Nwanze as a driving force in the accomplishment of key reforms begun by the out gone IFAD head, Lennart Båge. The former did not achieve this on a platter of gold, but through his philosophy of consolidation and deepening change and reform process in IFAD.

At the 36^th Governing Council, Nwanze told a gathering of representatives from IFAD Member States that: Vibrant rural areas can ensure a dynamic flow of economic benefits between rural and urban areas so that nations have balanced and sustained development.

Joining the rest of the world’s organisations to set out the world's post-2015 development agenda, Nwanze apparently said: "Structured reforms have transformed IFAD into a more agile, efficient agency, better able to respond to a rapidly changing environment.... This has been crucial to improving IFAD's effectiveness at a time when new challenges are constantly reshaping the physical and geo-political landscape where we work."

Dr. Kanayo Francis Nwanze is doing everything humanly possible to help in creating food security and sends poverty on errand in the world, no matter the fears in many quarters that the world is drastically changing, which is causing tremendous financial imbalance in the world, therefore creating the opportunity for the rich and the poor to trample on the weak.

Nwanze would say: "To put it simply, more partnership means more impact... IFAD is determined to work with its partners to make the most of agriculture's poverty-fighting powers.... Experience shows that development is most effective when it is self-driven.... How we respond to today's challenges will determine not only the shape of food systems in the near future, but also the health of ecosystems and the distribution of the world's population.”

What about the IFAD’s innovative Adaptation for Smallholder Agriculture Programme? Nwanze has been of the view that both the urban and rural areas are fast adapting to the changes of the changing world in which his organisation is playing a very optimistic role in making sure that it is well for all and sundry, but underlined the importance to fashion opportunities for young people whom he sees as, without prospects, have nothing to lose and are more easily swayed by extreme rhetoric.

Nwanze has shared love for women also. He sees them as a folk that have eaten ashes for bread and tears for tea in the rural areas, where they work tirelessly to improve the living standard of the society. Pointblank, he hammered sent his point home that the world and the rural dwellers might not enjoy the improved-world being clamoured for, except women are recognised and empowered in no-less way, because by not doing that, Nwanze believes that half of humanity is denied.

The highest decision making body of IFAD – Governing Council – would have made a mistake if they had had oversight in not seeing the qualities that Nwanze is made of and appoint him to continue a second term in office of four years, to lead the rural poverty agency. This is an organisation that in 2009 had 25 country offices but by the end of 2012, has had 38. Bravo!

The world should therefore support this man whose brain has sparked many positive debates around the world. Dr. Nwanze needs the support of the world in making sure that he realised his plans in resilience-building for improved food security in the world. The world should help in straightening and strengthening him in this onerous task for the good of the societies, especially those in the developing world. In the tribe where Nwanze comes from in Nigeria, proverbially speaking, a man is not expected to kill lion the second time before he is called a lion killer.

Commentators have spoken of Nwanze thus: 1 "A Nigerian national, Nwanze has a strong record as an advocate and leader with a keen understanding of complex development issues. He brings to the job over 35 years of experience across three continents, focusing on poverty reduction through agriculture, rural development and research."

2 "Under Nwanze’s guidance, IFAD has stepped up its advocacy efforts to ensure that agriculture is a central part of the international development agenda, and that governments recognize the concerns of smallholder farmers and other poor rural people. As an intellectual leader on issues of food security, Nwanze has been a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Food Security since 2010, and formerly chaired the group."

Nwanze needs the support of all, as he burgeons on with the duty of his office, by bringing a more holistic approach that goes-above his intellect. As they say, Nwanze earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, in 1971, and a Doctorate in Agricultural Entomology from Kansas State University, United States, in 1975, amongst others.

Odimegwu Onwumere, Poet/Author, contributed this piece from Rivers State.