Assessment Of Agricultural Policy Activities On Poverty Reduction And Food Security In Guinea

Guinean's rural areas are a dynamic sector that has undergone profound changes in recent years with regard to various investment programs implemented by the Government of the 2nd Republic. The main option of Guinea's agricultural policy is to move from subsistence agriculture to market agriculture in view of its immense agricultural potential regulated by a regime more favorable climate of the region. The capacity of key sectors of agriculture and food production is the basis for diversification of private initiatives for sustainable development of our village communities. A better assessment of impact on Poverty reduction and food security requires the availability of reliable statistical data and allowing an objective view on the agricultural sector for better decision-making and economic policies. Guinean agriculture is considered as a basic source for economic development; it employs 80% of workforce and is largely dominated by family farms that occupy 95% of country's farmland. The sizes of these farmlands vary from 0.30 to 0.50 ha. Structural changes in agriculture comes from diversification of farmer's activities that, in turn, are potential sources of wealth creation, and provide a new landscape in rural areas. These factors highlight the overall development in agricultural sector and require the development of an agricultural database adapted to the new constraint aggregates useful information to the new needs of all stakeholders as demand diversifies. Despite the efforts and seriousness put into the organization and implementation of various agricultural statistical surveys conducted since the last national rural agricultural census contacted in 1988, the coverage of information needs has been very limited, as far as the requirements related to the new strategic directions of the latter agricultural development policy of Guinea.During the National Agricultural Census in 2000/2001 season, FAO recommended the national census of the decade 1996/2005, the perspectives of developing database sufficiently complete and relevant information on principal agricultural facts at both national and regional levels. Achieving the highest level of productivity in the sector depends on the use of production factors including the threshold for application of fertilizers, improved seeds and pesticides, and agricultural mechanization to open the way for the installation and strengthening of large farms and modern farms in the country. Today the use of these factors is very insignificant compared to our prospects for agricultural development:(i) only 20% of the plots received organic manures and/or minerals, (ii) 95% of the areas have been cultured with non-native seeds selected traditional farms, (iii) the agricultural holdings are mainly traditional hand-made, (iv) with only 2% of the irrigated agriculture is rain-fed on 95% of its area. Consequently, despite the fairly high levels of production volumes, improved productivity remains a challenge. A better policy on agricultural inputs and a progressive integration of mechanization mobilized the full potential of production, increase farmers'income, ensure food security for all and eradicate poverty in the country.Extreme Poverty and vulnerability remain crucial developmental challenges that have in recent times attracted attention of the Guinean government. However, with radical agricultural policy measures, many rural areas continue to grapple with poverty and food insecurity. Agriculture is the principal activity of households and primary source of income, the high rate of poverty among farmers in Guinea was about 63%. The type of agriculture practiced in Guinea mainly being subsistence farming, the cultivated areas are generally low (0.30 to 0.50 ha).In these conditions, yields and sales capacity cannot be high. These results clearly indicate the need to prioritize the development of agriculture and rural areas in general, for rapid poverty reduction. In order to better understand Agricultural policy on poverty reduction, a structured survey consisting of 63 farmers unions chosen from 21 prefectures was carried out from August 2010 to February 2012. Though there was no structured questionnaire for collecting information comprehensively, checklists were used as guidelines to discuss issues and solicit information from various categories of people both in the field and in the offices. The data collected were analyzed using additional information of the research concerned:Agricultural population, agricultural workforce, cultivates areas, agricultural production, provisioning, support of trading, training in agricultural products processing, farmer Union's income, rural dweller worker's income, farm equipments and infrastructures. The Richardson Extrapolation's estimation method was used for the analysis of the collected data. Three complementary ways were identified to improve farmer's living conditions:(i) support to supply and production; (ii) support to Marketing and (iii) support of peasant organizations. Therefore, the Agricultural policy set by Government to achieve this goal is to maximize use of production factors; intensify and diversify agriculture activities and put in place developmental operations (agricultural projects supported by NGOs). This agricultural policy is to support farmer's union through the following strategies:Strategy N°1:Improving food security through diversification and increased food production to promote food sovereignty; Strategy N°2:Increase farm incomes through economic development opportunities and improved market access in the part of fight against poverty; Strategy N°3:Development measures to ensure effectiveness of investments. These strategies have improved the living standards of Rural Dwellers. Furthermore, the Henan's agricultural policy has served as an example to facilitate research.This policy is also to support farmers through the following strategies:(a) Food security and grain self-sufficiency, (b) Raising farmers'income, and (c) the trade liberalization and integration with world markets.This paper presents a socioeconomic assessment of Agricultural policy activities in Guinea rural areas and prospects of improvement in rural dweller's living conditions.