and Food Security has not been included as a ―standard and code‖ for APRM purposes. This is an important omission, as the Declaration pledged to implement the CAADP, and made a specific commitment to providing resources to the agricultural sector – 10% of national budgetary spending, with the intention of achieving 6% annual growth in agriculture.210 Available evidence suggests that this has not been met for the most part. In 2010, only 9 countries (Malawi, Ethiopia, Senegal, Republic of Congo, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Burundi and Zambia) had met the 10% spending level, while only 10 (Angola, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Republic of the Congo, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania) have met the target of 6% annual growth in agriculture.211 As Mogues argues, it is important to remember that what constitutes spending to enhance agricultural productivity varies from country to country, and that the goal of the 10% target was to try to drive spending off a low base.212 Nevertheless, it seems clear that more needs to be done for African agriculture to realise its potential. uncertainties retard the development of a dynamic agricultural economy. This is not to advocate for immediate conversion of land to freehold, but for greater security in property holding, which would remove one barrier to unlocking Africa‘s agricultural potential.214 In this respect, the impact of large-scale and foreign investments in agriculture need to be considered. Landholding arrangements need to be able to accommodate large-scale investors if they hope to attract them. The Nigeria CRR, for example, notes that difficulties in making land available to investors is a significant disincentive. 215 On the other hand, the prospects of population displacement or the perception of preferential treatment to investors carries risks. It can lead to real abuses of people‘s property rights and can lead to political blowback. Thus, the Zambia CRR notes: ‗Large scale investments are a real cause for unrest as they often displace residents of those areas. In the absence of a resettlement policy and without any compensation scheme in place, many citizens inhabiting areas targeted for investments will swell the ranks of the urban poor.‘216 Landholding What – or what more – can the APRM do about under-development of agriculture One of the key challenges confronting agriculture is the issue of land policy. According to a study of 10 countries, which used the APRM CRRs as its basis, landholding in Africa takes place under a patchwork of systems: European derived property law, traditional landholding, Islamic law (in some parts) and modifications introduced in the post-colonial era. As the Ghana report puts it: ‗Insecurity of tenure is endemic and has a bearing on both poverty reduction and economic growth. It inhibits, for example, the transformation of the agricultural sector from subsistence farming into a more dynamic entrepreneurial activity. Failure to provide for the protection of land rights also places the poor, the vulnerable and women at most risk. By and large, the land issue is still considered problematic, sensitive and generally too complex.‘213 Agriculture and land receive extensive treatment in the CRRs. Indeed, land is accorded an especially important place in APRM reports, where it is regarded as a ‗crosscutting issue‘ whose significance is felt throughout society. But the APRM can still do more in this vital area. For example: 1. The APRM could investigate the factors that most hinder agriculture, and provide a platform for discussion on solutions. Also, this is a field in which best practices and the successes and failures of countries could fruitfully be brought to bear on one another – an example of the peer learning that the APRM seeks to foster. Agriculture is, after all, an activity common to all countries on the continent, from which they might all benefit. At a minimum, a short document might be produced in which the key experiences, problems and successes of the reviewed countries are compared and contrasted, and lessons distilled. 2. The APRM has brought to attention the issue of land tenure insecurity, which it can further enhance by investigating mechanisms to address this insecurity. Land users often have to contend with insecure tenure, and land governance regimes that do not enable them to use their land as collateral. In this way, tenure 210 211 212 213 Conference of Ministers of Agriculture of the African Union, Declaration on agriculture and food security in Africa (Maputo, 1-2 July 2003). 40 Chances, The Maputo Commitments and the 2014 African Union Year of Agriculture, https://s3.amazonaws.com/one.org/images /131008_ONE_Maputo_FINAL.pdf ( 2013). Anisimova E, Public expenditure in agriculture: trends, “black boxes”, and more, (International Food Policy Research Institute, 12 January 2016). Ghana CRR, p. 123. 214 215 216 46 See Corrigan T, Space, soil and status: Insights from the APRM into the governance of land in Africa (SAIIA Occasional Paper 229, April 2016). Nigeria CRR, op. cit., p. 305. Zambia CRR, op. cit., p. 82.