I have told this story a million times but I'm going to tell it today again so that it can help you connect with the 500 million Farmers small holder Farmers that are out there I grew up on a small farm in Uganda where my parents were refugees from Rwanda my parents farmed they grew C Maze and potatoes my mom dug the land and fed us my dad never touched the whole even worse and my mom never complained because she felt it was her responsibility to feed the family fast forward I got out of there at
the age of around 14 thanks to the fact that my dad had been a teacher in Rwanda but I was the exception not the rule and I'm here today to tell you that empowering small holder farmers can change their lives can nourish people improve economies and actually help them deal with the current challenge of climate change when I finished school I worked in research in in Uganda and I got a friend of mine Gave Me 2 kog of seed to take to my parents this was an improved variety when my mom planted it she got
10 bugs in a place where she would have usually got uh three bugs she sold some to her to fellow farmers and bought herself a traditional dress she did not have to ask my dad for money that was the first time and I still remember the excitement and the joy in her face like it was yesterday but of course she needed more seed and she wanted more of the same seed in my mind I was like if I can Empower my f my mother like I did with one one with one sock of seed I
can definitely power whole Villages I can help send more girls to school I still remember the pain I felt when I was told that my best friend had been married at 15 because her friends her parents could not keep her in school I still think of all the girls that did not make out of my Village because they didn't have the opportunities I had and it gives me a certain yearning that actually keeps me grounded in the realities of my world the opportunity came 15 years later when I joined Min the leadership of Ministry of
Agriculture and wonder ultimately as the minister this is not a country where you want to wake up as a minister Farmers land Holdings are the smallest in the world at least in Africa the country is mountaineous Farmers lose land every season and the country was just coming out of a genocide and every body was struggling but this this did not water down my excitement in my mind I was served lemons and I needed to make lemonade I took advantage of the fact that Wan Farmers owned their land and we designed a program to consolidate land
and synchronize how Farmers farmed without worry of land boundaries my government put in place policies to ensure that farmers had access to seeds and to fertilizer rers we put in place extension for every 500 hectares the first season of farming was a lot of preaching and campaigning and why would farmers want to use seeds and fertilizer they had they had never seen But by the third season farmers were demanding that seeds and fertilizers be be delivered in good time for planting 3 years in we had a bumper Harvest and it was my worst nightmare because
we had not prepared for markets I had not thought about storage and Maze was everywhere I went back to government and my government helped me working with wild food program and government procurement agencies we were able to buy Farmers produce and we worked with private sector and set up more long-term Solutions through processing restoring processing capacity once Farmers had a market the transformation was palpable I remember feeling as I walked around the country feeling that the air around me was vibrating with energy and excitement my people were happy my country was proud and in in
the period of 6 years Randa was recording poverty reduction levels that were not being seen in the region and the World Bank attributed it attributed 65% of that povert reduction to what was happening in the agricultural sector and related value addition here is the thing 2.5 million Farmers some of the smallest in the world were feeding 12 million people and were creating wealth for themselves to me this is what owering small holder Farmers looks like but a new challenge lay ahead climate change by 2013 crop failure was becoming clear because rains were coming too late
or stopping too early I vividly remember when I went on the field visit with my president and clouds started Gathering like it would rain fertilizers were on their way from Ukraine and seeds were on the way from Zambia because we hadn't yet figured out how to produce seeds ourselves it was two months before the rains and my heart started beating in my chest I was like what am I going to do here I am I'm going to let these farmers down again because then every drop of rain mattered climate change has taken away the ability
of farmers to understand Seasons Farmers don't know when rains are going to come or when to plant Farmers don't even know what crop to plant anymore I see this in every count of the 15 countries where I now work as a president right now you speak Southern Africa is going through one one of the worst droughts ever Zimbabwe has just lost 70% of their maze crop yield because of a scorching Heat Wave the first ever in 40 years Kenya has just experienced a flood that has left the land baring after Farmers had planted but our
hands are not tied there must be something we can do about it we have tools that we can deploy there are so many things in our capacity in our ability that we can do to empower Farmers to take back their lives and be part of feeding the world one we need to stop climate change in struct top emitting countries need to stop emitting or be prepared to pay Farmers every time they lose a crop livestock or property two years ago farmers in Easter Africa lost everything after six consecutive seasons of drought today we should be
able to pay those Farmers using now the loss and damage fund that was launched last year at cop 28 reversing climate change is going to take sometime in the meantime we need to ensure that farmers have access to improved varieties of seed that need less water good fertilizers extension services soil health information climate information and crop insurance that can help them know when to plant plant early or not to plant at all and save that seed if rains are not going to happen most important we need to ensure that farmers know the disasters are coming
so that they can get out of the way third we need to invest in post Harvest losses so that we save everything that comes from every season PX bugs designed out of ped University and now commercialized in most of East Africa are actually ensuring food security because they allowing Farmers to store grain for longer periods lastly we need to rethink markets and how Farmers access trade especially How African Farmers engage in African food markets you recently saw European Farmers demonstrate because they were worried that they were losing their market share after African Farmers lost their
market share in the 80s and have never regained it as a result Africa produces what does not consume and consumes what does not produce the African free Continental trade area that has just been launched is an opportunity for us to start advancing InterContinental trade in Africa in ways that can work for African smallholder Farmers everywhere you look in the world today farmers are often poor and I get it we want food to be cheap and affordable but we can't do this at the expense of small holder Farmers they businesses too and want them to be
successful we want them to be successful because in Africa and parts of Asia 70% of the food we eat is grown by small H Farmers so I would like to flip this I would like us here consumers businesses politicians to recogize the place and Ro of small holder farmers and how when we Empower them they can feed themselves improve their Liv hoods be part of feeding 10 billion people while nourishing the planet see we do not recognize that farmers are the cust the best custodians we have of this planet they till the land and understand
it they know it's what they going to pass on to their children they treasure it empowering small holder farmers and ensuring that they are able to advance the lives of their children give them a short at education like my dad did is what I work towards and it's what keeps me awake every night thank you [Applause]
