Agriculture is the lifeblood of Sub-Saharan Africa countries and the pillar of their economies. About 60% of the population is involved in the agricultural sector, mainly through subsistence farming. However, up to 70% of the arable land on the continent is not utilized for crop production. The African Union (AU), through the new partnership for Africa’s development (NEPAD), has identified agricultural development as a key focus. Through the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Programme (CAAP), African heads of state pledged to allocate 10% of their national budget toward agricultural development programs. To date, Malawi, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal and Ghana have surpassed this target.
与农用化学品相关的政府支出正在增加，马拉维、赞比亚和马里等国家都主要通过实施投入补贴计划来增加在该领域的支出。这些为贫穷的农民提供负担得起的肥料和改良的种子来种植主食。通过马拉维、马里和赞比亚的补贴计划，综合农用化学品市场价值超过 2800 亿吨化肥或 $1.44 亿吨。随着越来越多的撒哈拉以南非洲国家也采用投入补贴计划，这一趋势将继续下去。
毫无疑问，通过加大对农业项目的公共和私人投资，非洲农业有望实现大幅增长，从而导致肥料消耗量增加。此外，预计撒哈拉以南非洲地区补贴化肥的国家数量将会增加。作为一个地区，到 2015 年，化肥需求预计每年增长 4%，尽管各国之间存在显着差异。
FCI：与一年前相比，农业生产者获得融资的情况如何？
There is currently a strong emphasis by African governments to develop the agricultural sector on the continent, either through increased government investments and spending into the sector, private initiatives and/or public-private partnerships to finance agricultural development. Innovative initiatives – such as the Agricultural Guarantee Fund Scheme, which is a partnership between Standard Bank (Africa’s largest bank), the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID), Kilimo Trust, Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and Millennium Development Authority (MiDA) – has created an innovative fund amounting to $100 million for lending.
The fund is primarily targeting up to 750,000 small-scale farmers and small and medium-size enterprises in Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda and Ghana. Such initiatives are set to continue and may prove to be the preferred and more viable channel through which agricultural producers are able to access finance – especially small-scale farmers in Africa.
FCI：欧洲债务危机对该地区的贷款可用性有多大影响？
非洲银行在该地区的贷款可用性占其贷款组合的一小部分（约 1%）。因此，欧洲债务危机本身不会对银行向商业农业生产者提供贷款产生重大影响。
Similarly, lending availability through the aforementioned fund is unlikely to be affected, simply because such funds are structured in a way that the risks incurred by commercial banks – in this case Standard Bank – are cushioned by third parties, such as AGRA, OPEC, Kilimo trust, MCA, etc.
FCI：非洲借款人偿还贷款的可能性有多大？
Many banks still view African agriculture as “high risk,” due to the fact that African agriculture is dominated by smallholder farmers. One of the impediments facing these small-scale farmers is that they are not in a position to provide traditional securities. The lack of useable guarantee, combined with production, climate and price risk factors, also result in agricultural finance falling outside of the traditional balance sheet lending approach.
在商品农业方面，由于生产成本增加和产品价格稳定，许多农民面临经济困难。在这种环境下，可能出现的情况是一些农业生产者，尤其是大规模农业生产者将会繁荣起来，并且仍然能够履行其债务义务。然而，其他农民将不得不扩大生产以获得足够的收入来偿还贷款，否则将面临倒闭的前景。
欲了解更多信息，请访问 www.frost.com。