African institutions should be organised around a shared prosperity outcome, measured by whether farming enterprises earn a return, argues Aggie Konde, AGRA's chief of brand, communications, external engagements and advocacy, in the second of her signed "Prosperity Architecture" essays. The views are the writer's own.

Konde writes that the farmer is not simply a beneficiary of the food system but its "first and perhaps most vested investor", committing land, labour, capital and time before any processor or bank acts, and bearing the risk of weather, input costs and prices.

Energy, roads, irrigation, finance, insurance, standards, research and predictable policy all shape that return, she argues, yet achievements are still counted institution by institution, in kilometres of road or budgets absorbed, rather than against the prosperity they make possible together. She says finance ministries belong closer to the centre, because budgets show whether spending across sectors adds up to a coherent strategy, and cites Kenya's tea economy as an imperfect example of institutions doing what no farmer can do alone.

Photo: bandabarn / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Source: AGRA