Increasing Agricultural Productivity:
Encouraging Foreign Direct Investments in the COMCEC Region
16
Source: World Food Programme 2013
1.8 Chapter Assessment
As chapter 1 demonstrates, agriculture is of critical importance for all COMCEC Member
Countries, including both those countries that are self-sufficient or net exporters of food and
those highly dependent on food imports. Due to high level of agricultural population constituting
36,2 percent of the total COMCEC population and importance of agriculture for most of the
economies of its Members, the COMCEC Region as a whole can be considered as an agricultural
based economy with some exceptions at sub-regional levels23. The sector’s strategic importance
as an enabler for food security and instrument less dependency and poverty is evident.
Agriculture in the COMCEC Member Countries, with a few exceptions, lags that of most other
areas of the world in terms of productivity and yields, use of fertilizers and mechanization,
advanced irrigation techniques, and value added, as well as in inward FDI. Poor infrastructure in
many countries causes up to half the harvest to be lost. In addition, many of the COMCEC
Member Countries are in some of the world’s driest regions, with possible further constraints on
water supply as a consequence of climate change.
Investment in roads and cold stores can significantly reduce losses, while adoption of better
fertilizer applications, irrigation technologies, energy-saving technologies, and seeds better
adapted to local conditions could result in substantial productivity increases. There is significant
(private) interest in upgrading the productivity in many of the COMCEC Member, however these
developments will require large-scale foreign direct investment; unfortunately, the investment
climate in most of the target countries is not conducive to such investment. Investment climate
23 COMCEC, 2013.