Received Monday evening at the 2020 presidential debate on National Television, the Minister Delegate and Coordinator of the Presidential Unit for the Execution and Monitoring of Priority Projects (CPES), Kanka Malik Natchamba, who represented Faure Gnassingbé, returned to the major achievements and the results obtained by the candidate Unite at the head of the country.

Asked about the question of agriculture, the adviser to the President of the Republic thus declared: “Our agriculture has gone from family farming to more modernized agriculture, but there are still challenges”.

Indeed, a fundamental pillar of the Togolese economy (40% of GDP and 65% of the active population), the agricultural sector has been for more than 10 years the object of numerous reforms and measures intended to ensure its transformation and modernization, so as to impact the income of producers and populations.

In concrete terms, the resources allocated to agriculture have doubled over the past 10 years and the government strategy has been implemented in particular through the National Agricultural Investment Program (PNIASA), endowed with a fund of 233 billion FCFA to the development of the sector.

4,500 ha of agricultural land have thus been developed by the State, including 510 ha of lowlands and 2,950 ha of ZAAP. Nearly 8 billion FCFA were injected through the Mifa for the benefit of 60,000 people and more than 100,000 jobs were created during the period.

Support was provided to young farmers through the PAEIJ-SP, which made it possible to grant large subsidies (up to 1 billion FCFA) to them and to create 125,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The rate of coverage of food product needs thus rose from 90% in 2008 to 137% in 2019 with sharp increases in export production of cotton, coffee, cocoa, cashew and soybeans.

Agricultural GDP doubled, from 644.26 billion in 2010 to 1357.4 billion in 2019. As a result, income per producer has changed significantly (from 217,149 FCFA in 2010, or $1.19 per day, to 336,300 FCFA in 2019, or $1.84), although it still falls short of targets.

The priority is now to consolidate the achievements and continue the momentum. In his commitments for the sector, the Togolese n°1 intends to accelerate the growth of the sector thanks to the “development of rural infrastructures, the increased mobilization of private partners and the improvement of farmers' incomes and living conditions”.