Agriculture holds the key to economic development for the continent, these experts say, and strategies for jump-starting the industry will take center stage at an upcoming congress scheduled for Uganda next September. Organized by the World Agricultural Forum, the congress aims at bringing together agricultural companies, African government leaders and non-profit organizations to discuss ways of improving crop yields and increasing profits.

The congress will add to agricultural initiatives already under way in Africa, said Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in a recent statement.

"Africa, as a whole, is enjoying the highest growth rates in 30 years," Museveni said. "We are working to build the agricultural infrastructure that will boost our economic standings. … Agriculture is vital to Africa's survival."

The WAF, a global organization that supports agricultural development to meet the needs of the world's growing population, isn't the first entity to focus on the African agricultural sector as a catalyst for continental change. In October an independent evaluation team at the World Bank found the institution has lagged in its support of agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa, home to some of the poorest countries on the continent, and the world.

Despite continual donations to the region's agriculture sector -- ranging from $123 million in 2000 to $685 million in 2006 -- crop yields have been low in recent years. Cereal crops in the sub-Saharan region produced one-third as much as similar crops in Latin America and half of South Asia's yields, according to the report.

"Agriculture has enormous potential to contribute to poverty reduction in Africa," the report found, and the authors provided a lengthy list of suggested actions the Bank should take in the future.

Agriculture holds such high potential to decrease poverty because so much of Africa's population depends on farming for their livelihood, said Ousmane Badiane, Africa coordinator for the International Food Policy Research Institute, a research organization that promotes agricultural solutions to poverty.

"Agriculture is the primary source of incomes for a large share of Africa's population," Badiane told United Press International. "When productivity in the sector grows, incomes in the sector increase, raising demand for goods being produced by other sectors, thereby leading to higher incomes outside of the agricultural and rural sector and in the wider overall economy."

The connection between agriculture and economic development on the continent becomes clear when statistics from different African countries are compared, Badiane wrote recently in a paper on the subject.

He and his co-author found the African countries with the highest agricultural growth enjoy lower poverty rates and larger per capita incomes. For example, Kenya, with an agricultural gross domestic product of $320 per person in 2002, has an average poverty rate of about 25 percent. Ethiopia, on the other hand, had a per capita agricultural GDP of about $120 in the same year, with a corresponding poverty rate of approximately 85 percent.

And the difference in poverty rates can't be accounted for solely by the increased cash going into farmers' pockets in richer countries. In fact, every extra dollar in an African country's agricultural GDP results in an increased rural income of between $1.50 and $2.50.

The WAF's s attempt to bring Africa's agricultural sector to the forefront next fall could yield highly positive results -- but only if the solutions are homegrown, Badiane said.

"Some segments of the global development community … have difficulties stepping back and letting Africa lead," he said. "If the congress serves as a continuation of the old practices of pushing externally driven agendas, no matter how noble the intended objectives, it (will) be counterproductive."

Congress organizers, however, said African-generated solutions will be the focus of the event, an attitude underlined by the event's title: "By Africa, For Africa: Creating Wealth Through Investing in Agriculture."

"It's being driven by African input, not international input," said Ray Cesca, president of WAF.

One of the main agendas for the congress will be an examination of the markets where African growers currently sell their goods. In the past, attention has been focused on the available export markets for African goods, which currently brings in $8 billion of profits for African farmers. However, Cesca said intracontinental markets should become the new focus, with a potential to yield $130 billion.

"If you gear your attention into the domestic markets, it's a much more fruitful way to go," Cesca told UPI.

Doing so would also decrease transportation costs and drive increased infrastructure on the continent, he said.

However, before Africans can start investing in intracontinental trade, the markets within the continent will have to undergo as much liberalization, if not more, as any external markets, said Douglas Southgate, professor of agricultural economics at Ohio State University.

"(Barriers to trade) are worse within developing countries than developed ones," said Southgate, referring to tariffs and other disincentives that currently discourage trade between African countries.

While, as an economist, Southgate said he prefers global free trade, working on the barriers between countries in Africa may be a good start. However, shifting away from exporting in order to do so could have negative results, he said. For instance, in Kenya, exports to Europe plug about $500 million a year into the country's economy, providing hundreds of thousands of jobs.

"I don't think it has to be either or; it should be both" Southgate said. "The more trade, the less poverty."

Meanwhile, the Africans who plan to participate in the congress hope the end results will lead to higher profits for farmers, most of whom only produce enough to feed their families.

"One of the major issues that the congress will be discussing will be how we can involve that population (of subsistence farmers) in commercial agriculture," said Hilary Onek, minister of agriculture, animal industries and fisheries for the Republic of Uganda, where the congress will be held. "That's the bottom line."