Opportunities and Advantages of Agricultural Reform and Opening up in Guinea

Guinean agriculture has important assets that offer many opportunities to accelerate growth and create sustainable jobs in the agricultural sector. This potential has the ability both to ensure the food self-sufficiency of the Guinean population and to generate significant export revenues, especially thanks to the opportunities and advantages that pave the way for profitable investments because reforms bring added value. Identified as a priority growth sector along with those of energy and mining, agriculture has recently begun a trend towards diversification with the revival of several agricultural sectors. This vision is based first of all on a national situation of peace and prosperity supported by justice and solidarity between the various components of the Guinean nation, with a public administration at the service of agricultural development, characterized by values of good governance, a human capital conducive to the emergence, a national wealth equitably shared between the different socio-professional strata and between the territories of the nation, a sustainable living environment favorable to current and future generations and a significant and unanimously recognized contribution to the positive transformation of Guinean agriculture towards the rest of the world. It is in this logic that we demonstrate the opportunities and advantages of reforming and opening up agriculture in our country.


Introduction
The Republic of Guinea covers an area of 245,857 Km2 with an estimated population of 9,276,000 in 2005, 10,000 in 2018, and 13 million in 2020. From an eco-climatic point of view, Guinea is divided into four (4) natural regions: Maritime Guinea (or Lower Guinea), Middle Guinea (or Fouta-Djalon), Upper Guinea, and forest Guinea. The rural population accounts for 80% of the total population and derives 79% of its income from agricultural activities. Concerning the administrative organization of the territory, Guinea has seven (7) administrative regions (Kindia, Boké , Mamou, Labé , Faranah, Kankan, and N'nzé ré koré ) to which is added the special zone of Conakry (with five communes), thirty-three (33) prefectures, thirty-eight (38) urban municipalities and three hundred three (303) rural development communities (CRD). It has adopted a "Guinea 2040" vision, which is expressed as follows: "an emerging and prosperous country in 2040, master of its destiny, ensuring a high level of well-being for its people and guaranteeing the future of future generations. Regarding the management of natural resources, Guinea has considerable natural resources at the level of all agro-ecological regions, which allows the cultivation of a diverse range of agricultural products. The rains are abundant and vary from 1,100 to 4,000 mm). Considered the water tower of West Africa, Guinea has a hydrographic network of 6,500 km, and a continental shelf of 43,000 km2 (the largest in West Africa) of which 72% are less than 40 m deep. The surface water resources are very important (188 km3) and 72 km3 of groundwater. The irrigation potential is estimated at 362,000 ha of which only 30,200 are developed due to lack of investment. The potential for arable land is estimated at 6.2 million hectares of which 25% are cultivated annually Grazing is abundant, rich, and diverse. About 27% of the total land area provides good grazing. These natural resources remain generally undervalued due to a lack of investment. Rain-fed cropland and forests are threatened by population pressure, inadequate agricultural practices, mining activities, and the influx of refugees. Guinean agriculture is a very vulnerable agriculture that mobilizes the potential offered by natural resources. The ecological balances that made it possible to maintain soil fertility are broken in multiple situations, on the one hand under the action of men faced with increasing densities and on the other hand under the absence of water control. Despite a radical transformation of production systems, a significant part of the land is facing a decrease in fertility or even forms of aridification. The future of Guinean agriculture will depend essentially on a change in attitude toward land use. The pressure on forest resources, including mangrove formations, is marked by activities of the informal sector consisting of almost 85% of households that rely mainly on wood fuels to meet their domestic energy needs. For example, the total area of forests increased from 2.4 million hectares to 1.14 million hectares from 1964 to 2001. These developments are not irreversible and numerous national and subregional projects have made it possible to create an important technical repository that could be disseminated. In the perspective of the effective realization of this vision, the Guinean State has developed a National Economic and Social Development Plan (PNDES) which aims: "A prosperous Guinea, more inclusive and with natural capital managed in a sustainable way" whose objective is: "to promote strong and quality growth to improve the well-being of Guineans, to effect the structural transformation of the economy while putting the country on the path of sustainable development.

Explore the Importance of the Problem
Assessment-diagnosis of the agricultural sector in Guinea, which includes a profile of the agricultural sector in Guinea, which exposes the problems of agricultural development of the country, through a more or less exhaustive description of the conditions and their causal analysis to determine the determinants of the current situation; an analysis of lessons learned from the country's agricultural policy (PNDA vision 2015), which exposes the strengths and weaknesses; an analysis of the evolution of the international environment: which presents the opportunities and threats; National guidelines for agricultural development of Guinea, articulated around, the issues and challenges the vision of the agricultural sector; the development objectives of the agricultural sector; strategic axes (Foi, 2014).

Literature Review
In this section, we present the theme as described by the researchers who preceded us. The information obtained from our readings in the library and on the websites is thus presented in a deductive logic ranging from the general to the particular. This development allowed us to formulate the topic of the article. It emerges from the various analyses resulting from both the documentary review and the multi-stakeholder consultations that the inadequacy of the agricultural sector's contribution to the economic and social development of the country is a consequence of three determinants.
-The productivity deficit; -The weakness of access to promising markets; -The governance deficit.
Each of these three determinants was the subject of a causal analysis, through an approach that combined the study of evidence with consultation on the perceptions and feelings of groups of actors. This made it possible to locate the immediate causes, those underlying and those deeper of the low contribution of Guinean agriculture to the development of the country. According to the statistics of the various combined sources (CN, WDI, and ASA), the average annual cereal yield remained constant at 1.5 tons per hectare between 2005 and 2013, while groundnuts do not reach 1tonne/ha. These yields are well below their potential. In several countries of the subregion, they are between 3 and 5 tons or more. In addition, none of the five main cereal crops in the country reaches 1.5 tons/hectare (see Figure 1 below). The cassava yield also remained constant over the three periods (about 8 tons/hectare). It is also very low, considering the potential of speculation which exceeds 30 tons per hectare (according to FAO). As for animal production, the amount of meat per unit of cattle, sheep, goats, and poultry is at a very low level, while cows can produce only 0.4 -0.8 liters of milk per day (excluding veal consumption). In the fisheries subsector, a decrease in catches per unit effort is observed for all stocks, other than small pelagics. Abundance indices show a common tendency to overexploitation, the intensity of which varies from one stock to another. For long-lived species such as the selacians (rays and sharks), these indices are even more alarming because of their low fertility, slow growth, and the importance of bycatch by fisheries targeting other species.
Finally, the yields of forest species record significant decreases reflected by the low volumes of harvests and other forms of daily production.
Three factors are identified as having induced the productivity deficit: i) the inadequacy of agricultural practices; ii) the proliferation of diseases and enemies of agricultural production, and iii) the inadequate development of production basins.

Data Source
Since all scientific research requires rational approaches, the one we want to undertake will obey the same requirements.
For this reason, we will be part of a mixed approach that combines both quantitative and qualitative methods in the same research. The quantitative one will allow us to collect the figures and the qualitative one will lead us to make sense of these figures. As techniques, we will use documentary research that will lead us to documentary sources (general and specific works, theses, reports, dissertations, newspapers, images, videos, photos, etc.) and oral sources of deep and broad information on our topic; semi-directed individual interview, content analysis.
We will target the Republic of Guinea in particular which will be subject to the collection tools on Agriculture. Several studies have been conducted on the benefits, reforms, and opening of agriculture within our country to improve the agricultural sector and attract more investors within agriculture. In addition to this, the availability and quality of market information are important factors of competitiveness if Guinea wants to position its agricultural products in the regional and international market.

The Areas of Intervention Include
The establishment of an organizational structure of agricultural information, the center of which will be the BCEPA, responsible for the use of agroeconomic information for planning, preparation, development of agricultural policies, monitoring, and evaluation of its implementation. The SNSA will be linked to the statistical data collection structure of the MAEF and the specialized collection centers (information sources of the various sectoral ministries, projects, and programs).

Object
• What are the prospects for increasing food production given current agricultural growth, demographic changes, accelerated urbanization, and new food practices aimed at improving incomes?
• What should be the objectives of increasing agricultural production to meet the growing food demand, given the increasing pressures and hazards on natural resources?
• What employment reservoirs can the rural sector constitute with all its economic activities: infrastructure, services, agricultural production and pastoral forestry, sectors, etc. And make it possible to make the best use of the demographic dividend in the countries that will benefit from it?
• What investment policy framework should be put in place involving all the sectors concerned, in a context of structural transformation of the demand and supply of food products?
This synthesis is the result of the results of the workshops, enriched with qualitative data from complementary documentation from national and international databases. It is subject to critical review by IFAD project managers in the countries concerned and experts who participated in the workshop. These interactive exchanges were organized and closely coordinated by the IFAD Sub-Regional Office to present possible scenarios for discussion to the technical and financial partner (TFP) coordination groups in the countries concerned and to be able to revise and improve these early versions of the country studies.

Insufficient Agricultural Facilities
There is a lack of development of agro-sylvo-pastoral and fisheries production areas. This shortage is generally characterized by the absence of structuring infrastructures in the mobilization and transfer of water resources, on the one hand, but also by the weakness of private initiatives for the development of irrigated perimeters and other production infrastructures (pastoral farms, aquaculture ponds, etc.). Overall, public and private investment in the agricultural sector remains very low. The first, in addition to its weakness, is insufficiently oriented on the structuring agent, thus not allowing the second dependent on it to be trained. This is explained by a decrease in the share of government agricultural expenditures on overall government expenditures by 2.1% between the period 2005-2007 and 2011-2013.

The Agriculture Subsector
The irrigable land potential of Guinea and the situation of the areas irrigated are not precisely known due to the lack of reliable data (except for forest Guinea where FAO carried out a specific study). However, according to data from the National Directorate of Rural Engineering, the potential of land where total or partial control of water is possible is estimated at 751,563 Hectares of which only 69,868 ha have been developed (or 9.3%) including 3,764 hectares with total control of water and 66,104 hectares with partial control of water as indicated in the table below. Source: National Directorate of Rural Engineering of Guinea

The Livestock Subsector
There are very few pastoral units developed, and infrastructure such as pastoral boreholes vaccination pens are almost non-existent. Also, pasture areas are not provided with structures, while units for sedentary breeding suffer from the inadequacy of facilities for breeding and maintenance of subjects. This situation is dependent on a lack of structuring investment on the part of the State. Nowadays, there are no developed sites dedicated to the breeding activity allowing project leaders to settle. In addition to this lack of structuring investments, we note the low interest of the private sector, including traditional herders who do not understand the importance of acquiring individual or collective pastoral facilities to boost productivity.

The Fisheries Subsector
Managed fisheries are rare and aquaculture is poorly endowed with production ponds. The current aquaculture pond construction initiatives do not meet the required standards and standards, thus not promoting consistent productivity. Here, too, the situation is dependent on the combined failure of structuring infrastructures and private initiatives to develop individual or collective fishing and aquaculture spaces. The observation is valid both in the coastal zone and in the interior of the country. The great potential offered by nature is only very weakly exploited.

The Water and Forestry Subsector
Only a small fraction of about 1.1 million ha or 5% of the total forest area is relatively intact and well wooded. Of this 5%, only 186,000 ha of the classified forests of Ziama, Dié cké , and Bero in Forest Guinea are currently the subject of biodiversity management and conservation measures. The existence of these forests contributes 80% to the fight against the effects of climate change through carbon sequestration, the normalization of gas exchange, and the regulation of rainfall.
In addition to the productivity of agricultural land, studies conducted in particular by IFPRI show that land and labor are poorly productive. In fact, between 2005-2007 and 2011-2013, the value-added per agricultural worker fell by 12.5 percentage points, while the value-added per hectare of arable land fell by 7.6 percentage points. Source: Institut National de la Statistique (2016)

Result
The Guinean government has made efforts in the agricultural sector to allow the country to be self-sufficient, it is in this logic that, the advantages, opportunities, and reforms are made a positive result for the agricultural yield of Guinea.

The Advantages of Guinean Agriculture
With fertile soils and abundant water resources, Guinea's agricultural potential is of great importance in the development of the country. Agriculture employs 80% of the population, of which it provides the main source of income, together with the diversity of climatic conditions, hydraulic resources and soil fertility give Guinea a natural comparative advantage in the production of a wide variety of products. The potential of the land, where water control is possible is also considered in addition to the areas of 24.6 million hectares, Guinea has 6.2 million hectares of arable land, of which only the 50% are exploited or a cultivated area of 3.3 million hectares (including fallow). Of the 364,000 hectares of irrigable land, only 30,200 are currently developed, with such an advantage Guinea opens up a lot of opportunities in the agricultural sectors.

The Opportunities for Agriculture
The Guinean agricultural sector offers an agro-ecological multiplicity improving the development of diversified production systems.

The Reforms
In the reform, the government has equipped itself with an innovative platform named "KOBIRI" which has also been made available to farmers. It promotes and streamlines the use of agricultural equipment and offers a reliable database for various interventions (soil preparation operations, harvesting operations, and even purchase of inputs, etc.) for free online, thus promoting the modernization of the Guinean agricultural world Infrastructure development was also one of the government's priorities to facilitate the delivery of agricultural products. 16,324 ha of hydro-agricultural plains have been developed, including the Koundian Plain with 1,000 ha of total water control. About rural roads.

Economic Growth and Development
Guinea has many natural assets: a seafront more than 300 km long, an important hydrological ("water tower" of Africa) and agricultural potential, borders shared with 6 countries, and a very rich subsoil in minerals (bauxite: 1st world reserves with 25% of the stock and 2nd world producer after Australia), 3 billion tons of iron reserves, 700 Tons of gold and 30 to 40 million carats of proven diamond reserves (Chalé ard, Moustier, & Leplaideur, 2002). However, its economy remains relatively poorly diversified and structurally vulnerable to exogenous shocks, especially on raw materials: (i) the agricultural sector's contribution to GDP is relatively modest (23% on average) while this sector employs almost 52% of the active population; (ii) the secondary sector (35% of GDP) is mainly dominated by mining activities which, along with bauxite, gold, and oil, contribute to population growth. diamond accounts for an average of 85% of the country's exports; energy is also a strategic sector, both for the ongoing investments and for its knock-on effects on other activities: 4 dam projects are planned -the largest of which (Souapiti) -should allow an additional production of more than 500 MW (against 774 MW of total installed capacity currently); finally, (iii) the tertiary sector (46% of GDP) is supported by trade, transport, telecommunications, real estate, and business services.

Economic and Financial Situation
Despite these strengths, Guinea's socio-economic indicators remain low. With a population of 13.1 million inhabitants and a GDP of USD 15.4 billion in 2020, Guinea is at the bottom of the HDI ranking, occupying 178th place out of 189 countries in 2019. According to the authorities, just under half of Guineans (44%) are estimated to be living below the national poverty line which is estimated at GNF 13,717/person/day (EUR 1.1) in 2019. Moreover, the economy is still largely informal, with an estimated 43% of GDP and 96% of jobs in 2018. In addition, life expectancy at birth barely exceeds 60 years. After the post-Ebola catch-up (growth of more than 10% in 2016-2017), the pace of growth of the Guinean economy has slowed down since 2018 but remains significant (around 6% on average), especially driven by the extractive sector. In 2020, despite the impact of the pandemic and the political tensions related to the presidential elections, the economy maintained a significant level of growth estimated at +7.1%, due to the entry into production of two new bauxite companies, better accounting for gold production (thanks to greater centralization in Conakry related in particular to the closure of borders) and the recovery of Chinese demand. However, the non-mining sector, representing more than ¾ of GDP and absorbing more than 90% of jobs, slowed sharply (+1.3%), suffering the full effects of the pandemic. Economic growth is expected to slow slightly in 2021, to +5.2%, then rebound to +6.1% in 2022, still driven by the mining sector (+7.7% in 2021 and +7.1% in 2022).

Discussion
The diversity of Guinea's regions with different climatic conditions, water resources, and soil fertility gives Guinea a natural comparative advantage in the production of a wide variety of products. The agricultural sector presents an agro-ecological diversity favoring the development of diversified production systems. The country is divided into four (4) natural zones, each with a different agro-ecological potential.

Forest Guinea
The agricultural promotion focuses (Mercandalli & Losch, 2018)on coffee, rubber, and oil palm crops. About 200,000 ha are cultivated. (Duris, 1990) Coffee production has increased from 1,000 tons in 1984 to 20,000 tons now. The SOGUIPAH, one of the major players in the region, has more than 10,000 hectares for all two crops in addition to rice-fish farming projects that it is developing in the region.

Upper Guinea
Savannah country promotes the cultivation of cotton. Its progressive extension allows today to produce more than 30,000 tons/year (Gé rardeaux & Kourouma, 1998). Currently, the sector is being restructured. The region also has huge expanses of rice-growing plain along the Niger River one of the most important in Africa.

Maritime Guinea
The region that brings together the maximum number of export crops. The pineapple sector is undergoing full rehabilitation there. The production of mangoes, avocados, and bananas is progressing steadily. By the early 1960s, banana production there had reached a record figure of 100,000 tons.

Middle Guinea
The region of livestock breeding par excellence, Fouta Djalon by its climate, is the region of vegetable products: tomatoes, onions, eggplants, etc.
For the past 12 years, potato cultivation has been booming here not only for local consumption but also for export. The total area cultivated in Guinea for the main food crops was 3,591,141 ha in the 2014/2015 crop year, compared to only 1,339,846 ha in 2000/2001 during the last national census of agriculture. (Aboubakar, 2003) One of Guinea's pressing objectives is to promote the intensification of agricultural production with a view to "feeding the people and supplying agricultural enterprises". To do this, it would be necessary, inter alia, to improve the productivity of the developed lands and to increase, at the same time, the area of arable land. This work, the realization of which must be applied to the entire national territory, requires, for its full success, a fairly precise knowledge of the distribution and potentialities in soils of intensive and extensive crops (combined and livestock); production, and protection forestry soils. These dwellings would make it possible to base shortand especially long-term agricultural planning on scientific bases. This would facilitate the implementation of regional development programs and the protection and conservation of non-renewable natural resources such as soils. There are very few regional soil studies in Guinea; they are generally limited to the coastal lowlands as well as to certain areas of the Fouta-Djallon highlands and the alluvial plains of Upper Guinea. They were carried out by various organizations that used different criteria, for specific tris needs. The set of these studies covers an area of more than 600,000 ha, which constitutes only 2.5 percent of the total area of the country. In the absence of a specialist, and above all an adequate national institution, most of the pedological reports have been little or not exploited. A large part of the documents has been scattered and some are no longer accessible. The soil resources of Guinea are therefore still poorly known and very little data is available on their agricultural potential as well as on their behavior with different cultivation methods. To remedy this situation, it became necessary to develop a National Soil Service, organized in such a way as to be able to undertake the work of applied pedology throughout the territory and exploit the agro-pedological data for the needs of agricultural production. On-site training has an advantage in that it is carried out in the mime environment where agronomists-soil scientists will be called to work. It must be designed for a concrete purpose that is of interest to the country, as in the case of this project where it was carried out in connection with soil prospecting for the reconnaissance map. Before sending personnel abroad, it is necessary to take advantage of all the opportunities offered by the country.

Conclusion
Guinea has incorporated the priorities of the Istanbul Plan of Action into its development policies and the Government has adopted an inclusive approach to development so that the poorest and most vulnerable part of the country can be integrated into its national development efforts. The Government intends to strengthen the effectiveness of official development assistance. In this regard, an integrated coordination mechanism supported by the PNDES will be strengthened to contribute, through the transparency it implies, to creating an enabling environment for the mobilization of external resources required to finance the PNDES. It should also help to maximize the impact of the development assistance that will be provided to the country by promoting the principle of mutual accountability and transparency. Guinea is counting on the International Community to share and find solutions to the challenges and difficulties it is encountering in its process of implementing the 2030 Agenda to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. As the SDGs require concerted and collective efforts with strong political commitment at all levels, Guinea welcomes the systematic analysis of regional aspects of sustainable development, focusing on emerging trends and challenges and on coordinated responses and measures to solve the most urgent problems. At the same time, sustainable development issues for low-income countries, LDCs, island and landlocked countries, and fragile states need to receive greater attention within the framework of the Fifth United Nations Decade for the Least Developed Countries. It will not be possible to achieve all three components of sustainable development without addressing the economic and social problems of these countries and ensuring their active participation in achieving the goals at the national and international levels. The national development plans integrate the SDGs and the main regional Agendas, in particular the African Union's Vision 2063. These plans constitute the single unifying framework for all development interventions in the country. As its proper implementation provides a guarantee of progress in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda, the Government has put in place an appropriate monitoring/evaluation mechanism drawing lessons from the conduct of previous development programs. Guinea is a participant in the dynamics of state-building and peacebuilding as a fragile state. In this regard, the Government acceded to the Busan Partnership Agreement in 2011, which lays the foundations for a new global partnership for aid and development effectiveness and integrates the issue of sustainable development with particular attention to countries in conflict and fragility situations

Recommendation
In this regard, several recommendations and measures have been formulated and adopted for the implementation of the future LDC Action Plan for Sustainable Development in Guinea.
These are : -strengthen the integration of the next LDC Agenda into national development strategies ; -adopt a dynamic approach to partnerships ; -ensure that cooperation with emerging countries is complementary to partnerships with developed countries ; -increase efforts to develop productive capacities ; -increase the capacity to negotiate and take advantage of the multilateral trading system ; -play a more active role in the coordination of assistance from partners ; -avoid the unsustainable accumulation of debts ; -adopt a favorable approach to attracting foreign direct investment ; -deal with the transaction costs related to the multitude of partnership initiatives.
-provide more support for South-South and Triangular Cooperation.