Time for Africa to feed itself – Dakar 2 summit advances Africa’s food agenda | African Development Bank

Original Story: https://african.business/2023/02/resources/time-for-africa-to-feed-itself-dakar-2-summit-takes-africas-food-agenda-forward/

By Tom Collins

At the Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience summit (Dakar 2) in Senegal at the end of January, there was a clear consensus that Africa needs to raise the bar far beyond simply becoming self-sufficient in food production.

It is time for Africa to feed itself and fully unlock its agricultural potential to help feed the world. The statement also praised the planned $10 billion investment by the African Development Bank (AfDB), co-hosts of the event along with the government of Senegal, and another $20 billion by other partners to support Africa’s agricultural development in the next five years. year.

The summit was attended by heads of state and government from 34 African countries, dozens of African ministers of agriculture and many international partners.

A paradigm shift is needed

Hosting the event, which took place in the wake of massive pressures on Africa’s food security from rising inflation and the war in Ukraine, Senegalese President Macky Sall called for a “paradigm shift” in how African policymakers view agriculture think.

“We politicians are often in our capitals far away from the fields,” he said. “We need to spend more of our budget on agriculture; to modernize the sector and turn it into a profitable business just like trade or industry.”

The goals of the summit were:

• Mobilizes high-level political commitment, support to development partners and private sector investment around production, markets and trade to increase food production in Africa.
• Share successful food and farming experiences in selected countries.
• Call on national governments, development partners and the private sector around food and agricultural supply pacts for each country to achieve food security at scale.
• Develop the necessary infrastructure and logistics with dedicated agro-industrial processing zones to build markets and competitive food and agriculture value chains.

Technology is the key to transformation

Many of the Dakar 2 presidents said technology was key to increasing farm yields across Africa. Although 60% of the world’s undeveloped farmland is in Africa, small farmers would not have to cut down forests if they could increase the productivity of their existing farms.

Indeed, the World Bank found that Africa had some of the world’s least productive agricultural workers, as measured by the amount of economic value each small farmer adds to total GDP. Sub-Saharan Africa generates only $1,526 per person in agriculture compared to the world average of $4,035 and the US on top with $100,062 per person.

Countries like Tanzania, for example, fall well below the average with just $868 in wealth per person. Hakainde Hichilema, president of Zambia, said technology is the key way to increase crop yields across Africa.

“Appropriate technology, appropriate technology is very important to us in terms of animal husbandry and seeds,” he said. “It’s extremely important for increasing yields in Africa.”

The success of the flagship program has been reported

A key component of this effort was the AfDB’s flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program, which was launched in 2018 as part of the bank’s Feed Africa Strategy 2016-2025. By harnessing the power of technology, it aims to increase food production by 100 million tons by 2025 and lift 40 million people out of poverty.

The program applies technologies at scale along nine commodity value chains: corn, rice, wheat, iron-rich beans, cassava, orange-fleshed sweet potato, sorghum/millet, livestock, and aquaculture. Often associated with famine, Ethiopia is one country where TAAT has had remarkable success.

The initiative helped the Ethiopian government develop heat-resistant wheat seeds that can be planted in the lowlands of the country, where crops are difficult to grow. Ethiopia’s finance minister, Semereta Sewasew, told delegates that the program has increased the country’s wheat acreage from 5,000 hectares to 600,000 hectares in just five years. She said Ethiopia could now become a “regional breadbasket”. The program is being rolled out in 29 countries across the continent, giving 11 million farmers access to climate-friendly agricultural technologies.

“Today we have the technologies to feed Africa,” said Akinwumi Adesina, chairman of the AfDB. “They are on the shelf, but we need to get them off the shelf and put them in the hands of the right people. The research and development system is capable of developing technologies that enable Africa to adapt to climate change and also be productive, efficient and competitive.”

Making the business case

In addition to technology, funding is also a major barrier to scaling up the African agricultural sector. Small farmers are often unable to purchase key agricultural inputs and boost production yields due to the lack of funding in the market.

Domestic banks often view farming as a risky business and rarely extend loans to small farmers without asking for collateral in return, which poor farmers cannot provide. Danladi Verheijen, co-founder and CEO of Verod Capital Management, a West African private equity firm, said stakeholders need to present the industry as a business to attract private capital.

“We need to think about agriculture in terms of agribusiness,” he said. “It is the only way to attract investment. There should be no handouts, no freebies. If you look at the entire value chain, there are plenty of opportunities.”

moving forward

A major achievement of the summit was the adoption of the Country Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts. The final statement stated that these were prepared and owned by African countries, and “convey the vision, challenges and opportunities in agricultural productivity, infrastructure, processing and value added, markets and financing that will support the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture of the African Union will accelerate. Development Program (CAADP)”.

The February 18-19 African Union Summit called for them to be implemented with “time-bound and clearly measurable indicators of success, including concrete national policies, incentives and regulations to create an enabling environment for broader and faster investment throughout the agricultural sector.”.