Improved infrastructure and better technical education could transform Africa into an agricultural powerhousethat can feed itself and more
AFRICA COULD be able to feed itself and become a major food exporter within a generation, according to a new study.
“The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa” claims that modern technology, improved infrastructure and better technical education could transform the continent into an agricultural powerhouse, but only if the political will is there to invest in the sector.
“The potential exists in terms of land area,” Calestous Juma, a professor at Harvard University and the author of the study, told The Irish Times. “The challenge is that governments have never really invested in it.”
In 2003, African governments committed through the Maputo Declaration to increase public investment in agriculture to a minimum of 10 per cent. By 2008 only 19 per cent of African countries had allocated more than 10 per cent of national expenditure to agricultural development, with many countries barely reaching 4 per cent of gross domestic product.
“A region like South Sudan, which has ample arable land, could feed all of Africa if they intensified agricultural production enough,” said Juma from Arusha, northern Tanzania. “Look at the Netherlands. It is probably the second largest agricultural exporter in the world, because they have intensified agricultural production, which is knowledge-based.
“There is no reason why African countries cannot do the same.” The findings of Prof Juma’s study were presented yesterday at a conference in Arusha, where the presidents of the five-member East African Community are holding an informal summit on food security and climate change.
He estimates while food production has grown globally by 145 per cent over 40 years, African food production has fallen by 10 per cent since 1960, which he attributes to low investment.
Only 3.6 per cent of cropland is irrigated in Africa compared to 18.4 per cent worldwide, while there were just 13 tractors per 100km2 on the continent, against 200 worldwide. “One of the biggest problems is the lack of investment in infrastructure.”
While cautioning against “lumping all of sub-Saharan Africa” together, Paul Wagstaff, an agricultural adviser at Concern Worldwide, acknowledged poor infrastructure was impeding the continent’s attempt to become self-sufficient in food production.
“The worse the roads are, the more difficult it is to compete with farmers with good access to roads. In many countries in West Africa such as Sierra Leone and Liberia, is it often cheaper to bring in rice from Pakistan than it is to grow it locally. In Kenyan markets you will even find Vietnamese rice.”
This was due in part, he said, to the fact that farmers in many countries south of the Sahara were not a powerful lobby group, despite the sector employing 70 per cent of the population.
“If urban dwellers get upset the government has to do something about it, whereas farmers tend to get ignored. But investing in agriculture is a very good way of lifting people out of poverty. Anything which focuses the world’s attention on it is a good thing.”