Africa’s food systems must transform in order to achieve food security, deliver better nutrition, reduce poverty and address the environmental challenges of the 21st century.
According to Dr Kenton Dashiell, Deputy Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), the picture is not all doom and gloom and that numerous successes demonstrate successful movement toward agricultural and food system transformation in
Africa.Speaking during the ongoing African Conference on Agricultural Technology (ACAT) being held in Kenya, he said that the successes result from complementary convergence of science and technology, favourable policies, strong support institutions and services, and access to finance and markets.
When scaled upward, Dr. Dashiel said the achievements promise to form the nucleus of the heralded transformation of Africa’s food systems,” he said during a session on enabling farm-scale resilience through science, technologies and innovations (STI).
“Scaling is possible by investments in proven processes and materials. In Africa, scaling for food and agricultural transformation is hampered by underinvestment in the sector stemming from a lack of conviction by policymakers about the economic, strategic and political returns
accruing from investment in food and agriculture versus other sectors.
He noted that the fact that Africa can afford to pay USD 50 billion in importing food that it could otherwise grow for itself shows that the resources to invest in scaling food and agriculture exist.
“What is needed is a concerted commitment at the highest level to make the necessary investments and complement them with technical backstopping and policy regimes that support sustainable scaling,” Dr Dashiell added.
Dr Dashiell identified one program that seeks to advance agriculture through this paradigm is the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Program (TAAT) which is pioneering new approaches to deploying proven technologies to African farmers as part of the African Development Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy.
TAAT seeks to ensure the growth of the agricultural sector, improve food security, and encourage inclusive growth by involving more women and youth.
It has been promoting improved crop varieties and animal breeds that are products of extended efforts targeting greater productive capacity, resilience toward pests and disease, environmental stress, and, more recently, improvement in nutritive value.
Within four years of its inception, TAAT Crop Compacts operated across 31 African countries to advance 76 proven technologies that were bundled into technology toolkits by national partners through 88 monitored interventions.
These efforts reached 10,616,372 households that accepted and co-invested in these innovations across a total 4,542,605 ha representing an average investment of USD 1,245,060 per country and USD 3.28 per adopter.
Meanwhile experts have urged African governments to leverage on agricultural biotechnology to be able to feed its increasing population, and not be left behind in this disruptive technology.
They noted that Agricultural biotechnology has the potential to advance African agriculture for improved resilience to climate change, and sustainable food systems for the attainment of the Malabo goals, Agenda 2063 priorities, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Giving their opinion during a technical interactive panel session titled ‘Biotechnology Advances and Emerging Opportunities” at the ACAT conference, the experts appealed for an urgent adoption of agricultural biotechnology as a key tool to helping Africa deal with challenges that aggravate food insecurity on the continent, including climate change, diseases, and pests that cause crop failure.
During the ongoing conference four individuals, including one Kenyan were awarded for their exceptional work in agricultural development in Africa.
The individuals, Mr. Mahmoud Omari Masemo, a farmer from Kwale, Kenya, for advocating for the adoption of the insect-resistant Bt cotton in Kenya, Dr. Eugene Terry who was awarded in his absentia for his commitment to improving the lives of smallholder farmers across Africa; Dr. Mohammed Ishiyaku, for demonstrating excellence in steering the development of innovative agricultural technologies for smallholder farmers in Nigeria and Ms. Joyce Seke, a farmer from Nigeria, for championing adoption of insect resistant cowpea in Nigeria.
The inaugural 5- day ACAT conference is being held in Kenya with over 500 participants from Africa to address matters related to innovative technologies.
By Wangari Ndirangu
