Africa has been put on the spot over lack of investment in agriculture, especially in the wake of a food crisis owing to prolonged drought in parts of the continent.
Minister of Agriculture, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina, said recently that lack of investment in the sector had made Africa become a net importer of food, spending up to $50 billion annually on food imports.He blamed African governments for abandoning agriculture.
“ Africa is spending its hard earned resources buying food and the more expensive the food is, obviously you are fuelling inflation and the reason why this is happening is because agriculture in Africa has been performing very poorly,” he said.
Adesina added that there was need to accelerate uptake of improved varieties of crops that were high yield, rapidly increase the use of fertiliser, set up marketing institutions for farmers, ensure value addition to produce and improve infrastructure.
“Our farmers produce in hope but they sell in tears,” he said in reference to the lack of marketing institutions that would ensure farmers had a market for their produce.
He however noted that African agriculture was rising and would grow even further if there were policies that comprehensively supported farmers.
“If you look at the Foreign Direct Investment that is coming to Africa today, it’s tremendous. Everybody is coming to get a piece of Africa, if there is no potential in Africa, obviously they wouldn’t do that, that means African agriculture is on the rise,” he explained.