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Major focus
The dialogue focused on a comprehensive exploration of the Africa food system. From 2016 to 2018, Africa imported about 85% of its food from outside the continent. The Challenge for Africa to feed itself and become a major food supplier for the world is compounded by the need to produce healthier, safer, and more nutritious food on less land, using less water and chemicals, and producing less waste and less greenhouse gases. The demands explain why Africa resolved to develop a Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa with a vision aptly stated as: “By 2030 Africa is food secure, a global sci
... Подробнееentific player, and the world’s breadbasket”. The structural inefficiencies of Africa’s agri-food systems, however, arguably emanate from the fractured dual economy. Most of the rural agrarian population small family farms (SFFs) and small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) largely disconnected from supplying the manufacturing-industrial part of the economy. While SFFs account for the largest proportion of the domestic food market, that market is almost entirely reliant on artisanal processing, whose market is separate market from the manufactured goods and services market. As such, poverty continues as the main cause of hunger. Apart from hunger and malnutrition, extreme poverty in Africa has increased from 413 million in 2015 to 437 million in 2019 (5.8%). Forecasts suggest that without significant shifts in policy, extreme poverty will still be in the double digits in sub-Saharan Africa by 2030. The source of agricultural growth in Africa has largely been through expansion of the cultivated area at the expense of forests, grasslands, and other uses, rather than from increased productivity. A recent study by FAO on land use changes between 2000 and 2018 indicates that about 12 million hectares of forests were cleared and converted to cropland, constituting about 58% of the cleared forest areas. In addition, close to 11 million hectares of grassland was converted to cropland, constituting about 46% of the cleared grasslands giving way to cropland. This is not sustainable! Post-harvest losses in Africa are estimated to be about 14%, one of the largest in a context of low production overall. Water use efficiency has been the lowest, showing only marginal improvement overtime – and this with comparatively lower water stress levels. Also, according to FAOs Agriculture Orientation Index for Government Expenditure between 2001 and 2018, Sub-Saharan Africa has fared the worst when it comes to allocation of public investment to agriculture – it revolves around 0.2 without showing notable improvement over the period. This is notwithstanding the CAADP commitment to allocate at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture. No wonder that Africa is a net importer of food, despite the huge potential. On the positive side, the potentials for increased productivity and opportunities for agri-food transformation are quite enormous. For example, according to some estimates, Africa could be two-three times more productive if it gets its agri-food systems in order, which means getting priorities right in terms of policy, governance, and investment. AfDB estimates that the value of annual agricultural output would increase from US$ 280 billion to as much as US$ 1 trillion by the year 2030. This potential in embodied in the current transformations taking place to include: positive food demand growth from the urbanization process; diet diversification; food supply chain transformation already emerging; factor market changes happening that promote economic converge Скрыть
Направления деятельности: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Ключевые слова: Environment and Climate, Finance, Governance, Innovation, Policy, Women & Youth Empowerment