The African-wide conference kicked off in Ethiopia on Monday with a report disclosing that Africa is still far from achieving the millennium development goals on agriculture, which aims to cut poverty by half by 2015.
Around 100 African researchers, policy makers and development partners have gathered in Addis Ababa for the conference to deliberate ways on how to improve agriculture and rural development across the continent.
According to a paper presented at the conference, In order to achieve the MDGs on agriculture, Africa needs an annual growth of agriculture of 7.5 per cent, said the report.
According to the report, Lesotho, Niger, Kenya, Madagascar, Guinea Bissau and Burundi will require at least 10 per cent growth in Agriculture while Ghana, Mozambique and Uganda will achieve the goal if they continue at their present growth rates.
“Nigeria stands out as the only country with a high level of poverty that has the required agricultural growth rate close to 6 per cent. In order to achieve the MDGs on agriculture, our analysis indicated that African government will need to increase their agricultural spending by 20 per cent per year,” added the report.
The regional forum under the theme, “Exploring New Opportunities and Strategic Alternatives to Inform African Agricultural Development, Planning, and Policy,” is organized by the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System (ReSAKSS), which is an African-wide network of regional nodes supporting the common market of eastern and southern Africa and other regional economic communicities0RECs)
ReSAKSS supports implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).
“Agricultural development can be a powerful source of economic growth and a key element in the fight against poverty, hunger, and malnutrition,” said Professor Richard Mkandawire, head of CAADP at NEPAD.
“This is especially true for Sub-Saharan Africa, where agriculture is the primary source of income, employment, and export earnings. Yet mobilizing resources for agriculture, a challenge in itself, is not sufficient”.
“African policymakers must determine priorities, identify appropriate levels and areas of investment, allocate resources efficiently, and create comprehensive development strategies,” he added.
Source African Press Agency
