DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania
At the Africa Food Systems Forum Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania last week, over four thousand delegates and agricultural stakeholders — including national leaders — called on African governments to engage youth in agriculture as part of the strategies to build resilience in the continent.
More than 250 million Africans
are hungry, according to the African Union, and as food price inflation in
Africa continues to surge, member states say resilience strategies are needed
to combat food insecurity.
Kenyan President William Ruto
said young people are needed to help develop successful strategies to combat
the problem.
"How do we increase
productivity? How do we bring youths into the equations?" Ruto asked.
"I think those two issues encapsulates what I think should inform our
thinking going forward. The provision of fertilizer and seed is very important,
it must be accessible, it must be affordable and it must be available," he
added.
The AU says hundreds of
millions of people lack enough food, despite African countries having signed
the Malabo Declaration that calls for 10% of country’s annual budget to be
appropriated to agriculture — though only a few have complied.
Tanzania’s president, Samia Hassan, told the conference that her country has increased the budget
for agriculture significantly, and that since 2012, the country has
successfully used youth, investment and agricultural reforms to lift the lives
of subsistence farmers.
Hassan said people dying of
hunger on the African continent is a "shame and unacceptable."
Nardos Bekele Thomas, the
chief executive officer of the African Union Development Agency, said creating
"a resilient and inclusive food system" is Africa's most pressing
challenge.
"With the world still
emerging form the devastation of COVID pandemic and the ongoing Ukraine-Russia
war hunger and malnutrition in our continent is set to worsen in the coming
years," said Thomas.
In efforts to fight hunger on
the continent, African heads of state are now exploring preferential treatment
for farmers with low interest loans and the mechanization of the sector.
Byakatonda Abdulhu, an
agriculture expert and a member of parliament in Uganda, says other factors
have also derailed the growth of agriculture in Africa.
"Corruption," he
said, "is also a big challenge where you find that in most of the priority
areas supporting agriculture some funds are normally diverted. We need to look
at climate sustainability where we need to have financing to ensure that the
farmers produce for the market. This can actually encourage farmers to produce
and most economies can get out of poverty and hunger."
Calls are continuing for
decisive strategies and actions to rebuild food systems after multiple crises
and shocks in Africa.
According to the World Bank,
domestic food price inflation remains high around the world — with 79 % of
lower-middle-income countries experiencing double-digit inflation, and the
most-affected countries are in Africa.
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