📋 Tender Overview
There was firm agreement that Africa should set the bar much higher than simply becoming self-sufficient in food production at the Feed Africa Food Sovereignty and Resilience summit Dakar 2 in Senegal at the end of January.It is time for Africa to feed itself and fully unlock its agriculture potential to help feed the world stated the final declarationlink is external. The declaration also commended the planned investment of 10bn by the African Development Bank AfDB co-hosts of the event along with the government of Senegal and a further 20bn by other partners in support of Africas agricultural development over the next five years.The summit was attended by heads of state and government from 34 African countries along with scores of African ministers of agriculture and many international partners. Paradigm shift is neededHosting the event which came in the wake of huge pressure on Africas food securitylink is external from rising inflation and the war in Ukraine Senegals President Macky Sall called for a paradigm shift in the way African policymakers think about agriculture.We as politicians often sit in our capital cities far away from the fields he said. We need to allocate more of our budget to agriculture to modernise the sector and make it a profitable business just like commerce or industry.The objectives of the summit were toMobilise high-level political commitment development partner support and private sector investment around production markets and trade to increase food production in Africa.Share successful food and agriculture experience in selected countries.Galvanise national governments development partners and the private sector around food and agriculture delivery compacts for each country to achieve food security at scale.Develop necessary infrastructure and logistics with special agro-industrial processing zones to build markets and competitive food and agriculture value chains. Technology is key to transformationMany of the presidents at Dakar 2 said that technology was key to increasing farmer yields across Africa. Although 60 of the worlds uncultivated arable land is in Africa smallholders would not need to cut down forests if they were able to increase the productivity on their existing farms. Indeed the World Bank found that Africa had some of the least productive agricultural workers in the world measured by the amount of economic value each smallholder adds to overall GDP. Sub-Saharan Africa generates just 1526 per person in farming compared to the world average of 4035 and the US at the top with 100062 per person.Countries like Tanzania for instance fall well below the average with only 868 of wealth generated per person. Hakainde Hichilema president of Zambia said that technology was the most important way to boost crop yields across Africa.Appropriate technology appropriate technology is very important for us on the animal husbandry and seed side he said. It is extremely important for increasing yields in Africa.Flagship programmes success reportedA key part of this effort has been the AfDBs flagship Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation TAATlink is external programme which was launched in 2018 as part of the banks Feed Africa Strategy 2016-2025. By harnessing the power of technology it aims to increase food output by 100m tonnes and lift 40m people out of poverty by 2025.The programme deploys technologies at scale along nine commodity value chains maize rice wheat high-iron bean cassava orange-fleshed sweet potato sorghummillet livestock and aquaculture. Ethiopia which is often associated with famine is a country where TAAT has had notable success.The initiative helped the Ethiopian government develop heat-tolerant wheat seeds which can be planted in the countrys lowland areas where it is difficult to cultivate crops. Ethiopias finance minister Semereta Sewasew told delegates that the programme has boosted the countrys wheat cultivated land from 5000 hectares to 600000 hectares in just five years. She said that Ethiopia could now become a regional breadbasket. The programme is being rolled out in 29 countries across the continent giving 11m farmers access to climate-adapted agricultural technologies.Today we have the technologies to feed Africa said Akinwumi Adesina president of the AfDB. They are on the shelf but we need to get them off the shelf and put them in the hands of the right people. The research and development system is able to develop technologies that will allow Africa to adapt to climate change and also be productive efficient and competitive.Making the business caseAlongside technology finance is also a key barrier to scaling up Africas agricultural sector. Smallholder farmers are often unable to buy key agricultural inputs and ramp up production yields due to the lack of finance available in the market.Domestic banks often consider agriculture a risky business and rarely give out loans to smallholders without asking for collateral in return which poor farmers cannot provide. Danladi Verheijen co-founder and CEO of Verod Capital management a West African private equity firm said that stakeholders must present the sector as a business to attract private capital.We have to think about agriculture in terms of agribusiness he said. It is the only way to attract investment. There should be no handouts no freebies. If you look across the value chain there are loads of opportunities.
