You cannot eat oil – at least not crude oil. You cannot eat diamonds either. You cannot eat gold. Money from extractive industries has not transformed African agriculture over the last 30 years. It has not fed hungry people or developed rural areas- Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze
Scaling up productivity in African agriculture –so that it contributes to the health and prosperity of the poor women and men living in rural areas — is an absolute pre-requisite of prosperity for our continent- Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze
By Anthony Muchoki
To reduce mass poverty in Africa the only way out is to scale up productivity and prosperity in Agriculture, according to Dr. Kanayo F. Nwanze, President International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD).
“History has proved that Agriculture is the engine for economic growth and poverty reduction,” he noted addressing delegates at the African for Green Revolution Forum. He was categorical that the highly taunted extractive industry industries and other sectors as much as they are important, they cannot reduce mass poverty.
“Scaling up productivity in African agriculture so that it contributes to the prosperity of the women and men living in rural areas is an absolute prerequisite of prosperity for our continent,” he noted adding that was must be done was not rocket science.
He said the shocking figures of food imports outside the continent were a case of stupidity.
“Importing foods that can be produced locally is stupidity that should not be tolerated,” he said.
He said despite many African nations impressive economic growth “without a viable agricultural sector and a strong rural economy, there cannot be a viable future for Africa.”
“Today, Africa’s middle class is burgeoning. Consumer spending is expected to reach US$1 trillion — and by some estimates US$1.4 trillion — by 2020, and consumer spending is expected to double over the next 10 years. It is little wonder that the continent attracted US$52.6 billion of foreign direct investment just last year,” he said in his keynote address.
He said that despite the tripling of foreign direct investment in Africa for over a decade now, in the areas of poverty reduction and chronic hunger, Africa was failing abysmally.
“Sub Saharan Africa dominates the bottom of the UNDP’s Human Development Index. In Eastern and Southern Africa, ten countries have serious levels of hunger, six have alarming levels and two have extremely alarming levels of hunger,” he noted.
“Africa’s extreme poverty rates had fallen, from 58 per cent in 1999 to 48 per cent in 2010, but this 17 per cent improvement cannot compare to the 50 per cent advance in Latin America, or the 63 per cent improvement in East Asia and the Pacific,” he said.
He lamented that sub Saharan Africa was the only region where the absolute number of people living in poverty has risen steadily between 1981 and 2010. “This is not a distinction we can be proud of.”
Yes, many African economies are growing strongly, but too often this is on the back of extractive industries that do not yield jobs and income for Africa’s poor and hungry. GDP doesn’t mean much when you are talking about indicators of personal poverty.
– See more at: http://www.ifad.org/events/op/2014/agrf.htm#sthash.uAR5gHs9.4cU6WwXh.dpuf
