{"id":12941,"date":"2026-06-20T12:25:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/africa-can-feed-itself\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T12:25:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:25:52","slug":"africa-can-feed-itself","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/africa-can-feed-itself\/","title":{"rendered":"L'Afrique peut se nourrir elle-m\u00eame"},"content":{"rendered":"

Even with nearly a quarter of the world’s one billion-plus hungry living in sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural experts agree that with additional investments in agriculture, particularly in research and capacity-building, Africa can easily meet its food and income needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were speaking at an open forum convened by the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the University of Zambia in Lusaka in observance of 2009 World Food Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By investing in research and training, simple and effective technologies that are already existing can be easily made available to farmers in Africa to improve their productivity, which is currently very low compared to global average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Hartmann, the Director General of IITA, if the yield gaps between the potential and actual yields can be reduced using existing science, Africa\u2019s production can increase three-fold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he also cautioned that farmers must be able to generate wealth from the increased yields. This is not always the case as a lot of produce go to waste before and after harvesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He adds that in Africa, an increase in production usually results in a drop in prices, which, consequently, means lesser farm incomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is also important that farmers\u2019 produce should be protected from damage by pests and diseases, as well as from losses during transportation and storage,\u201d he said. \u201cFarmers should have alternative markets to prevent prices from spiralling down with increased production.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson Mwenya, the Acting Vice Chancellor of UNZA said the world financial crisis had added more challenges to Zambia\u2019s struggle for development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that over 90 per cent of the country’s population is heavily dependent on agriculture for their livelihood, with 70 per cent of this comprising subsistence peasant agriculture. Most also depend on the rains, which makes agriculture more uncertain because of climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt is at times like these that institutions of research and training must come together to produce a labour force that is knowledgeable and ready to face the challenges of climate change and quickly find solutions and disseminate them yesterday,\u201d he emphasized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Mulioleka of the Golden Valley Agricultural Research Trust (GART) agreed that productivity in Africa was low due to low inputs. For instance in Zambia, he said, on average farmers use 8kg\/ha of fertilizer compared to 19kg\/ha for other countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFarmers need a lot of support and motivation through a conducive policy environment and support with improved inputs such as feed, fertilizer and water.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noureddin Mona, country representative of FAO, indicated that back-to-back crises starting in 2007 have negatively impacted global food security and pushing the number of the world\u2019s hungry to an all time high of over 1 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He supported the call for more investment in agricultural research and training as one of the ways to fight food insecurity, adding that farmers must also be actively involved in research to ensure that the technologies produced are appropriate to local conditions and are acceptable to end-users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

###<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pour plus d'informations, veuillez contacter :<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jeffrey T. Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org<\/a>
Charg\u00e9 de communication d'entreprise (international)
Si\u00e8ge de l'IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catherine Njuguna, c.njuguna@cgiar.org<\/a>
Responsable de la communication d'entreprise r\u00e9gionale (Afrique de l'Est)
IITA-Tanzanie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godwin Atser, g.atser@cgiar.org<\/a>
Charg\u00e9 de la communication d'entreprise (Afrique de l'Ouest)
Si\u00e8ge de l'IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria<\/p>\n\n\n\n

URL : www.iita.org<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00c0 propos de l'IITA<\/b>
L'Afrique fait face \u00e0 des probl\u00e8mes complexes qui p\u00e8sent lourdement sur l'agriculture et la vie des populations. Nous d\u00e9veloppons des solutions agricoles avec nos partenaires pour lutter contre la faim et la pauvret\u00e9. Nos recherches pour le d\u00e9veloppement (R4D), maintes fois r\u00e9compens\u00e9es, reposent sur une r\u00e9flexion cibl\u00e9e et autoris\u00e9e, ancr\u00e9e dans les besoins de d\u00e9veloppement de l'Afrique subsaharienne. Nous travaillons avec des partenaires en Afrique et au-del\u00e0 pour r\u00e9duire les risques pour les producteurs et les consommateurs, am\u00e9liorer la qualit\u00e9 et la productivit\u00e9 des cultures, et g\u00e9n\u00e9rer de la richesse gr\u00e2ce \u00e0 l'agriculture. L'IITA est une organisation internationale R4D \u00e0 but non lucratif fond\u00e9e en 1967, dirig\u00e9e par un Conseil d'administration et soutenue principalement par le CGIAR.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even with nearly a quarter of the world’s one billion-plus hungry living in sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural experts agree that with additional investments in agriculture, particularly in research and capacity-building, Africa can easily meet its food and income needs.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":12844,"template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"tags":[],"science-area":[],"program":[],"location":[46],"news-type":[],"hub":[],"crop":[],"impact-areas":[],"item-year":[187],"class_list":["post-12941","news-item","type-news-item","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","location-zambia","item-year-187"],"yoast_head":"\nAfrica can feed itself - 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