{"id":15354,"date":"2026-06-20T12:42:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T12:42:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.iita.org\/news-item\/agrf-2020-highlights-africas-internal-250-billion-agricultural-trade-opportunity\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T20:38:55","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T20:38:55","slug":"agrf-2020-highlights-africas-internal-250-billion-agricultural-trade-opportunity","status":"publish","type":"news-item","link":"https:\/\/iita.org\/fr\/news-item\/agrf-2020-highlights-africas-internal-250-billion-agricultural-trade-opportunity\/","title":{"rendered":"AGRF 2020 highlights Africa\u2019s internal $250 billion agricultural trade opportunity"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dr
Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), giving the opening remarks.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its 10th<\/sup>\u00a0anniversary summit, the recent African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2020, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, focused on Africa\u2019s rapidly expanding cities and food markets. Multiple speakers talked about the current African city markets that represent a US$250 billion opportunity, a value five times bigger than our present export markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A video montage at the start of the opening ceremony posed a question to the forum: \u201cHow do we feed our cities with nutritious diets, with an ever-growing number of consumers, diversity of incomes, diversity in diets, and therefore diversity in demand for food?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the theme \u201cFeed the cities, grow the continent,\u201d the conference highlighted the need for a significant transformation in Africa\u2019s food systems to achieve the continental goals laid out in the Malabo Declaration and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. With the rapidly expanding urban population set to reach a billion people by 2040, achieving this transformation is now a matter of urgency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Participants
Participants of the AGRF2020 summit.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her opening remarks, Dr Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), acknowledged that the COVID-19 pandemic had challenged the continent\u2019s food systems making it evident changes must be made to strengthen them. Despite being the fastest urbanizing continent, she pointed out some reasons hindering Africa from taking advantage of the opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMany of those are lack of what experts call wholesale markets,\u201d Kalibata said of the drawbacks. \u201cLack of those means that farmers don\u2019t have predictability of markets. The other thing that experts talked about was the lack of competitiveness of the agricultural sector itself, as well as the lack of competitiveness of agricultural commodities,\u201d she continued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rwanda\u2019s Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Dr G\u00e9rardine Mukeshimana, in her welcome address, spoke of the complexity of urban food systems in producing sufficient food for the populace. With the coronavirus crisis happening when hunger on the continent was already rising, Mukeshimana expressed hope that the AGRF summit will develop implementable tools to help feed Africa sustainably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AGRA Board Chair, His Excellency Hailemariam Desalegn, noted that after 10 years of the AGRF, \u201cthe forum is committed to taking its agenda and impact several notches higher,\u201d to be able to achieve Africa\u2019s food security goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith five years left to achieve the vision and goals laid out in the Malibu Declaration, and 10 years left to achieve the SDGs, AGRF recognizes that it must drive a more international agenda, with more partners, because all of you can understand that we are only left with five years to achieve zero hunger in Africa,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AGRF is the foremost forum bringing together stakeholders, including CGIAR and several multilateral organizations, to take practical actions and share lessons to improve African agriculture. Because of the COVID-19 restrictions, most of the more than 10,400 participants attended the conference virtually, making this year\u2019s conference the largest AGRF summit so far.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its 10th anniversary summit, the recent African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2020, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda, focused on Africa\u2019s rapidly expanding cities and food markets.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":15355,"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 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