With the rains growing heavier, oceans rising and rural inhabitants migrating to cities on an unprecedented scale, leaving African cities under dual pressure from uncontrolled urbanization and hunger worsened by climate change, experts have identified closing the yield gap as a way out.
This came out strongly at the just concluded African Green Revolution Forum’s (AGRF) pre-session on “Agricultural technologies to feed the cities.”
Organized by Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), the pre-session was held under the overarching theme of “Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent: Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve Sustainable Food Systems in Africa.”
In his keynote presentation, Dr Martin Fregene, African Development Bank (AfDB) Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industries, underlined that Africa must close the yield gap and build a robust agribusiness sub-sector to sustainably feed its growing population.
Citing maize yield in the United States as an example, Fregene revealed that the USA and Africa have the same amount of land under maize (approximately 350 million ha). However, the USA produces 400 m tons while Africa subsists around 60 m tons. “With this productivity deficiency mirrored across commodities, the consequence is a food import bill of $50 billion per year for Africa,” Fregene said.
“It is therefore fundamental to close the yield gap through significant investments and deployment of appropriate technologies to transform Africa’s agriculture and meet the Feed Africa objectives,” he added.
Dr Kenton Dashiell, IITA Deputy Director General, Partnerships for Delivery, highlighted TAAT’s role in leveraging research partners’ technologies to transform Africa’s agriculture through strategic partnerships. He lauded the package of practices and innovative solutions that supersede “traditional technologies” currently being deployed efficiently across the continent by CGIAR and other institutions in the TAAT program.
According to Innocent Musabyimana, Head of the TAAT Clearinghouse, productivity increase stimulates agriculture food systems to bring real change in the agriculture sector. “Robust country coordination and engagement for alignment with national priorities are crucial to feeding African cities,” Musabyimana added.
Other experts at the well-attended AGRF pre-session included Dr Irene Annor-Frempong, Director of Research and Innovations at Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Dr Zewdie Bishaw, TAAT Wheat Compact Coordinator at International Centre for Agriculture in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), and Dr Abass Adebayo, TAAT Cassava Compact Coordinator at IITA. They all linked TAAT’s success stories revolutionizing wheat in Africa, intensifying cassava production and commercialization, and building the capacity of African Farmers through Technology Outreach.
The 2020 AGRF virtual summit, which ended on 11 September, was co-hosted by the Government of Rwanda under the leadership of H.E. President Kagame and the AGRF Partners Group.
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