By: Mohamed Jalloh
The African Development Bank (ADB) has committed$10 Billion to support Africa`s food and Agricultural delivery compacts at the ongoing action-driven Dakar 2 Summit in Senegal.
Heads of State in Africa will further convene meetings to mobilize and align government resources, development partners and private sector financing to unleash Africa’s food production potential during the three-day Dakar 2 Summit from January 25-27, 2023.
Investing in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, climate smart agricultural systems, with private sector investments all along the food value chain can help turn Africa into a breadbasket for the world.
Private sector actors will commit to the development of critical value chains. Central Bank Governors and Ministers of Finance will commit to development of financing arrangements to implement Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts, working with Ministers of Agriculture, as well as private sector players, including commercial banks and financial institutions.
The Dakar 2 Summit seeks to bring together governments, private sector leaders, representatives from multilateral organizations and NGOs, as well as scientists and researchers to explore ways to meet the escalating challenge of food security in Africa and strengthen the continent’s resilience to future shocks.
Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Egypt, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Mozambique will be in one category for country concurrent Country Compacts discussions. While the Ministers of Agriculture and Finance, Central Bank Governors in Africa, private sector and researchers will participate in a high level roundtable on scaling technologies for African Agricultural Transformation Introducing new technological systems and practices, combined with traditional knowledge and techniques.
It will seek to mobilize high-level political commitment around production, markets and trade to deliver Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts for selected countries. It will also mobilize and align government resources, development partners and private sector financing around the Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts to achieve food security at scale in each country.
Countries will share successful experiences on food and agriculture and successful platforms to scale up support for agriculture.
Also to be looked at is the double agricultural productivity with state-of-the-art climate-adapted crop, livestock and aquaculture technology and advisory services and support research and development for a pipeline of climate resilient agricultural technologies.
At the end of the High-Level Summit, it is expected that commitments will be made by Heads of States for food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts, Presidential Councils for Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts and financing frameworks for delivering Country Food and Agriculture Delivery Compacts to achieve zero hunger.
Despite having 65% of the remaining arable land to feed 9 billion people in the world by 2050, the continent imports over 100 million metric tons of food at the cost of $75 billion annually. Africa has the potential to feed itself and contribute to feeding the world.
Sector investments all along the food value chain can help turn Africa into a breadbasket for the world. Achieving zero hunger in Africa will require between $28.5 billion and $36.6 billion annually. With the removal of barriers to agricultural development aided by new investments, it is estimated that Africa’s agricultural output could increase from $280 billion per year to $1 trillion by 2030.
To further diversify food supply sources for the world, amid the lingering effects of the war in Ukraine and its systemic effects globally, and to secure food supplies for Africa, it is now critical to support efforts to unleash the agricultural potential of Africa, for sustainable food production. Africa stands to gain, and the world stands to gain from such a concerted effort.
The conveners believe that they must address the most pressing issues preventing Africa’s food and agriculture like coordination towards targets, private sector investment, climate adaptation and mitigation, technologies to promote productivity, access to finance, trade and infrastructure to promote private sector investment, policies promoting food and agriculture delivery.
Multilateral organizations will also be discussing the important role that they play in development, governance, networks and support to sector coordination, particularly in times of crisis, and they will show how that role will change over the next five years.
Finally, CEOs of private sector investments in agribusiness will share their vision for what will stimulate significant growth in the agriculture sector, which countries represent the best opportunities, the role of land expansion, keeping costs competitive for the end user when input costs are rising significantly.
It could be recalled that President Julius Maada Bio has declared that his next major focus, like he has successfully done with the Free Quality Education in the last four and half years, would be climate-friendly and sustainable agriculture, value addition and development of the productive sector of the economy.