Despite significant progress in efforts to combat hunger and malnutrition in Africa, the continent is still far from ending hunger and poverty, as outlined in the Malabo Declaration of 2014 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Agenda 2.
The executive director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Dr. Canisius Kanangire, stated this in Abuja in an interaction with journalists.
He said that Africa needs to adopt technology and innovation to revolutionise its agriculture and expedite actions to address the challenges.
According to the United Nations, more than 258 million people in Africa were undernourished in 2020, representing about 19 per cent of the population.
Kanangire said the success achieved through the development of Tela maize and pest-resistant cowpea and their next generations remains an example of biotechnology innovations that are geared towards the transformation of agriculture in Africa to improve crop yields and reduce post-harvest losses.
According to him, Africa’s development will be very difficult to attain unless the continent develops its agriculture and makes it economically viable.
He said, “I would say there has been a lot of progress, but we are still far from ending hunger and poverty. Africa has made a lot of progress, and you have some countries that have even implemented most of the targets that were set by the Malabo Declaration.”
As Africans, I feel that we should be doing much more. The transformation should accelerate the adoption of the changes that are needed to really revolutionise the agricultural sector.
I will only take this opportunity to urge our decision-makers, policymakers and also the private sector, because it can’t be done by only one sector. I want to urge them to use the two years to really ensure that we expedite the transformation that we need.
On biotechnology, he said, “Biotechnology is coming along quite well, and we are learning and getting encouraged by the successes, which are achieved by the first adopters here for cowpea and in South Africa for Tela maize.”
He encouraged African governments to harmonise policies that will strengthen robust seed systems to drive biotechnology.
He further said that mechanisation remains one of the areas where Africa is not doing well and requires significant improvement if the continent is to feed this growing population.
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