Can Africa Truly Feed Itself?

Speaking in a similar vein, African Development Bank (ADB) President, Mr. Akinwumi Adesina insisted recently that with 65 percent of all the arable land left in the world to feed 9 billion people by 2050, Africa must become a global powerhouse in food and agriculture:

“The Bank will accelerate support for massive agricultural transformation across Africa, while building resilience to climate change in order to fully unlock the potential of agriculture, to lower food prices, save scarce foreign exchange, increase foreign exchange earnings, strengthen macroeconomic and fiscal stability, revive rural areas and in particular, create jobs for hundreds of millions of Africans.

“We must change our approach to agriculture. Agriculture, across Africa, must now be taken as a business, to generate wealth and rapidly diversify our economies and not for managing poverty. I see in 10 years an Africa that would be able to feed itself, that is able to take advantage of all the resources it has. A more competitive Africa on the global the market,” he further assured.

Meanwhile, apologists of food importation in Africa, particularly those who continue to adamantly believe that the continent cannot feed itself, are already feasting on and regurgitating the avalanche of reasons why the food importation party in Africa must continue ad infinitum.

As usual, they are blaming it on lack of political will on the part of the government, poor governance, neglect of the sector, weak institutions, drought, floods, poverty, HIV, population explosion, lack of incentives rural farmers, the degradation of land, incessant conflicts and wars as well as neo-colonialism among many other factors.

Co-founder of AACE Foods Ndidi Nwuneli still believes that Africa should fight to end food imports from Asia and Europe because Nigeria and other countries in the continent cannot continue to depend on farmers in Europe and Asia to feed its people. She noted that tremendous business and employment opportunities that exist in the agriculture value chain including production, processing, packaging and logistics.