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Agriculture Lies At Heart of Africa's Growth

Windhoek — The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) called on global leaders at the just ended World Economic Forum on Africa meeting in Cape Town, South Africa to recognize that the agriculture sector is the heart of Africa's growth.
 

President of AGRA, Jane Karuku, said evidence shows every dollar invested in agriculture in Africa has an impact on poverty reduction, and the impact is sometimes three to four times greater compared to the impact from an equal amount invested in other sectors. "As the clock ticks towards 2014, the pressure is now on for our governments to live up to the commitment they made in Maputo. Growth in Africa's agricultural sector, food security and poverty alleviation across the continent all depend on achieving this goal," Karuku said.

The Changing Landscape of Aid in Africa

By Steve Davis, PATH (May 8, 2013)

In the world of international health and development, a new model is taking shape. The traditional structure of aid agencies in Sweden, the United States and other donor countries pouring their own resources, tools and programmes into African communities is being transformed by dramatic shifts in global economic paradigms. Demographics and living standards are changing, as are policies and assumptions that guide the development of new technologies and commercial markets. Surprisingly, the biggest shifts are not rooted in economic crises, but rather in the positive trends created from the healthier, increasingly connected world that is unfolding.

Kenya: We Must Reassess Our Food Policies

The Star

By Dr Alex Awiti, 26 February 2013

Opinion

Nearly 1 billion people, a majority of them smallholder farmers, are chronically hungry and malnourished. According to Oxfam International, the poor spend 50-80% of their meager earnings on food.

West Africa: Rich Farmers 'More Likely' to Adopt Improved Rice Varieties

By Christophe D. Assogba, 19 February 2013

SciDev.Net

Cotonou — Household wealth strongly affects farmers' decisions over whether to use improved rice varieties (IRVs), according to a study, which makes some key recommendations on how to boost IRVs affordability, accessibility and adoption.

 

How Africa could feed the world

By Olusegun Obasanjo, Special to CNN

 

Editor’s note: Olusegun Obasanjo is a former president of Nigeria and a member of the Africa Progress Panel, chaired by Kofi Annan. The views expressed are the author’s own.

Images of starving children, epitomised in news coverage from Ethiopia in the 1980s, have given Africa a reputation for famine that does an injustice to the continent’s potential.

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