Technology key to making Africa global food basket
THE AFRICAN DEVELOPMENT BANK is championing a new regional and global effort to transform the African Savannah from a passive continent to the cradle of green revolution.
Jennifer Blanke, the bank’s vice-president for agriculture, human and social development, speaking at the 2018 World Food Prize in Iowa described Africa’s nearly 400 million hectares of Savannah zones as the world’s largest agricultural frontier, noting that if a small fraction of that cultivatable land of about 16 million hectares is transformed, it could set Africa up to decrease dependence on food imports and contribute to feeding the world.
Africa is host to 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, but currently spends an estimated $35 billion per year on importing food. This figure is projected to grow to $110 billion by 2025.
About 22 million metric tonnes of maize, two million metric tonnes of soybean, one million metric tonnes of broiler meat and 10 million metric tonnes of milk produce each year are imported.
This situation is worsened when raw goods are exported outside the continent to be processed into consumer products and imported into Africa for purchase. In essence, jobs are exported outside the continent.
However, the AfDB expressed hopes the continent can support the production of maize, soybean, and livestock, and transform the continent into a net exporter of these commodities. Since only ten percent of the African Savannah is under cultivation, better utilized, small sections of Africa’s grasslands could provide direct jobs and indirect jobs.
Blanke, who represented Akinwumi Adesina, AfDB president, noted that transforming a small part of Africa’s mixed woodland grasslands, in a smart and sustainable way, can produce enough to supply all the continent’s maize, soybean, and livestock requirements.
He said Africa’s entire Savannah is more than twice as large as Brazil’s Cerrados that launched the country’s farming economy success.
Brazil transformed its tropical Cerrados into a $54 billion food industry within two decades through skilful development of production technologies for new crop and livestock varieties; innovative soil and crop management programs adapted to the tropics; wide-scale dissemination of new agricultural technologies; low-interest loans, and ambitious rural development programs.
To ensure effective implementation, the bank has looked to Brazil’s agri-business success story to engage with organisations with a proven track record in tropical and conservation agriculture.
These include the Brazilian Research Corporation and the Agricultural Corporation of Brazil, the Argentine Association of Zero-tillage, and the Argentine Agricultural Research Institute – all part of a systematic effort at technology introduction and adaptation.