Syngenta’s plan to feed more may help Africa

CROP yields in Africa were low with losses as high as 40 percent, while farmers were not well organised, Brave Ndisale, the Malawian ambassador to Belgium, said yesterday.

She said the continent needed agricultural transformation that would feed its people and generate income for smallholder farmers, but it also had to be resilient to natural and economic shocks.

Ndisale was speaking in Brussels at the launch of a food growth plan up to 2020 by global seed producer Syngenta, which has a presence in 90 countries. The plan was launched in Brussels, Washington, Brasilia, Djakarta and Zurich yesterday.

She said Malawi had moved from being a net importer of maize to a net exporter because of investment in agriculture.

“The government has put its money where its mouth is. We must participate in the value chain with smallholder farmers and NGOs,” she said.

“The key drivers in Malawi are modernisation and conservation agriculture to maintain soil fertility.”

Ndisale said it was predicted that by 2050 the world population would have increased by a third to 9 billion, mostly living in urban areas. To feed this population, it was estimated that agricultural output would have to increase by 70 percent, with much of this from developing countries.

Syngenta says every day there are 200 000 more mouths to feed. Many people who produce the world’s food are living in poverty, while biodiversity is disappearing fast and farmland is lost to erosion.

“We have one planet and we are using its resources 50 percent faster than it can take,” Ndisale said. “What we are asking it to provide is simply not sustainable.”

Syngenta’s growth plan by 2020 commits to: make crops more efficient; rescue more farmland; help biodiversity flourish; empower smallholders; ensure labour safety, and look after every worker.