Agriculture being the backbone of most developing economies in
Africa holds pregnant solutions to food insecurity and a spectrum of deficiency
diseases affecting Africa. However this potential has not been tapped enough to
make it rise to the occasion of a commercialized agriculture that can provide
employment, continuously and adequately feed Africans and nurture economic
growth in the individual countries.
To see this in print we need combined efforts between large and
small scale farmers, government and educational institutions to provide
thinking minds and dedicated personnel to act as movers of change. The farmers
must convert the farming activities into enterprises worth investments of
money, time and energy. This is unlike the garden-to-mouth philosophy that is
not only a disgrace to a growing economy but also an injection of poverty to
the society.
The government needs to make policies that not only support
agriculture but also gets directly involved in it through parastatals.
Subsidized fertilizers, pesticides and buying produce from farmers can offer
direct support while policies supporting climate and environmental
consciousness, rural development and artificial
irrigation can support indirectly.
Educational institutions should promote research projects related to
agriculture from students for capacity building in rural areas and take their
students for academic trips to food processing companies to set them on fire for
innovation.
According to statistics released by FAO, a child dies every six
seconds from hunger, 14% of greenhouse gases come from agriculture and 74% of
this is brought by developing countries where most of our African economies
lie. This necessitates the need to be conscious of our environment and fast
conversion of words to deeds, from the boardroom to the field.
With the above mentioned synergistic effect, we can transform our
Arid and Semi-Arid Lands (ASALs) into our main production zones by not
depending on rain-fed agriculture but irrigating our farms. This will provide
adequate food for us and feeds for our animals that will give us manure
for organic
farming thereby reciprocal benefits. Africa is endowed with
lakes, dams and rivers to support this but people in their immediate
environment die from hunger. Reclaiming our land by the government is another
step along the journey. Production alone is not enough. We need food processing
companies near these farms to bring the youth to rural areas and closer to the
farms that will rejuvenate the spirit of agriculture from old and rigid people
to young, innovative and aggressive minds that can elevate food security on the
continent and reduce antisocial crimes and solve problems related to
rural-urban migration.
Food scientists and technologists in these companies will complete
the chain of production by processing the produce to finished products to avoid
post-harvest
wastage and ensure continuous supply throughout the country. The excess
will be exported to earn our countries substantial foreign currencies to
increase our net factor incomes and lead to positive balance of payments. With
the new technological advancement, education and incentive systems in our
individual countries, it can be done.
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