Africa spends $35b on food imports: AfDB

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AFRICA: The President of African Development Bank (AfDB), Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, has said the bill for food imports in Africa is now $35 billion annually.
According to him, this should encourage Africans to develop their agricul­tural sector and channel the amount for food imports into something else.
However, he emphasised that food, in quantity and quality, is the right of every human being, saying that what is most important is the safety of the belly.
Adesina, who stated this at the just-concluded con­ference on agriculture and agribusiness in Dakar, Sen­egal, said Africa is ready to put agriculture in a com­mercial enterprise – a trans­formation that requires the diversification of the agri­cultural sector.
The AfDB president is convinced that Africa has to be the breadbasket of the world. “However, in order to achieve this, she must re­lease her full potential and make a radical transforma­tion of agriculture.”
Speaking on the food im­ports bill, he called on the central banks and develop­ment banks to lend to the agriculture sector.
He said giving credit to agriculture is profitable while also urging the banks to invest in rural infrastruc­ture.
“We must modernise ag­riculture in Africa. This will enable the youths to invest their energy in the sector. To address this, there is need for investment and devel­opment of the processing sector, which helps to rein­force food security, reduce poverty, boost exports and promote economic growth.”
He appealed to all Afri­cans to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and position Africa in the global value chain.
The AfDB president said the agricultural sector has four times than any other sector, the power to create jobs and reduce poverty.
He added: “That is why we make the claim that we can diminish the migrant crisis in Europe by support­ing agricultural transforma­tion in Africa.
“It is time that ministers of Finance across the conti­nent see the sector for what it is: the sector with the best potential to bring about macro-economic and fiscal stabilisation.
“Feeding the estimated nine billion people in the world by 2050 will depend on how Africa capitalises on having 65 per cent of the world’s remaining arable land. By raising agricultural productivity, modernis­ing agriculture, developing agro-allied industries and investing in value-added processing for agricultural commodities, Africa can unlock its agricultural po­tential.”
As the private sector in­vests in large scale food pro­cessing and manufacturing factories across rural areas, and governments invest in integrated rural infrastruc­ture especially roads, rails, energy, water and irrigation, the cost of doing rural busi­ness will drop drastically,” he said.