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AfDB, IFAD, Others To Brainstorm On Food Security In Africa

Ebuka Daniel

The African Development Bank and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, in partnership with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa and the System Organization, will co-host a high-level dialogue:Feeding Africa: leadership to scale up successful innovations tomorrow, Thursday, April, 28, 2021. 

Forum participants will identify ways to expand activities, financing and partnerships that promote Africa’s agricultural transformation through technology and innovation.Speakers at the high level event include President, African Development Bank,  Akinwumi Adesina, President, International Fund for Agricultural Development Gilbert F. Houngbo.

Others are the Special Envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, Agnes Kalibata; Board Chairman, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, Alioune Fall; Executive Chairman, the Institute for Global Change, the Rt Hon. Tony Blair, and CGIAR Special Representative to the United Nations Food Systems Summit, Kanayo Felix Nwanze

At the core of Africa’s food security challenge is productivity.

African agriculture is often uncompetitive and results in around a third of calories consumed in Africa being imported from outside the continent. 

 Recent successes in the implementation of the Bank’s Feed Africa Strategy, particularly related to the roll out of the Technologies for Agricultural Transformation programme, reveals that increased investments in agricultural R&D and technology can help in boosting agricultural productivity, with important results for the overall strength of food systems.

However, funding for regional and sub-regional research and development institutions has declined, limiting opportunities for investments in innovation and research and development.

To this end, there is an opportunity to draw on success stories from development partners such as AGRA, African Development Bank, FAO, IFAD, World Bank and National and Regional Technology Delivery Infrastructure to identify best practices and promote the replication and scaling up of this success across commodities and countries. 

Success at scale will depend on having a stream of appropriate agricultural technologies supported by a web of partners including International Agriculture Research Centers, National Agricultural Research and Extension Systems, FARA, Ministries of Agriculture, seed fertilizer and farm machinery companies, farmer organizations.

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