Agric Investments Will Cut Down $35bn Food Import Bill – IFAD

IFAD

The president, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Kanayo Nwanze, has expressed optimism that agriculture investments can unlock prosperity in Africa and cut down food import bill by about $35 billion.


Nwanze made the assertion at the Grow Africa Investment Forum and the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa, in Kigali, Rwanda, recently.

“Investments in agriculture can generate great riches for the continent and lift millions out of poverty and hunger even as he added that countries that had heavily invested in agriculture are today reaping huge revenue generation and foreign exchange, and unemployment has drastically reduced,” he said.

According to Nwanze, “Investments alone will not transform the continent, rather governments in Africa need to ensure that strong commitments to policies and incentives that encourage higher food production by smallholder farmers are put in place. There are high returns to those countries that take agriculture seriously even as half of the world’s uncultivated land remains suited for growing food crops in Africa.

“We need to work together to harness the continent’s potential and this means investing in small-scale farmers who are the backbone of African agriculture.”

Nwanze maintained that Africa remains a continent of unprecedented opportunity, supporting small-scale farmers and investing in rural areas are some of the best ways for countries to meet their broader development objectives, including poverty reduction. With the right investments, Africa could double its agricultural productivity in the next five years.

“At the IFAD, we know that small-scale farmers do not want hand-outs. They want economic opportunities and I am looking forward to discussing how we can create those opportunities and make agriculture a profitable sector and a powerful catalyst for development,” he added.

The IFAD is an international financial institution and a specialised United Nations agency based in Rome – the UN’s food and agriculture hub. It has been investing in rural people, empowering them to reduce poverty, increase food security, improve nutrition and strengthen resilience. Since 1978, it has provided about $17.7 billion in grants and low-interest loans to projects that have reached some 459 million people.