"Feed Africa: Towards Agro-Allied Industrialization for Inclusive Growth". African Economic Conference 2016

Despite the overall macroeconomic growth and improved governance enjoyed broadly across the continent, Africa still has the highest rates of both poverty and hunger in the world. Out of about 795 million people suffering from chronic undernourishment globally, 230 million live in Africa; resulting in the highest prevalence of undernourishment worldwide, at around 20%. Even in abundant regions, food shortages can happen according to the period of the year, mostly due to poor conservation techniques or post-harvest losses.

How can Africa feed Africa, and the rest of the world? “Africa needs to increase food production away from subsistence production and weak productivity and needs to embark in an agricultural transformation which requires investments in technology and innovation in order to improve the productivity of land and especially labour,  including innovation in the commercialization of agriculture products. Farmers should be given incentives to adopt new technologies by making them affordable, to raise their productivity and expand their output. Land reforms would not only increase production scale but also enhance security of tenure and thus encourage investment, as well as adequate insurance and financial instruments suited to the agricultural production cycle that would support the adoption of technological innovations and expand the use of intermediate inputs, agricultural extension services, and appropriate pricing mechanisms”.

These and many other aspects related to the challenges and opportunities of African agriculture development will be discussed at the 2016 Africa economic conference.  Jointly organized by the African Development Bank (AfDB), the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Economic Conference 2016 will take place in Abuja (Nigeria) from December 5 to 7, 2016.

The background document Feed Africa: The road to agricultural transformation in Africa is available here. 

Selected sessions of the conference will be live-streamed. To follow the live-streaming, visit the conference website here.