Paying lip service to agriculture could have negative consequences for Africa, IITA boss

The Director General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga has warned there are negative consequences if Africa continued to pay lip service to agriculture, and failed to invest in the sector.

He said the neglect of agriculture would cost $110billion in terms of food imports by 2025 to feed Africans up from the current $35bn.

Besides, a failure to invest in agriculture would deprive the continent of necessary jobs and further fuel the spiralling rate of unemployment among the youth on the continent.

Addressing members of the Board of Trustees of IITA and researchers during the 2016 Partnership for Development Week (P4D Week) in Ibadan, Dr Sanginga, acknowledged that though some African governments have come to the realisation that agriculture was one of the ways to save the continent from the mess, most countries were not investing enough in the sector.

“Take for instance, the commitment to invest at least 10 percent of national budgets to agriculture. Not many countries are meeting this goal,” Dr Sanginga said.

He commended the African Development Bank for the new initiative—Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation—to transform agriculture on the continent.

The TAAT program is a new initiative of the AfDB in collaboration with the Consultative Group on International Agriculture Research (CGIAR) under the Feed Africa Initiative to drive agriculture development on the continent.

Through the TAAT program, the Bank aims to invest more than $800 million to the agricultural sector. The funds would be channelled into upscaling of proven innovations that will improve the fortunes of farmers and address the twin problem of food insecurity and unemployment.

Dr. Sanginga also reiterated IITA’s commitment to supporting African smallholder farmers in the context of agribusiness such that agriculture transcends food for the fork to money in the pocket.

According to him, IITA will continue to respond to the needs of Africa by developing innovations that will provide answers to Africa’s food insecurity. To this end, IITA will be demonstrating its scientific leadership not only in terms of qualitative research in the lab, but also impact in farmers’ fields.

Dr Sanginga who began his second tenure earlier this year said that IITA’s priority for the future would focus on research, capacity development, partnerships, impact at scale, and most importantly delivery.

The director general said IITA’s internal reorganisation had put the Institute in a better position to address the challenges confronting Africa more than ever before.

He called on researchers to redouble their efforts and commitment to the ideas, mission and vision of the Institute which includes lifting 11 million Africans out of poverty, and the reclamation of 7.5 million hectares of degraded land and putting them into sustainable use.

Chair of IITA Board of Trustees, Prof Bruce Coulman commended Dr Sanginga for the efforts in repositioning IITA for the challenges ahead, stressing that the Board was convinced that “IITA is in safe hands.”

He emphasised that IITA would continue to support Africa in achieving the goal of eradicating hunger and poverty in Africa.

The P4D Week is an annual event that brings together more than 200 international researchers working for IITA across the world to review, share experiences and plan for the way forward.

Deputy Director General, Partnership for Delivery, Dr Kenton Dashiell said the P4D week’s emphasises for the year was not just on research but also on delivery at scale.