Dakar (EFE).- African development partners pledged to contribute a total of 30,000 million dollars to develop agriculture on the continent during the Dakar 2 African Food Summit, the organizers reported today.
The figure was announced by the president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group, Akinwumi Adesina, during his closing speech at the event, which was held between January 25 and 27 in Senegal.
“With strong collective determination and resolve, we will work in coordination and partnership to help countries succeed. It is truly amazing that in just two days we have collectively achieved so much,” Adesina stated.
Senegal’s Minister of Agriculture, Rural Development and Food Security, Aly Ngouille Ndiaye, hailed “the pledges of $10 billion from the AfDB and $20 billion from various other partners to support the transformation of African agriculture through the establishment of national pacts”.
Among these partners is the Islamic Development Bank, which has promised financing of more than 7,000 million dollars in agricultural projects in the next five years in Africa, in addition to the 11,000 million already invested in the African continent by this institution. .
“Agriculture is the main pillar of development. If you do not develop your agriculture first, you will not have that surplus of food, money and skills and human beings that will advance the economy, “said the president of the Islamic Development Bank, Muhammad Sulaiman Al Jasser, today during his speech at the summit.
Adesina already announced the AfDB’s commitment to support “food and agriculture delivery pacts” with $10 billion over the next five years at the opening of the event.
Food safety programs
The Netherlands also announced €450 million for targeted food security programs in sub-Saharan Africa over the next five years.
Under the motto “Feeding Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience”, this forum has brought together more than thirty heads of state and government, as well as representatives of Western countries, the private sector, UN agencies and NGOs in the Abdou Diouf International Conference Center (CICAD) in Diamniadio, just over thirty kilometers from Dakar.
The purpose of the event has been to find solutions to the challenge of food security in Africa and strengthen resilience to future crises.
This is the second edition of the summit, after the one held in Dakar in 2015, and in which the strategy “Feeding Africa: Strategy for the Transformation of Agriculture in Africa (2016-2025)” of the AfDB was approved.
The African continent has 65% of the world’s most arable land and abundant water resources, with the potential to feed 9 billion people in the world by 2050, according to AfDB data.
Its vast savannah areas alone are estimated at 400 million hectares, of which only 10% is cultivated.
However, with 249 million people, it represents a third of the world’s population that suffers from hunger today.
According to the AfDB, with the removal of obstacles to agricultural development and the aid of new investment, Africa’s agricultural production could rise from $280 billion a year to $1 trillion by 2030.
African leaders pledge to prioritize agricultural development
More than thirty African heads of state and government pledged this week at the Dakar 2 African Food Summit to prioritize the development of agriculture in their countries to achieve food sovereignty for the continent.
“The political commitment of our leaders reaffirmed here in Dakar means that we have to take action by making the necessary changes, starting with a paradigm shift,” Senegalese Prime Minister Amadou Ba declared in his closing speech at the summit. held in this country between January 25 and 27.
«The time has come to stop depending on other countries (…). The new policy advocates that Africa consume what it produces and also produce what it consumes,” Ba added.
According to the Senegalese Prime Minister, among the main conclusions of this event is that “agricultural subsidies must be a development priority for all our countries.”
Other conclusions were facilitating access to land, sustainable financing that promotes new agricultural technologies, making agriculture a more attractive sector for youth and women, exchanging experiences and good practices between African countries and launching a new approach to food sovereignty.
