Agriculture in Africa is not only meant to feed the continent but is capable of serving the continent in diverse ways to improve life. The fertility of the African land is capable of producing food to be self-sufficient in food production and open up socio-economic activities.
The agriculture sector in Africa contributes to eradicating poverty and hunger, fostering intra-African trade and investment, quickly industrializing and diversifying the economy, managing natural resources sustainably, and generating jobs, human security, and shared prosperity.
The formidable issue that Africa hopes to tackle is feeding 1.5 billion people by 2030 and 2 billion by 2050. Hence, ensuring food security for a population that is growing and becoming more urbanized should be the ultimate priority of African nations.
To achieve this, strategic investments in agricultural industrialization is needed to boost Africa forward. However, the major problem facing Africa is the inadequate funds allocated by Governments of various African countries to agricultural development. This has impeded the growth of the sector in countless ways.
The World Economic Forum sees three main ways to address global food insecurity: financial investment in regenerative agriculture, strong market-growth policies, and national leadership in reshaping their food systems. Small-scale farmers confront the greatest challenges yet provide food for two out of every three people on the earth, thus their support is given special attention.
Industrialization of the agriculture sector in Africa has to do with building factories in all African countries to process what agriculture grows into value added products so as to increase the worth of the sector by a higher margin.
Africa imports more food and exports less annually. For instance, Africa imported food worth a total of over 81 billion US dollars in 2019. This inhibits growth and development. Africa must do well to invest in Agriculture because it is a sector on which other sectors are established on.
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