The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) has called for the use of technology to address food security challenges in Nigeria and Africa.
Speaking to newsmen in Benin, Director, Programme and Commercialisation, AATF, Nairobi, Kenya, Dr. Emmanuel Okogbenin, said African governments have been paying little or no attention to driving agricultural development in Nigeria and across the African continent.
He lamented that investments in the budget for the development of the agribusiness sector in Africa received very little funding from the various governments, unlike the developed world.
“African leaders are not investing enough in agriculture. If you take a look at the Malabo declaration, the African governments were to spend 10 percent of their national budget on agriculture. As of today, as I speak to you, it is less than 4 percent,” he said.
“Working in Africa, Nigeria is a very strategic country because of its population. Nigeria is the biggest producer of yam and cassava in the world.
“We are still not there because of the yield levels. In fact, Africa’s yield gap is about 70 to 90 percent of the yield potentials of these crops. What it means is that farmers are not meeting the full potential.
“One of the things we are trying to do in my position with AATF is to see how we get farmers not only to get the technology, which some of them don’t get, but to see how well they use it. And to let people know there is an opportunity in agribusiness.”
He called for concerted efforts to make the sector a thriving business, saying that agribusiness globally is a money-spinning venture.
“We are building capacity. We are providing farmers information on technologies. We are creating awareness and giving farmers the right communication,” he said.
“We are also trying to build a value chain by networking and linking each stakeholder in the chain with one another. Basically, you alone in the chain can not work, so we are telling people to understand there are benefits when you work together.”
