In a bid to strengthen food security, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad) on Monday said it has identified two crops that will be part of a multi-pronged initiative to feed the hungry.
The two crops, seen as ”African agriculture successes”, are cassava and Nerica (New rice varieties for Africa), said Nepad steering committee chairperson Wiseman Nkuhlu.
He was addressing delegates attending the presidential seminar in Addis Ababa on food challenges in Africa and briefing them on the progress Nepad and its partners have made in addressing the hunger crisis.
On the pan-African Nerica initiative, Nkuhlu said that West Africa alone imports four million tons of rice yearly, at an estimated cost of $1-billion.
”Nepad is facilitating the preparation of a Nerica Africa-wide project proposal. The project focuses on the rapid, continent-wide dissemination of Nerica to contribute to rice-based food security and poverty alleviation,” he said.
Where Nerica is already being grown in West and East Africa, the effort will be to scale up crop and seed production.
Nepad will also begin Nerica testing through variety selection in countries where there are none grown yet, or where testing has only recently begun.
On the cassava initiative, Nkuhlu said cassava is a staple food for about 200-million Africans, second only to maize in its calorie contribution.
Nkuhlu said the elimination of hunger is ”at the epicentre” of Nepad’s development agenda.
Among constraints to achieving food security in Africa, Nkuhlu listed policy and institutional weaknesses and low levels of agricultural production.
On the HIV/Aids pandemic, particularly in sub-saharan Africa, he said the short-term effects on production and income are ”staggering” in the labour-based economies of the poor.
”Combating HIV/Aids, which in some countries is rapidly decimating the age groups with best potential for technologically upgrading agriculture, is essential,” he said.
Nkuhlu said there is ”a ray of hope on the horizon” as the global fight to focus on Africa’s hunger hot spots gathers momentum. — Sapa