Nepad in food security bid
2004-07-05 13:20
Addis Ababa - In a bid to strengthen food security, the New Partnership for Africa's Development (Nepad) on Monday said it had identified two crops that would 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 had made in addressing the hunger crisis.
On the pan-African Nerica initiative, Nkuhlu said that West Africa alone imported four million tons of rice yearly, at an estimated cost of $1bn.
"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 were already being grown in west and east Africa, the effort would be to scale up crop and seed production.
Nepad would also begin Nerica testing through variety selection in countries where there were none grown yet, or where testing had only recently begun.
On the cassava initiative, Nkuhlu said cassava was a staple food for about 200 million Africans, second only to maize in its calorie contribution.
Nkuhlu said the elimination of hunger was "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 were "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 was "a ray of hope on the horizon" as the global fight to focus on Africa's hunger hotspots gathered momentum.
- SAPA