Development partners have committed $30 billion to boost food production in Africa over the next five years, the president of the African Development Bank said on Friday at the close of a summit on food security on the continent.
A major theme of the three-day summit in the Senegalese capital Dakar was that African countries have their food production capacity rather than relying on imports that have left them vulnerable to price spikes and shortages.
The meeting brought together African leaders, development banks and international partners including the United States, the European Union and Britain to mobilize funding and political commitment.
Around 40 countries from across the continent presented agricultural development plans to the bank and other partners, who pledged support for the plans over the next five years to enable the countries to increase food production.
Heavy debt burdens from the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, which raised prices of fuel, grain and edible oils, have added to long-term causes of food insecurity such as climate change and conflict, experts say.
The Ukraine war also disrupted the supply of fertilizer to the continent, pushing prices beyond the reach of farmers.
“I think we will not have a fertilizer crisis in Africa. The challenge we’re going to have is an affordability problem,” he said, adding that governments would have to put support measures in place to make fertilizer affordable for farmers.
(Reporting by Bate Felix Writing by Nellie Peyton Editing by Alexander Winning and Frances Kerry)
