Agriculture as a solution to poverty eradication in Africa
Agriculture in Africa has two main responsibilities that is providing food as well as helping people escape poverty and malnutrition.
Agricultural development can stimulate economic development outside the agricultural sector and lead to higher job and growth creation. Increased productivity in agriculture raises farm incomes, increasing food supply, reduces food prices, and provides greater employment opportunities in both rural and urban areas.
Africa still has a long to go interms of increased agricultural productivity.
Poor roads, inability to acess fertilisers, lack of irrigation systems and natural calamities such as frequent floods and long droughts are some of the problems the continent experiences.
It is estimated that less than 1% of the cultivated land in Africa is watered.
The Maputo declaration of 2003 and the CAADP aim to increase annual national budgetary allocations for agricultural to atleast 10% and ensure a growth of agricultural output of atleast 6% annually.
More than 10 years later
Governments are yet to effectively comply with this declaration that was meant to lift African lives from abject poverty
Governments should help small scale farmers by giving them acess to loans and markets.
Countries such as Ghana and Ethiopia that have heavily invested in agriculture and co-created the development with the farmers have seen tremendous improvement in their economies and made rapid transition from agricultural countries to modern society.
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