Harnessing and accelerating the adoption of new agricultural technologies and innovations, coupled with enhanced investment in research, can help Africa realise the targets of its Agenda 2063’s flagship programme, the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Plan, or CAADP, ahead of time, an expert said.
Dr Martin Mwirigi, the director of the Biotechnology Research Institute at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organisation, said investment in research to accelerate the production of new technologies such as drought-tolerant seed varieties, pest-resistant seed varieties and technologies that enhance farmers’ access to markets could help Africa increase average incomes, create jobs, increase agricultural production, agricultural trade and significantly reduce hunger and poverty before 2063 and be in time to eliminate hunger by 2030.
CAADP, established 20 years ago, is the African Union’s Agenda 2063 flagship programme and the framework for accelerating agricultural transformation across Africa.
Said Mwirigi: “We should not be waiting until 2063 to eliminate hunger … we have good soils, favourable climate … but we are always at risk of food insecurity. [The year] 2063 is too far away to eliminate hunger and become food secure; it means we are not really strategising well.”
He was speaking at the annual Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology conference held in Mombasa, Kenya, from 14-18 October. At the forum, convened by the Nairobi-headquartered Africa Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Mwirigi said that Africa needs to accelerate the use of available tools such as biotechnology to combat emerging threats to its agricultural industry such as climate change and pests and diseases.
The importance of the discussions was emphasised on the last day of the conference when students from Kenya’s Pwani University held marches on the streets of Mombasa urging governments to adopt new technologies to transform agriculture and enhance food security.
Action plan in the making
Currently, the African Union (AU) is working on a 10-year CAADP strategy and action plan that is expected to culminate into the CAADP Action Plan (2026-35), which will be unveiled later this year to the AU Specialised Technical Committee on Agriculture, Rural Development, Water and Environment, and subsequently to heads of state and governments during an extraordinary summit scheduled for January next year in Uganda, according to an earlier media statement by the AU.
Strengthen science laboratories
According to Mwirigi, some pests such as the voracious Fall armyworm in Kenya can destroy more than 30% of maize crops.
“Perhaps this is why we have a deficit, because we import 30% of our maize in Kenya,” he said, adding that biotechnology could also be harnessed in the production of lifesaving vaccines and disease diagnostics for livestock in Africa.
South Africa And the Import of Food Products
Mwirigi called for the training of more scientists and early-career researchers in Africa through intra-Africa research partnerships and enhance the capacity of science laboratories in Africa to strengthen research.
“Most importantly, we should have legal and regulatory frameworks in place that ensure science research products can be accessed easily in the market across the content. If we can produce enough food, we shall not only eliminate hunger and poverty, but also reduce political instability and conflicts in Africa, as they are largely fuelled by limited food resources,” said Mwirigi.
Tech tools for farmers
AATF’s Senior Manager of Regulatory Affairs, Dr Francis Nang’ayo, said that, with rapid population growth, climate change and the evolving dynamics of international food markets, there was an urgent need to empower smallholder farmers in Africa with the right technological tools to thrive.
He cited that the commercialisation of Bt cowpea in Nigeria has helped the country enhance yields and farmers’ incomes.
Legal concerns
But the experts who spoke at the forum, drawn from universities in Africa, governments and the private sector, raised concerns about surging legal battles against new agricultural technologies, especially biotechnology.
In Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria, the research and introduction of genetically modified maize has been marred by legal battles, which the experts said are a hold-up to research and transformation of Africa’s agriculture.
During the conference, lawyers drawn from government attorney offices from South Africa, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and Nigeria were trained to strengthen their understanding of agribiotech – especially regulation.
“We need strong laws to provide confidence to investors in research, governments, scientists and farmers to embrace biotechnology. We have conflicts on biotechnology and we, therefore, need our lawyers informed as they battle out these cases in courts,” said Nang’ayo.
South-South collaboration
The experts called for greater South-South collaboration in the region between countries in Africa.
“We have what it takes to feed ourselves, and even the world, we are not utilising these technologies. We are still importing food, yet we have good soils. We need good legal frameworks whereby technology can be developed in Africa, managed in Africa ... we don’t need to depend on scientists and laboratories from outside the continent,” said Mwirigi.
Professor Maria Zélia Lopes Menete, the director general of the Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique and a lecturer at Eduardo Mondlane University, urged for enhanced South-South collaborations among African scientists to share knowledge and experiences to help reduce barriers to access agricultural technology.
“Africa needs food sovereignty ... that means we need to fund and do our own agricultural research … it means we should be independent and avert influence from international trade and external forces that may not speak to our problems,” said Menete.
She urged for enhanced local development of innovations and agricultural technologies in Africa “to position ourselves on the global stage”.
