Africa's crop production lags behind - Food Laureate

Director General, FARA, Monty Jones

The Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Monty Jones, has said that crop production in Africa is lagging behind the rest of the world with a very wide gap, AfricaScienceNews.

Jones, a World Food Prize Laureate, NaijaAgroNet learnt, also affirmed a sharp decline in global agricultural exports with unreasonable increase in African food imports.

Jones said this at the recently concluded Second Ministerial Dialogue on Increasing Agricultural Productivity in Africa, which brings together agriculture, science and technology ministers in Africa as well as experts from the continent.

Former President of Ghana, Mr. John Kufuor, who also is a World Food Prize Laureate said, there is need for policies in order to transform the sector that holds most of the population to break the logjam of poverty.

"With the right policies in place, Africa has the potential to be the breadbasket of the world, starting with Africa itself," Kufuor said. 

Participants at the dialogue also expressed their concerns over the lack of progress by African governments in meeting their commitments to allocate at a minimum of 10 per cent of their budgets to agriculture.

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