Productivity

Increased agricultural food production in Africa now has to come from higher yields, not from expanding cultivated land as it has in the past. Until now, less than 50% of cereal production gains have come from increased yields. (Photo: D. Leraand)

In the coming decades, Africa will have to feed a population that is expected to increase from around 850 million today to more than 1.8 billion in 2050. But at the current pace, it is estimated that Africa will be able to feed less than half of its population by 2015. A major increase in agricultural productivity is absolutely essential.

In the last four decades in Africa, less than 40 percent of the gains in cereal production came from increased yields. The rest was from expansion of the land devoted to arable agriculture. Much of this expansion was at the expense of forests, soil fertility and water.

Producing more food per unit of agriculture land, in a manner compatible with sustainable management of natural resources, is an essential component of a successful effort to eliminate food insecurity and malnutrition.

Increasing production by increasing yield on existing areas, employing methods such as improved plant varieties, mineral fertilizers and irrigation in dry areas has proven problematic in Africa.

These methods do not require a leap of technology, rather one of organization. Fertilizer subsidies were available to the vital sector of smallholders in most African countries in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and their removal has played a role in stagnating productivity.

Africa is the only region in the world where poverty is on the increase, and the highest incidence of undernourishment is found in sub-Saharan Africa - one third of the population there is undernourished.

To achieve the first Millennium Development Goal, the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) has set a target of improving agricultural productivity at an average growth rate of six percent per year, with particular focus on small-scale farmers, especially women.

To realise this, several African governments have committed to allocating at least 10 percent of their national budgets to agriculture within five years. This was agreed at the African Union meeting in Maputo, 2003. Many have already achieved this and the New Economic Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) will monitor these commitments.

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