Africa To Spend $110bn By 2030 On Food Imports – AFDB

Africa is estimated to spend 110 billion dollars by 2030 on food imports, Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the President of African Development Bank (AfDB), said on Tuesday .

Adesina made this revelation during his Norman Borlaug Lecture at Lowa State University, titled “Betting on Africa to Feed the World”, in Des Monies, Iowa in the United States.

According to him, the challenge of addressing global food security is the greatest in Africa where about 300 million were malnourished due to this challenge.

He said “There is therefore absolutely no reason for Africa to be a food importing region. Africa has huge potential in agriculture, but, as Dr. Borlaug used to say, nobody eats potential.

“Unlocking that potential, we must start with the Savannah of Africa which covers mind boggling 600 million hectares of which 400 million hectares are cultivable.

“Africa sits on 65 per cent of the uncultivated arable land left in the world, so what Africa does with agriculture will determine the future of food in the world.

“African farmers need more than a helping hand. They need a policy lift,” Adesina said.

He, therefore, called for land tax for unused agricultural land, to provide incentives for faster commercialisation of agriculture and unlocking its potential in Africa.

The President paid tribute to Dr. Norman Borlaug, whom the lecture series was named after.

Adesina said that Africa was the last frontier for the late Borlaug, the Founder of the World Food Prize who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for a lifetime of work to feed a hungry world.