Farmers Review Africa Sept/Oct 2019 Farmers Review Africa September - October 2019 dig | страница 6

NEWS
JAPANESE PRIME
MINISTER SHINZO ABE
SAYS JAPAN WILL HELP
DOUBLE AFRICA’S RICE
PROdUCTION BY 2030
T
he Sasakawa Association will work with the
Japan International Corporation Agency
(JICA), to help double rice production to 50
million tonnes by 2030. Japanese Prime Minister
Shinzo Abe made the announcement at the
Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) symposium
held on Wednesday during TICAD7.
“Japanese technology can play a key role in
innovation which is key to agriculture,” Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe told delegates.
Discussions at the Symposium focused on Africa’s
youth bulge, unemployment rates, agricultural
innovations and technologies, solutions and job
creation opportunities in the agricultural sector.
“We’ve always believed in the agriculture potential
of Africa,” said Yohei Sasakawa, Chairman of the
Nippon foundation.
“We are paying more attention to income-
generating activities. We want to help shift the
mindset of small-holder farmers from producing-
to-eat to producing-to-sell. We are hopeful that
Africa’s youth can take agriculture to a new era,
and that they can see a career path in agriculture,”
he added.
In a keynote address, African Development Bank
Group President, Akinwumi Adesina, called for
urgent and concerted efforts to “end hunger”.
“In spite of all the gains made in agriculture. We
are not winning the global war against hunger. We
must all arise collectively and end global hunger.
4 | September - October 2019
To do that, we must end hunger in Africa. Hunger
diminishes our humanity,” Adesina urged.
According to the FAO’s 2019 State of Food and
Security, the number of hungry people globally
stands at a disconcerting 821 million. Africa alone
accounts for 31% of the global number of hungry
people – 251 million people.
Commending the Sasakawa Association’s late
founder, Ryochi Sasakawa, for his tireless efforts
in tackling hunger, Adesina said: “Passion,
dedication and commitment to the development
of agriculture and the pursuit of food security in
our world has been the hallmark of your work.”
Between 1986 and 2003, Sasakawa Association
in Africa, operated in a total of 15 countries
including – Ghana, Sudan, Nigeria, Burkina
Faso, Benin, Togo, Mali, Guinea, Zambia,
Ethiopia, Eritrea, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and
Mozambique.
Harnessing the potential of new
technologies
Adesina expressed confidence in the ability
of technology to deliver substantial benefits in
agriculture. To accelerate Africa’s agricultural
growth, the African Development Bank
has launched the Technologies for African
Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) to deliver new
technologies to millions of farmers.
‘TAAT has become a game changer, and is
already delivering impressive results, Adesina
said.Working with 30 private seed companies, the
TAAT maize compact produced over 27,000 tons
of seeds of water efficient maize that was planted
by 1.6 million farmers.
Tackling climate change: a top
priority
Hiroyuki Takahashi, founder of Pocket Marche,
a platform that connects Japanese farmers and
producers with consumers, shared insights and
lessons learnt from Japan’s experiences, historic
cycles of climate disasters and the country’s
rebound.
“The power to choose what we eat is the power
to stop the climate crisis and bring sustainable
happiness to a world with limited resources,”
Takahashi said.
It is estimated that Africa will heat up 1.5 times
faster than the global average and require $7-15
billion a year for adaptation alone. Limiting the
impacts of climate change is expected to become
a top priority for Africa.
“Africa has been short changed by climate
change. But, it should not be short changed by
climate finance,” Adesina said in his concluding
remarks. “Let’s be better asset managers for
nature. For while we must eat today, so must
future generations coming after us. It is our
collective responsibility to ensure that we do not
leave empty plates on the table for generations to
come,” Adesina concluded.