Farmers Review Africa Sept/Oct 2019 Farmers Review Africa September - October 2019 dig | Page 8

NEWS
CABI:
‘$10bn to feed
10 billion by 2050’
C
ABI has told African Green Revolution
Forum (AGRF) 2019 that investment in
agritech needs to double to at least $10bn
a year if the world’s smallholder farmers are to
help feed a global population expected to reach
10 billion by 2050.
Dr Dennis Rangi, CABI’s Director General,
Development, spoke as part of a panel discussion
on the subject of digital innovations to strengthen
the resilience for smallholders in African food
systems, said the financial burden must be met
by the private sector if global food security is
to be ensured and world poverty and hunger
eradicated.
According to AgFunder, global investment in
agritech – including technology such as farm
robots to feed and weed, GPS and drones to map
and monitor soil and satellite data to predict the
spread of crop pests – was around $4.6bn in 2015.
However, Dr Rangi believes the public sector
needs to more than double its annual investment
in digital infrastructure and research – particularly
in respect of making data open – to enable the
delivery of digital innovations which not only help
feed Africa but the world. Dr Rangi said, “The
UN’s Sustainable Development Goals have set
us ambitious targets to achieve ‘Zero Hunger’
and ‘No Poverty’ set against a challenging period
in history in which the perils of climate change are
very real and threatening in its impact on global
food security.
“Technological innovations in agriculture, in all
its forms, presents us with genuine answers to
extremely difficult problems. However, unless we
can encourage more investment from the public
sector and innovation from the private sector to
deliver these solutions at scale, no amount of digital
agriculture will help solve the world’s food crisis.
“The message is simple: we need to more than
double annual investment in agritech to $10bn
if we are to feed the world’s growing population
projected to reach 10 billion by 2050.”
Dr Rangi told the delegates at the meeting held
this week (3 to 6 September 2019) in Accra,
Ghana, that CABI’s Plantwise programme is just
one example that is delivering impact at scale –
having so far reached over 31 million farmers in
34 countries with plant health information which,
in respect of fighting crop pests and diseases,
promotes adaptation and resilience.
He added that Plantwise’s open access Knowledge
Bank, Factsheet App, e-plant clinics with data
collection – which allows for real-time tracking of
pests (plus linkage with the Pest Risk Information
Service (PRISE) project) – are already putting data
and knowledge in the hands of extension workers
and farmers keen on growing more and losing less
to crop pests and diseases.
Other projects CABI is also working in partnership
to deliver to help improve the resilience of
smallholder farmers elsewhere in the world
include drone sensing of parthenium weed in
Pakistan, the remote sensing of locusts in China
and coffee borer in Colombia.
Dr Rangi added, “The public sector needs to
invest in digital infrastructure and research,
so that the private sector will be empowered
to deliver digital innovations which promote
adaptation and resilience across not only Africa’s
but the world’s food systems.”
Morocco’s fertilizer
company constitutes
partnership to develop
agriculture in Africa
M
orocco’s OCP Group, the African
Union (AU) Commission, and the AU
Development Agency has formed a
tripartite partnership to support the development
of the African agricultural sector, said the OCP
group in a statement. customized fertilizers meeting the needs of soils
and crops of African region, the statement added.
The agreement was signed on the side-lines of
the ongoing African Green Revolution Forum
(AGRF) in Accra, Ghana.
The OCP, one of the world leaders in the
fertilizer industry, will help promote the use
of agricultural inputs, including access to The main purpose is to facilitate effective
coordination of the implementation and delivery
of a set of goals as outlined in the African
6 | September - October 2019
Union Malabo Business Plan on Agriculture
Transformation, adopted in the AU summit
in 2014 in Equatorial Guinea, said the
statement. This partnership demonstrates
a shared commitment to jointly reduce
hunger and poverty through the sustainable
transformation of the African agricultural
sector, it added.