African continent faces enormous challenges in achieving a modicum of food security because of over dependence of many countries there on foreign economic aid for sustenance. Especially those nations, liberated from French colonialism do not compare well with others as they have very little resources to meet the food requirements of their population. If a country like India could achieve self sufficiency in the production of staple foods, it is due to enormous indigenous efforts in agricultural research that brought about the Green Revolution. That each country must invest at least 1% of its GDP on agricultural research is a standard norm accepted by international experts and practically no African country can muster sufficient resources to meet this basic need. The tendency of international donors to tie their contributions to buying of food from their countries rather than strengthening the agricultural base in the donee countries further aggravates the problem. Also deplorable is the attempt by some western countries to use Africa for pushing their GM seeds which does not make any sense at all. Unless there is a concerted effort by the international community to upgrade the research infrastructure in Africa, many countries in the region are likely to face enormous unrest and misery in the long term.
"Studies show that investments in agricultural research and development have greatly contributed to economic growth, agricultural development, food security, and poverty reduction in developing regions over the past five decades," said Nienke Beintema, head of IFPRI's Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) initiative, which carried out the survey. "New agricultural technologies and crop varieties have helped to increase yields, improve nutrition, conserve natural resources, and expand rural markets." In 2008, only eight countries in the study - Botswana, Burundi, Kenya, Mauritania, Mauritius, Namibia, South Africa, and Uganda - spent more than one percent of their agricultural GDP on research and development, in line with a target set by the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), an African-led redevelopment effort for the continent. Many countries depend on donor funding, which tends to be short-term and unpredictable, leaving programs vulnerable and hurting efforts at long-term planning, the study found. To address the problems, the report calls for a boost in consistent and coordinated agricultural research funding, better pooling of resources, information and innovation at regional and sub-regional levels, and better efforts to build capacity, including more investment in agricultural higher education and better recruitment and training.
As the problems of countries in this continent are some what common, an appropriate approach could be to pool the local resources for undertaking organized and targeted research that would benefit most countries. Of course there are international organizations like the Rice Research Institute at Manila, Philippines or International Crop Research Institute Semi-arid Tropics ( ICRISAT) at Hyderabad, India which serve as examples of regional cooperation and similar research centers with focused programs on staple foods of Africa, assisted by international community can go a long way in addressing the long term food needs of the continent.
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