Pay attention to agric - AfDB to African leaders

Africa’s agriculture value chain needs more attention to maximise benefits of the sector to the African economies.

The vice president of the African Development Bank, Charles Boamah, believes that lapses in the value chain have made the sector unattractive to investors. He said the business of agriculture on the African continent needs more investment.

“Frequently, people think of Africa and say agriculture is risky. It is risky because there are aspects of the value chain that have not been probably developed and therefore that makes the whole sector look risky,” Mr Boamah told journalists at The Royal African Society event in London.

He added that developments in agro processing, infrastructure to prevent post-harvest loses and adaptation of new technologies to encourage improved yields should be given critical attention.

The Royal African Society’s (RAS) event was themed: “Japan & Africa: A new kind of relationship?” and was organised in association with the Government of Japan. The event is a pre-cursor to the 6th Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD VI), which will be held in Nairobi, Kenya from 27-28 August – the first ever TICAD summit to be held in Africa.

The event also highlighted the fact that the African continent is moving from aid reliance to self-sustainability with support from Japan and other development partners.