Africa needs a common agri-park - Busi Mabuza

Chairperson of the Global BRICS Business Council (2023), Busi Mabuza, has said it is about time Africa creates a common agri-park to address the food crisis fraught the continent.

According to her, Africa has the best arable lands, therefore, making use of it will lead to a boost in food production on the continent.

She stated that the move will also put an end to the high importation of food on the continent.

Speaking on BizTech on GhanaWeb TV, Busi Mabuza said, "It is imperative that we get the common African agri-parks right for a number of reasons. We have the best arable land compared to any other continent in this world, yet, we import in the other of 80% of the food that is consumed in this continent from other countries outside of the continent so we are not able to even export to each other within the continent."

"The expertise is there; if you look further south, there are very successful commercial farmers that have been there for many years...all four of the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China are amongst the top 10 exporters of food products into the rest of the world so there are lessons we can learn there, there are technologies that we can share and make sure that we start implementing," she told host of BizTech, Ernestina Serwaa Asante.

The Chairperson of the Global BRICS Business Council (2023) noted that Africa has a lot of potentials to attract investors to pump their monies into the agri-parks project.

She noted that Indian authorities were able to attract over $2 billion into their agri-parks in July last year, therefore, Africa can take advantage of that.

"Indian authorities were able just in July 2022 to attract over $2 billion to their agri-parks...Africa is much more attractive than India and there are opportunities there for us," Busi Mabuza told GhanaWeb's Ernestina Serwaa Asante.

Agri-parks support smallholder farmers by providing capacity-building, mentorship and farm infrastructure.

It also provides extension services, production and mechanisation inputs.

It will lead to the creation of jobs and this would reduce the high unemployment rate on the continent.

The agri-park project will also make Africa a lead exporter of food produce to other countries.

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