African farmers lack access to productivity technologies – Juma

Half of all malnourished people in Africa are farmers who produce food but lacked access to productivity enhancing technologies, Calestous Juma of the Harvard Kennedy School in the US has said.

Juma, a Professor of the Practice of International Development said African farmers grow just enough food that they can eat, because the continent’s infrastructure deficit creates mobility challenges for farmers. “Giving farmers choices to use technology will transform their own lives and enable them to contribute to the global food basket,” he said at a ceremony marking the 2011 World Food Day. He said that farmers were smart enough to know that when you plant a seed, it grows and bears more fruit, the infrastructure challenges of the continent however, makes it difficult for farmers to move produce from the farms, he said. “They grow enough to carry, and not enough to eat. They can’t grow crops and if they grow they can’t transport, because of lack of roads,” he said. He suggested that existing technologies for crop yield can be adapted to African situations, urging the harnessing of available knowledge for improved crop yields. He said African countries are investing in four areas of infrastructure development:  telecoms, transportation, energy and education to open up rural areas. Juma said, unfortunately, much of the discussions on biotechnology in Africa have focused on the risks and not the benefits.

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Posted by AfricaSTI on October 24, 2011. Filed under Headlines. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry