As Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia suffer from the ravaging effects of climate change in the Horn of Africa, farmers have been urged to adopt modern technologies and leverage innovations to mitigate the effects.
The move involves embracing smart agriculture solutions as well as adopting drought-tolerant crops.
Addressing this year’s annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, which took place in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, AGRA President, Dr Agnes Kalibata, emphasized the urgency of working with public and private sector actors to scale up innovative business models and partnerships that can solve the climate and food insecurity problems currently facing the Horn of African countries.
AGRA, formerly known as the Alliance for Green Revolution, is an African-led, African-based organisation that seeks to catalyse agriculture transformation in Africa.
“Our strategic plan sets out to catalyse the growth of sustainable food systems in Africa by influencing and leveraging partners to build a robust enabling environment where the private sector thrives, and smallholder farmers are empowered to produce sufficient and healthy food while building resilience and managing the effects of climate change,” Dr Kalibata said.
Through the forum, which was also streamed virtually, Dr Kalibata stated that AGRA is keen on tackling the systemic constraints in access to finance and market and trade institutions to build strong agri-food markets and trade at the domestic, regional, and continental levels.
AGRA is focused on putting smallholder farmers at the center of the continent’s growing economy by transforming agriculture, from a solitary struggle to survive into farming as a business that thrives.
“The sector employs the majority of Africans, most of whom are small-scale farmers, and we recognize that developing smallholder agriculture into a productive, efficient, and sustainable system is essential to ensuring food security, lifting millions out of poverty, and driving equitable growth across the continent,” observed the organisation’s boss.
The 54th World Economic Conference, whose theme was ‘Rebuilding Trust’, deliberated on sustainable business models, partnerships to boost agriculture, and investments driving transformation in Africa.
