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| An Agriculture Technical Aid Corps Proposed for A | |
06 Dec 2006
An Agriculture Technical Aid Corps Proposed for Africa.A summit to address food security problems in Africa started today (November 4, 2006) in Abuja with delegates hoping to establish a pool of agricultural technical expertise from where African countries that need them can draw. "I think this is one of the major challenges that we would like to see addressed here," Prof. Richard Mkandawire, told NEPAD News. New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) agriculture advisor said a number of summits had been held in the past to address the food security problems in Africa. These were consultative in nature and included fish, cocoa and fertilizer summits, all held in Abuja, and two others held in Sirte, Libya, and Maputo, Mozambique. He added that the ongoing summit, the last of the consultative meetings, will move on to implement concrete initiatives on the ground. Mkandawire said cassava, Nerica rice and aquaculture sectors are among the successful stories where best practices can be transferred as he hoped African countries can start tapping into the expertise the continent already has. For this purpose, he suggested a technical aid corps be established from where countries that need certain expertise can draw. "This is our purpose and it is our hope that we will be able to focus on some of the major agricultural successes in Africa and see how we can upscale them," Mkandawire said. "Let us also start to look at the possibility of establishing some form of technical assistance programmes within the various countries in Africa." He saw a situation where Nigerians experts can go to countries like Mozambique, Malawi and Tanzania and so on, to teach cassava technology which had been accumulated in the West African country. Egypt can also help out in fish production, a sector in which it is fairly well developed. "I think that it is time that Africa began to help itself by providing this kind of support," he said. The Abuja summit theme is hinged on food security as an engine of economic growth poverty alleviation, emphasizing making food available, accessible and affordable. It is jointly organized by the government of Nigeria, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and African Union (AU) through NEPAD. The summit ends Thursday. Host country agriculture minister, Mallam Adamu Bello, said while opening the technical session that the summit is trying to evolve a "well-informed and efficient agricultural agenda" for Africa. He said further that the summit is also drawing from the World Food Summit in Rome in 1996. It is a follow up to a plan action endorsed by world leaders in Rome for implementation at the national, regional and international levels, he added. The minister said Maputo of 2003 and Sirte of 2004 were reference points in the chain of consultations. The Abuja summit is yet another opportunity to assess achievements made in the past, he added. NEPAD News |
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