By Enyichukwu Enemanna
African Union President and Senegalese leader, Macky Sall has said “Africa must learn to feed itself” at the ongoing agriculture summit in Dakar.
In his opening remarks on Wednesday, Sall called for allocation of at least ten percent of annual budget to boost agriculture.
“To transform our potential into reality, we need to allocate at least 10% of the national budget to the agricultural sector”, Sall told participants which include several African heads of state.
The 3-day summit with the theme, ‘Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience’, is being organised in collaboration with the African Development Bank AfDB.
The gathering observed that about 283 million Africans are hungry as the continent is home to a third of the world’s 850 million people living with hunger. This must be addressed according to the AfDB group President, Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina:
“The Dakar II Summit will mobilise political commitment, development partner and private sector investment, establish much needed policies and strategically drive actions to deliver at scale. This landmark event will be a turning point towards food sovereignty and resilience for the entire continent”, Adesina noted.
Among heads of state participating at the summit on food sovereignty include; leaders of Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Mauritania, and Zambia. They emphasised the importance of food security for political stability and security of their nations.
In his remarks, the President of Kenya, William Ruto called for more action, saying the continent has been lagging behind for far too long.
“Let me say that the fact that we are having this conversation so many of us, as heads of states, from our good continent, and we’re discussing food, is not a very interesting thing to do. I think we should be discussing beyond food 60 years after the independence.”
