The authorities and all the stakeholders are leaving no stone unturned to ensure that food insecurity becomes history in Nigeria. In the latest development the African Union (AU), African Development Bank (AfDB), and International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) pledged to forge partnerships to expand the Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS). The bank explained that the initiative would build resilient African food systems based on diverse, nutritious, and climate-adapted crops grown in healthy soils.
The agricultural produce in view for investment include cassava, orange-fleshed sweet potato, sorghum, millet and high-iron beans. This was disclosed at the sidelines of the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Summit in Nairobi recently.The AfDB Vice President, Dr. Beth Dunford said the initiative known as Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) would ease the availability of fertilisers to farmers. He said the effort would enable the harnessing of the organisation’s target.
He said, “I am excited to see how the bank through its TAAT initiative, the United States Department of State, the African Union, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and CGIAR centers are developing a relationship to advance the work of VACS, also Feed the Future and the African Union Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan, and the Soil Initiative for Africa. “Working together under the umbrella of this plan embodies the aspirations and priorities of African nations in building a prosperous, food-secure future.”
The TAAT, which is part of the AfDB’s Feed Africa Strategy, would deliver heat-tolerant, drought-resistant and other climate-smart certified seeds to millions of Africa’s smallholder farmers, to produce 120 million additional tons of food in Africa and lift 130 million people out of poverty while the African Union Commission-mandated Soil Initiative for Africa (SIfA) is a framework effort to systematically improve Africa’s soil health and productivity. The U.S. Special Envoy for Food Security, Dr Cary Fowler, said, the soil initiative for Africa statement captures the urgency of the situation faced in Africa.
Fowler added, “The African Union’s Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan notes, ‘projections suggest that more than half of the currently arable land may be unusable by 2050’ – if that doesn’t concentrate our attention, I’m not sure what will.”He said, “We know very clearly that for crops to be productive they will need good soils. We also need to realise that for soils to be productive, they need the right crops. The two are related.”This will go a long way to address the crisis of poverty and nutrition, as the African Union’s Commissioner for Rural Development and Agriculture, Ambassador Josefa Leonel Correia Sacko, lamented that more than one billion Africans remain unable to afford a healthy diet.
The commissioner said, “We are tired of one meeting after another, we want action, that is why I support this initiative because I believe concrete actions are tangible.”
