Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente has said that Africa should unlock its agricultural potential to reduce its growing food import bill and hunger. 

He was speaking on Thursday, March 3, at the launch of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) 2022 Summit held in Kigali.

The [actual] Summit is due to take place in Rwanda from September 5 to 9 this year, under the theme "Grow, Nourish, Reward – Bold Actions for Resilient Food Systems.”

"Even when the African continent has massive agricultural potential, we have witnessed over the past three decades a rise in food imports," he said.

The Premier remarked that statistics also show that by 2019, Africa spent $43 billion on food imports, and it was further projected that by 2030, this import bill would reach almost $90 billion, if the trend remains unchanged. 

"What is unfortunate is that imported commodities such as beef, grain wheat, sugar, rice and soybeans are products that Africa has been importing and can be better produced on the continent, if we implement the right policies," Ngirente observed. 

 "We are confident that the Summit will come up with concrete actions that can build sustainable and resilient food systems to feed nearly 256 million reportedly suffering from severe food insecurity on the African continent,” he said.

Specifically talking about Rwanda, Premier Ngirente said that through the National Strategy for Transformation (NST1), the Government of Rwanda is committed to deeply transforming its agriculture to ensure that this dependency on food imports is minimised.

In this regard, he said, Rwanda continues to invest in modernising the agriculture sector for strategic agricultural commodities.

"Our target is to reach at least 75 percent of farmers using quality seeds on consolidated land by 2024. Today, there is a good progress as 60% of farmers currently use quality seeds on consolidated land,” he said.

Hailemariam Desalegn, Board Chair of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) said that the AU Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biannual Review report of 2019 revealed that Africa was not on track to meet its goal of ending hunger by 2025, noting a deterioration of food and nutrition security on the continent since the inaugural report in 2017.

"No country is healthy unless food and livelihoods are healthy,” Desalegn said, calling for efforts to tackle hunger and malnutrition.

"As Africa builds back from the effects of the pandemic, leaders should ensure the pace lost in agriculture and food systems transformation is picking up to ensure the wholesome growth of people across the continent,” he remarked.

Elizabeth Nsimadala, Regional President at the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation said that there are still gaps that are hindering food security especially on the side of farmers, right from the production side in terms of farmers’ access to inputs such as seeds and fertilisers, services including insurance and financing, access to markets and extension services.

"Putting farmers at the centre is the most appropriate thing that anyone trying to support the agriculture sector would do,” she said, calling for supporting farmers to increase farm productivity such as through access to adequate financing.