Agriculture and food experts have said that Africa could properly manage its human resources, vast land, many rivers and market opportunity to free the continent from food shortages.“The continent only needs to add value to her produce so as to attract local and international market,” the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Head of Intergovernmental Organisations and Partnerships, Joe Bradley, said at a forum in Nairobi. The experts also called on governments to liberalise land use and make land available to serious farmers instead of individuals owning but failing to make use of it properly. Bradley added governments in the continent should identify the variety of crops that are high yielding besides creating enabling environment for farmers and investors as a way of motivating stakeholders. “The technology to apply exists worldwide. African countries only need to identify what they need depending on their climate,” Bradley said. Professor Mary Abukutsa-Onyango from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) said climate change is real and the continent must make adequate arrangements to manage its effects. “We must embrace climate resilient crops to reduce food insecurity that has become a yearly occurrence,” Abukutsa-Onyango said. She challenged governments to restructure agriculture training by promoting field oriented training instead of theory training sessions. “We must also motivate the youth to look at farming as a business enterprise and not a business for the older generation,” she said. Talking at a parallel session on agriculture and food security, the experts suggested that governments give out financial support to interested students to engage in farming instead of graduating with no job offer in the offing. They further suggested that the governments set up agriculture guarantee fund for small scale farmers to access funds for expansion of their projects. Dr. Moses Osiru, the Deputy Executive Secretary the Uganda based Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) said that most of Africa’s food problems can be solved by a needs research and not just academic research. “Let’s adopt farmers’ demand research as opposed to pushing through research done elsewhere to our farmers,” he added.
