There is also more buying power now than ever before on the African continent, as growing numbers of Africans with more disposable income increase their food consumption and diversify their diets. Several agricultural analysts expect consumer demand for grain and livestock products in Sub-Saharan Africa to grow by 18 billion dollars by 2020. The only way the region can meet the demand is by using advanced crop techniques and with new investment in agricultural production.
Climate change is already posing problems for farmers as weather patterns become more unpredictable. For example, the United Nations projects we will need to produce 70 percent more food by 2050 using less land, water, fertilizer, and fewer pesticides. Sub-Saharan Africa has great potential for higher agricultural output to meet this increasing demand, but will need access to safe and appropriate science and technology to meet agricultural challenges and consumer needs.
Scientifically speaking, no one has found a magic bullet solution to the challenge of food security. Biotech is not a magic bullet. Organic agriculture is not a magic bullet. Urban and local agriculture are not magic bullets. However, all of them are valuable tools that farmers can use to help ensure greater food security. As the largest producer of both biotech and organic agricultural products, the United States has proven that different forms of agriculture can indeed coexist successfully.
And we have also seen how biotechnology can save small farmers’ livelihood. For instance, in the 1990s, Hawaiian papaya farmers were faced with devastation from a plant disease that reduced papaya production by 50 percent within six years and just kept spreading. There were several attempts to deal with this pest, but nothing worked until one plant pathologies developed a biotech variety that was resistant to the virus, which ultimately saved our small papaya industry. READ MORE
Source: Biotech Indaba Weekly eNewsletter. #IFAMAFRICA
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