African governments challenged to ensure food security

Ally Jamah

Agricultural experts have called on African governments to fully implement policies that empower rural women to boost agricultural production and food security.

The experts, gathered in the Austrian city of Salzburg at the Salzburg Global Seminar, said that many good agricultural laws and policies exist on paper but their benefits do not trickle to the grassroots due to shortcomings in implementation.

Kenya Agricultural Research Institute’s Assistant Director of Horticulture and Industrial Crops, Lusike Wasilwa, cited the Food and Nutritional policy in Kenya as an example of an excellent policy that has largely not seen the light of day.

"We are letting fantastic policies go waste. For instance, if the food and nutritional policy was implemented we would see a dramatic rise in production and consumption of quality food for people, including rural women," she said at the conference.

The experts revealed that rural women in African nations are still constrained by unequal access to land, financial resources and decision-making that prevent them from enhancing their living standards.

"We need to have effective structures to ensure that the policies formulated by government reach the rural women at the grassroots in order empower them meaningfully," said Rahel Amega, the Gender Advisor to the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation based in Addis Ababa.

These concerns emerged during the seminar on Transforming Agricultural development and Production in Africa: closing the gender gaps and empowering rural women in policy and practice.

According to the United Nations’ International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) women are the backbone of rural agriculture as men migrate to the urban areas or are decimated by HIV/AIDS.

World Bank officials believe that Kenya’s agricultural yields would rise by at least 20 per cent if women farmers receive the same inputs and education as men.

President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation Phillip Kiriro predicted that agriculture is the big business of the future in Africa to feed the swelling world population that has now hit 7 billion.

He cited the developing commodities exchange markets in staple grains such as maize and wheat as a clear indication of the potential opportunity in rural agriculture and that if rural farmers are organised, they can reap handsome returns.

"For years agriculture has been put on the backburner. But we are seeing people take a second look at the sector since there is substantial money to be made. Agriculture is the big business of the future in Africa," he said.

Experts also amplified calls of women in rural Africa to be encouraged to approach agriculture as a business in order to boost their efficiency and incomes instead of producing food for domestic consumption, as is the case of the majority now.

It also emerged that initiatives are needed to infuse women in rural Africa with self-confidence to seize opportunities around them.

"Rural women need successful role models from their own gender to encourage them to overcome the social barriers blocking them," said Kayla Casavant, Director of Social and Environmental Initiative for Bioessence Laboratories in Senegal.