Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has stressed the need to invest in technology for modernisation of agriculture in Africa and increase access to affordable finance for small farmers.
He said this is necessary to increase productivity.
Obasanjo, who spoke as a member of the Africa progress Panel in the ongoing annual meetings of the African development bank in Kigali, noted that although few farmers have access to finance, the cost of it is still excessively high with interest rates ranging from between 18 and 20 percent.
"There is no way farmers can make it against those interest unless they are the production of cocaine," he said, underlining the need for affordable financing to farmers.
Obasanjo added: "agriculture must not be seen as a development project – it should be seen as a company. Whether you like small scale or medium – this is very important. African farmers are in ancient times by the material they are using, including inadequacy of infrastructure and poor access to markets. This would not have been as. "
Speaking at the interactive session, Donald Kaberuka, President of the AfDB, stresses that increasing productivity in agriculture is crucial for sustainable development and poverty reduction.
"Improve the productivity of agriculture is not rocket science. People know what to do-the question we need to ask is why people don't do it? "He said, pointing out that several countries, including Cape Verde and Rwanda, all evidence of the potential for agricultural growth.
The AfDB, through its investment in rural infrastructure; increasing productivity of agriculture through support for research; and sector capacity building and knowledge exchange on appropriate development policy for the sector in Africa, has contributed to the improvement of agricultural productivity and competitiveness in the region. Viswanathan Shankar, the Group Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer, Standard Chartered Bank for Europe, Middle East, Africa and South America, observed that because most Africans depend on agriculture, invest in the sector is essential for reducing inequality and job creation.
He noted that access to finance can be improved by investing in the entire agricultural value chain. Claire Akamanzi said In her comments, the Chief Operating Officer of Rwanda Development Board, that Rwanda has managed to growth in agriculture on average at 8 percent in the last decade due to the heavy investment of the Government in the sector, including access to finance for small farmers. In the last few decades is a growing concern about sub-Saharan Africa the agricultural sector are poor performance in terms of productivity and efficiency of main food staples, as well as access to the market and the product prices.
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