CHARMAINE RAMBIRE: Agriculture is a slumbering giant in sub-Saharan Africa

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Targeted policies and incentives to attract investment and funding and promote agro-processing are required to fully unlock the sector’s undoubted potential

Agriculture is an integral part of sub-Saharan Africa, where more than 60% of the population is smallholder farmers. It also contributes about 15% to the region’s GDP. However, the value of the sector as a dominant industry is largely underutilised.

Through these interventions sub-Saharan countries will be able to expand agricultural productivity, lessen the reliance on imports through beneficiation and add value to agricultural produce through agro-processing, and encourage growth in the sector.In response to becoming more self-sufficient, several sub-Saharan countries have a variety of master plans and policies. However, most of these policies are rarely fully implemented.

The government thus needs to adjust its policies to grant title deeds or tradable long-term leases so that individuals can attract investment funding. Other policies governments can introduce include giving smallholder farmers access to high-quality inputs at lower costs and promoting market access for these farmers to help improve agricultural productivity and profitability. That way more individuals can become a part of the agriculture value chain.

As a result, agribusinesses in Ghana took steps to mitigate the impact; diversifying of imput sources to include more domestic supply was a key measure. Thus, sub-Saharan African countries need to prioritise local agro-processing capability.most of sub-Saharan Africa’s agro-processing industries operate on an artisanal and semi-artisanal scale.

 

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