For African countries to move from net food importers to exporters, they need to increase agricultural yields across the continent, said Anil Nair, Olam Agri’s country director in Nigeria.
Nair made this known at the Market Access Africa conference organised by the African Agricultural Council in Lagos recently.
He stressed that Africa’s food trade deficit could be offset by improving crop yields across the continent.
Mr. Nair stressed that despite Africa’s large share of the world’s arable land, the continent’s current crop yields are below the global average. He noted that Africa has vast uncultivated land that could be better utilized.
“Africa has 18 percent of the world’s arable land and 18 percent of the world’s population,” Nair explained.
“With a total area of 3 billion hectares, 253 million hectares are arable, of which 203 million are used for crop production, leaving 50 million hectares available for cultivation in the form of temporary fallow land and temporary meadows and pastures.”
He detailed Africa’s agricultural production: “Out of these 203 million hectares of cultivated land, Africa produces about 250 million tonnes of cereals and coarse grains, including maize (92 million tonnes), sorghum (29 million tonnes), millet (15 million tonnes), rice (39 million tonnes), wheat (27 million tonnes), barley (6 million tonnes) and teff (6 million tonnes).
In addition to cereals, Africa produces significant quantities of tubers such as cassava (208 million tonnes), yams (86 million tonnes), potatoes (27 million tonnes),
and sweet potato (29 million tonnes).
Nair argued that Africa should not be a net food importer, citing strong crop varieties, but pointed out that low crop yields are among the many factors hampering higher agricultural productivity on the continent.
“African crop yields are significantly lower than the global average,” Nair said.
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“The average yield of cereals in Africa is only 1.6 tonnes per hectare, compared to the world average of 4 tonnes per hectare, which is 60% less. Specifically, the yield of rice in Africa is 2.35 tonnes per hectare, half the world average. Africa consumes about 38 million tonnes of rice per year, of which 15 million tonnes are imported. The continent cultivates about 16.5 million hectares of rice, producing about 39 million tonnes of rice, or 22 to 23 million tonnes of finished rice.”
He highlighted Olam Agri’s rice farm in Nigeria as an example of successful yield improvement, reaching 4.6 tonnes per hectare against the continent’s average of 2.35 tonnes per hectare.
He identified factors contributing to low crop yields in Africa, including low fertilizer use, limited adoption of mechanized farming, lack of access to modern agronomic training for smallholder farmers, inadequate financing opportunities and poor road infrastructure. In addition, post-harvest losses, which could be reduced by investing in storage facilities, also impact productivity.
Reiterating the need for innovative and sustainable solutions, Nair said: “To achieve meaningful growth in the food production value chain in Africa, there is a need to invest in improving crop yields. Olam Agri, founded in Nigeria over 34 years ago, continues to leverage its global expertise and investment focus to drive growth in the food value chain.”
He added that Olam Agri believed in Africa’s potential and called for strong partnerships and targeted policy regimes to improve productivity in the food production value chain.
