Kanayo Nwanze, president of the UN International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), recently told Reuters that African governments need to invest more in agriculture to not only feed their people, but to secure jobs and prevent flight from rural areas to urban areas.
“You have to invest in the rural economy if you want people to stay in the rural areas. The youth are so critical. Who will feed the world tomorrow? Sixty percent of Africans are below the age of 30 and they want to migrate to the urban areas and they have no jobs, the rural sector is being vacated.”
According to IFAD, the African governments have failed to live up to their commitment to spend 10% on their budgets on agriculture, decreasing potential profits that could be used to combat the problems of poverty. Additionally, IFAD cites a reluctance of African governments to work with the private sector and foreign investors as a factor which limits agricultural growth and its economic benefits.
