Africa is making "very good progress," but must tackle challenges in areas of transportation, infrastructure and water, a senior UN official said Friday.
Kathleen Abdalla, officer-in-charge of the Division for Sustainable Development, made the remarks at the annual Commissio non Sustainable Development (CSD) in New York.
Abdalla said Africa was witnessing "unprecedented growth," with its economy rising some 6 percent in 2005-2006 and 7 percent last year, adding that progress was also made in education, with more children attending primary school.
But she told reporters at the UN headquarters that "poverty remains high and there are many challenges in Africa."
Abdalla said that agricultural productivity is low, and the continent must face other issues such as land tenure, credit availability and limited access to energy.
A very substantial proportion of the labor force in many African countries still depends on agriculture, said David O'Connor, chief of the Policy Integration and Analysis Branch of the Division for Sustainable Development.
O'Connor said it is extremely difficult to boost the productivity of labor with the number of people working in the agricultural sector increasing as quickly as it is.
Speaking to reporters at the press conference, Peter Hartmann of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture in Nigeria said a holistic approach is necessary to address challenges to agriculture in Africa.
"There will be a lot of pain right now for the short term ... but we need to look forward and see how we can bring to the world a new, more stable food system given the projections of demands and population growth," Hartmann said.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article