Faced with the specter of soaring food prices, West and Central African countries have this week adopted a new strategy to redefine their food production systems, by placing producers at the heart of all research activities.
The strategy was adopted in the Cameroonian capital of Yaounde during a meeting that was attended by the member states of the West and Central African Council for Research and Agricultural Development (CORAF).
"This strategy is aimed at redefining the existing production systems in order to increase agricultural supply, particularly with regard to cereals such as rice and wheat. It provides for the creation of banks for rural communities, provision of subsidies and promotion of mechanized farming," said one participant.
The implementation of the new strategy requires the mobilization of funding estimated at over 170 billion CFA francs (about 400 million U.S. dollars), according to Cameroonian Deputy Prime Minister Jean Nkuete.
CORAF, which held its eighth general assembly in the Cameroonian capital from June 10 to 12, has a membership of 21 countries drawn from both the West and Central Africa regions, according to reliable sources.
Statistics show that 70 percent of the population of these two regions is rural, of which 60 percent is mainly devoted to agriculture, which contributes about 31 percent of the GDP of the 21 CORAF member states.
The Yaounde meeting, which was held on the theme of "Producers and final users at the center of research and agricultural development," brought together not only government officials but also researchers and representatives of civil society organizations, particularly those working in the agricultural sector.
The participants, who attended the three day meeting, also called for the setting up of an expert committee to look into the impact of biofuels on food safety, according to the final statement issued at the end of the meeting.
"This is intended to direct action towards areas which are not currently used for the production of food crops in order to avoid competition between biofuels and grain production," said Jean Rostand Jiadiais Kamga, CORAF administrative and financial director.
As far back as May 2007, CORAF adopted a plan of action covering areas like livestock, staple foods, cash crops (coffee and cocoa), biotechnology and biosafety, natural resource management, policy, market and trade, capacity building and knowledge management.
The general cost of implementing these programs is currently estimated at about 112 million dollars, according to Kamga, who said that "an initial sum of 83 million U.S. dollars" had already been mobilized.
"Looking at our production, the different agro-ecological zones and the situation in our markets, we cannot say that we are truly in the middle of a food crisis in our sub-region," said the CORAF administrative and financial director.
"To say that there is a food crisis is to say that our production is inferior to our needs. In fact, we have a production, but it is very misguided. And the action that the heads of state are taking now is to ensure that production is distributed better in order to meet the needs of populations more effectively," according to Kamga.
CORAF, whose headquarters are in Dakar, brings together national agricultural research centers from 21 African countries, including, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Senegal among others.
Source: Xinhua
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