Farmers asked to adopt agriculture technologies

Agricultural productivity in Africa continues to remain far below the potential of the continent although Africa has experienced tremendous progress in the last decade therefore adoption of modern technologies still lags.
The successes of agricultural research has yet to fully translate into appreciable rapid agricultural growth and poverty reduction among African communities and this can only be addressed if farmers adopt existing technologies for better output.
This is the call by African agricultural experts at the high level meeting on application of Science, Technology and Innovation in harnessing African Agricultural transformation which ended yesterday at Speke Resort Munyonyo, Kampala Uganda
Cyprian Ebong, the interim Executive Secretary Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA) giving a key note address about the state of agriculture in Africa noted that African governments should put their priorities in feeding an increasing population on the continent.
Giving trends of the population growth rate, he noted that by 2050 the population growth rate would have doubled meaning efforts have to be enhanced to feed this population.
To him, to address issues of hunger and malnutrition arising from food shortage, there has to be a holistic approach of addressing issues of soil fertility, water usage in agriculture production, irrigation systems and general agronomy among others.
He noted that scientists engaged in addressing issues of food production through use of improved technologies, must put emphasis on crop production, animal husbandry, aquatic species and aquatic lives in the African water bodies as well as poultry.
Considering the land under agricultural use globally, he noted that there is 60 per cent arable land in Africa but only six percent is used for agricultural production.
In Uganda, out of the total agricultural production only two per cent is harvested per year due to post-harvest losses.
In the entire continent only three per cent of agricultural produce gets into the market and money worth $4 billion is used in loans in form of post-harvest loss yet such money could be used to finance technology.
There is also the challenge of the capacity for planning on how Africans use their resources effectively because Africans like doing things in crisis.
There is lack of agricultural statistics and management of knowledge sharing improve agriculture productivity.
To solve these challenges there is need to invest in Science, Technology and Innovations.
The Executive Director African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) Dr Denis Kyetere in his remarks about the critical role of public private partnerships in transforming African agriculture noted,
“Agricultural research investments for appropriate technology in Africa are simply inadequate for desired productivity growth to reduce poverty.”