Vusumuzi Sifile and Salma Ahmad
The “supermarket revolution” could be on its way to African cities. Credit: Zahira Kharsany/IPS
MAPUTO, Sept 01 (IPS) – The “supermarket revolution” could be on its way to African cities.
But it is up to African governments to use increasing trends of urbanisation to their advantage.
Previously, the mass movement of people from rural areas to the cities meant the neglect of agriculture. But as demand for food in urban areas grows, the increased food trade can lead to the development of the agricultural industry, said Jose Filipe Fonseca, from the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation.
Fonseca was speaking at the official opening dinner of the Food Agriculture Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network stakeholders’ conference in Maputo.
Fonseca said demand for food has triggered the creation of thousands of small informal enterprises across Africa. He added that particularly women have been able to adapt and diversify their offerings of crops to the market and have added value.
He said Africa would benefit in other areas as investment in agriculture improved.
“For African countries to seize the opportunity offered by urbanisation, the productivity of land, water, plants, animals, people and other factors (will) drastically improve as a result of consistent investment in agriculture. A performing agriculture sector will also enable domestic trade and export to thrive and earn foreign currencies which can be invested in other sectors.”
He said domestic markets and international exports were major catalysts of economic development as they provide incentives to produce more goods of better quality. As a result the productivity of the labour force increases to meet the demands.
He emphasised that the future of agriculture in Africa, and the extent to which it can play a role in the continent’s future, depends on Africans.
Development activists at the dinner challenged African governments to prioritise agriculture development and honour commitments to keep investment in the sector high in their agenda.
Although a number of agreements and declarations have been made to support agriculture in Africa, most of these have not been implemented delegates said. This has impeded the continent’s fight for food security.
This lack of action, and failure to link agriculture with other sectors, has turned a number of meaningful resolutions into ‘buzzwords’, and left many wallowing in poverty, delegates said.
Fonseca said there should be movement towards applying government prmises on agriculture in order to change this.
”In Africa, the food crisis has been a permanent one and the vulnerability of African countries to all types of shocks has not been reduced.”
Fonseca added that changing demographics – increasing urban populations and a declining agricultural community – have complicated the mix.
“If sub-Saharan countries are unable to feed their populations today, what will happen in the next decades when the agricultural population will for sure continue to decline and the urban population will increase to unprecedented levels?” Fonseca asked.
Permanent Secretary in Mozambique’s Ministry of Agriculture, Daniel Clemente, said his government was preparing to start implementing a plan of action on agriculture.
“The major objectives of this plan are to increase production and reduce the deficit in food production. We cannot guarantee the food security to our population without producing above the level of need,” Clemente said.
The most important thing, noted Cecilia Khupe from the United States Agency for International Development, is for farmers to benefit most.
”We do not want our farmers to be short changed. We want our farmers to move with the times,” said Khupe.
