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ED's Corner

Africa feeding Africa

MDG goal one aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by halving, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people living on less than $1.25 a day. The target of reducing extreme poverty rates by half was met five years ahead of the 2015 deadline when the global poverty rate at $1.25 a day fell in 2010 to less than half the 1990 rate. However, projections indicate that in 2015 almost one billion people will still be living on less than $1.25 per day, most of them in Africa.
When African Heads of State and Government endorsed the CAADP framework in 2003, it was with the vision of creating a common agricultural agenda that will help African countries to attain food security and economic growth thereby meeting the MDG goal one target. Ten years down the line, we have made substantial progress in reducing the number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger, however only a few African countries are set to meet the 2015 target.
In choosing a theme for the 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week, we considered low productivity as the bane of the slow progress towards reaching this target. And we reached the conclusion that Africa can only attain sustainable agricultural productivity through the application of scientific innovations. The 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week was therefore launched on the 17th of May 2013 in Accra Ghana under the theme Africa Feeding Africa through Science and Innovations. The main event will take place from 15 – 20 July in Accra Ghana bringing together all stakeholders in African agriculture, science and technology discuss burning issues and shape the architecture of African ARD over the next three years.
I look forward to seeing you at the Science Week.

published: 2013-05-18 | tagged: ed_corner