Africa should allocate adequate funding for the advancement of science, technology, and innovation for the continent to address challenges affecting its agricultural sector, the African Conference on Agricultural Technologies (ACAT) has recommended.

The five-day conference concluded on November 3, in Nairobi, Kenya.

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Participants in the event observed that the financing allocation to research, technology and innovation in Africa was small, which limits farm productivity on the continent that is grappling with food insecurity.

They expressed an urgent need to build farmer resilience in Africa, considering that agricultural production and foods systems on the continent are highly vulnerable to climate change, armed conflict, social and political instability as well as commodity-supply related shocks such as fertilizer, foreign exchange and fuel crises.

To fast-track agricultural technology deployment while integrating science, technology, and innovation in their respective development frameworks, the conference participants resolved to encourage African governments, regional economic communities, and continental bodies and organs to sustain relevant dialogues and actions.

"We appeal for commitment of funding to support science technology and innovations as affirmed in 2016 by African Heads of State in the Lagos Plan of Action to increase science and technology budgets to at least 1 per of GDP (gross domestic product) by 2025 and the commitment to increase the budget allocation to the agricultural sector to at least 10 per cent of the budget in line with the Malabo Declaration,” reads part of the communique issued by the conference participants on November 3.

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As Africa spends substantial amounts of financial resources importing food, yet through adoption of technologies, there is great potential for increasing productivity to reduce the import burden while also facilitating intra-Africa trade, the participants observed.

According to data from the African Development Bank Group, the amount of money that Africa spends on importing food per year more than doubled, from $35 billion in 2015 to $75 billion in 2023 (on sourcing over 100 million tonnes of food from abroad).

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So far, the face of African agriculture outlook is characterised by rudimentary traditional tools as such as the handheld hoe, the abysmally low penetration of agricultural mechanisation that has stagnated at below 10 per cent of its full potential, and low attraction of farming to youth, participants in the abovementioned conference regretted.

While speaking at the event in Nairobi, the Executive Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), Canisius Kanangire, said that the Second Africa-wide Conference on Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI), which took place from April 26 to April 28, 2022 in Kigali, Rwanda observed that investment in science technology and innovation in Africa averages 0.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), in stark contrast to the global average of 1.7 per cent.

"This highlights the need for a renewed commitment to the Malabo Declaration and the UNESCO call for investment in STI at the level of 1 per cent of GDP,” Kanangire observed.

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