Africa’s countries must conserve their land resources as they are the most strategic reserves the continent owns, Dr Kanayo Nwanze has said.

Dr Nwanze made the call during an exclusive interview with The New Times ahead of the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) scheduled to take place next month.

Nwanze is a board member of Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), the organisers of the forum.

He is also the former President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD).

Highlighting Africa’s resources, Nwanze said that the continent has the largest rivers, an abundance of streams and in-land valleys than anywhere else, most of which are yet to be tapped.

"We are not even exploring six per cent of our in-land valley resources in Africa,” he said, highlighting River Niger, Congo, and Nile as some of other largest resources. Yet, farmers cannot be able to adequately irrigate their crops, instead they depend on rainfall to grow basic foods.

Nwanze added that; "Africa is the only continent in the world today where you can put one kilogramme of fertiliser and it will double the yield” as well as the continent where you only need water, improved seeds and a little bit of fertilizer to triple the produce.

"The fact that countries are coming to Africa to lease or buy land so they can produce food here and be able to export it, tells you that there is something we have that others don’t have.

"It also tells you that we have something that we don’t know we have, because if we knew what we have we wouldn’t sell it.”

editorial@newtimes.co.rw