At present, Africa is still very far from food independence, but it plans to move towards achieving this goal.
Today, the African continent spends about $55 billion a year on food purchases, according to Professor Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka, adviser to the president of the African Development Bank on industrialization.
And this is not the limit: it is predicted that by 2035 this amount may double. There are several reasons:
— Population growth, over the next 10-12 years it can increase by 200 million people, up to 700 million.
— Urbanization.
— Growth of incomes of the population and standard of living in general.
All this can significantly increase the consumption of major crops, in particular corn, wheat and rice.
For example, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa (the center and south of the continent) can increase wheat imports by 2-3 million tons per year over the next 10 years.
Based on all this, practically the only opportunity for the development of the continent is the growth of its own agriculture.
This will help to overcome poverty and hunger, which are still common in many regions of Africa, as well as reduce the enormous dependence on imported agricultural products.
Which countries can become major producers?
Experts are now suggesting that Zambia and Zimbabwe could play such a role.
They have good prospects not only to provide themselves with grain, but also to become local exporters within the continent.
Nigeria also has a chance, Banji Oyelaran-Oyeyinka said, but there is an urgent need to move away from outdated subsistence farming and develop industrial farming.
In particular, to carry out industrialization, use machinery, fertilizers and chemicals, seeds of effective varieties.
All this will help to multiply the productivity of agriculture.
So far, there are huge tracts of uncultivated arable land in Africa, and a lot of effort needs to be made to begin to benefit from them.
In the meantime, Nigeria, for example, is increasing grain imports from Russia.
(according to the analytical platform Logistic OS https://logisticos.org/)
How can Russia cooperate with Africa?
In the near future, Russian food exports to African countries may be significantly increased.
However, in order to do this, the existing obstacles must be removed.
In particular, to create a modern port infrastructure, as well as deal with logistics, build processing facilities.
All this requires large investments, but it will help to make a great contribution to the development of the African continent and cooperation between Africa and Russia.
