Agriculture: A business response to economic growth in the sub-Sahara. Part 1

Some of the major issues that the Africa sub-Saharan is expected to face is in the years 

ahead are food issue, the population growth, exponential increase in the unemployment 

rate etc.... All are inextricably linked. One is the cause of another and so on. 

Some 795 million people in the world and especially in the Sub-Sahara do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth. Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four there is undernourished.( Source World Food Program)

There is the paradox: Africa continent has  is huge surface favorable for agriculture and a good weather, but only a few percentage is used for agriculture and most a huge amount of food crops is for export, while most of its people die every day of hunger especially in the corn and in the sub-sahara.

Who is to blame for this issue? Governments? The policy makers? Farmers? Or the nature?

The population is expected to reach 1 billion by 2050 in Africa. More than 60% is expected to be young people ranging from 20 to 40 years old. It means the human capital that is needed for working force. It could be a curse or a blessing for the continent. It depends on the decisions that stakeholders are going to make in the coming years: whether provide these young people with the opportunities to becoming a driving force to economic development or leaving them to their fate.

Agriculture is a key area in which African stakeholders and policy makers should strive to invest .Subsidy to the agriculture sector should increase by a significant percentage of  national budget in order to make real impact in production and people lives. There is no reason why african people should strive with hunger while there is much land for agriculture and especially the human capital for food production. 

The policy makers have their part of responsability on how they make choices about policies that should be implemented in order to make agriculture a driven force for economic and social development. There is no miracle about making the economic growth a drive for change. Only the good policies and  hard choices are the path for prosperity. So many policies about agriculture have been implemented since independances. But there is no major change, rather the sector is going backward. The reason is obvious: the policies and choices are not good. 

Governments are to blame. They implement the policies. As long as a policy is not working for the benefit of the people, governments should be the first to make hard choices. Governments are designed to serve the people for their benefit. So there is a reason to blame governments especially in the sub-sahara for their failure to make agriculture a drive for economic growth.

What should governments in the sub-sahara do in order to improve the agriculture sector and make a significant change in people lives?

Find out in the coming article.