2nd December, 2021
The Director-General of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Nteranya Sanginga, has said that the only way African countries can attain food sufficiency is through enough budgetary allocation to Agriculture.
Sanginga said this at media briefing in Ibadan, Oyo state.
He said lack of enough budgetary allocation by most African government is the reason for hunger in the continent.
Sanginga said if adequate attention is not paid to agriculture by African leaders, it might be difficult to attain food sufficiency in the continent.
Sanginga, who is the first African DG of the institute, called on African leaders to start viewing agriculture as a business rather than a social activity
“In Africa, you hear every head of state say agriculture is a priority but when you go to the budget, agriculture is the least of the budget.
“African leaders are not serious about agriculture at all.
“I’d say almost 90 percent of the countries in Africa still consider agriculture as a social activity, so they are waiting for donors, foreigners to finance agriculture with grants. You can never be serious with that.”
Sanginga has been the DG of IITA for 10 year now.
In his tenure, he has created business incubation platforms, set up youth agripreneurs programme, implement ‘Start Them Early Project’ (STEP) and built food processing units under the IITA leadership.