Africa has a great potential to industrialize, but the lack of local and foreign investments in its agricultural sector is hampering the region’s progress, a research associate at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies notes.
Peter Hazell, who is set to attend an International Fund for Agricultural Development conference in Rome, says a Green Revolution in Africa would generate productive jobs and provide a lot of people with a means out of poverty.
“By securing family food supplies through higher yields, it would enable many small farmers to free up land and labour for more profitable uses. It would also increase local demand for higher-value foods and non-farm goods and services, creating additional productive employment in rural areas,” Hazell writes in the Guardian, adding that a Green Revolution would also create local demand for the region’s industries.
Hazell says Africa can learn from Asia’s Green Revolution, which helped the region pull back from the fringes of famine and boost regional food supplies while creating jobs in the agricultural sector.
