Dakar 2 Summit: African Countries Put Their Heads Together for “Food Sovereignty”

Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, president of the African Development Bank, gives a speech at the Dakar 2 Summit, in Dakar, the capital of Senegal on January 25 (local time). Reuters-Yonhap News

“Africa can and should help feed the world!”

A burst of applause erupted when Dr. Akinwumi A. Adesina, president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) shared his ambitions in his keynote address at the Dakar 2 Summit, which launched in the capital of Senegal on January 25 (local time). Africa is betting its future on a dream to cut the chains of poverty with agricultural innovation and to grow into a hub in the world’s food supply.

The 3-day summit, which launched on Wednesday, started from a common desire for Africa--and not international organizations or advanced nations--to seek a solution to the food crisis on its own. More than two thousand participants including the leaders of ten countries--Senegal, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Kenya, and more--and government officials from over forty countries, agriculture and fishery experts, scientists, and employees of international organizations and NGOs put their heads together for the future of Africa.

Africa has long struggled with poverty, famine, disputes, and violence, which still cast a dark shadow over the continent. Recently, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have accelerated the food crisis in Africa. Crop production is down due to the lack of rain during the wet season, and cheap grain imports from Ukraine have been blocked. This pushed the price of major grains, such as wheat, legumes and corn up 40-60% in the continent. Among the 828 million people suffering from famine in the world, 249 million people, more than a third, live in Africa.

The latest summit was held eight years after the first Dakar Summit in 2015. In Dakar 2, many participants shared a sense of urgency, that Africa was driven to the brink due to the food crisis. Many were desperate to see Africa become self-sufficient, no longer relying on foreign aid or imports for their food supply. The Senegalese President Macky Sall, who is also the chairperson of the African Union and host of the latest summit, said that if the African governments directly invested in agriculture and achieved innovation, they could feed all of Africa and added that now was the perfect time to regain food sovereignty. Feed Africa: Food Sovereignty and Resilience is also the theme of the Dakar 2 Summit.

The African Development Bank (AfDB) believes Africa’s agricultural potential is endless. Africa has 400 million hectares of arable land in the savanna, and at present only 10% of the land has been cultivated. The world’s population is expected to reach nine billion in 2050, and 65% of the uncultivated arable land remaining in the world is in Africa.

But the solution is not so simple. Even if they cultivate the land, innovate outdated farming techniques, and improve crop varieties, the poor food processing and storage technology hinders farmers from enjoying a bigger income. Lack of logistics infrastructure is another problem. Most of the high-quality agricultural products produced in Africa are exported to advanced nations, and low-quality products and cheap imported grains are placed on the tables of the African people. Currently, farmers account for 60% of the total population in Africa, but the continent is short on food and imports food worth 75 billion dollars (approx. 92 trillion won) every year.

This is why Africa has a good network for exports to Europe, Asia, and the Americas in place, but have a poor supply chain between African nations. Ahmed Khan, chief fisheries officer at the AfDB told the Kyunghyang Shinmun that most quality products like the Senegalese hairtail are exported to advanced countries like South Korea and don’t remain in the African continent. He explained that the transportation system in Africa is so bad that they sometimes have to stop over in Europe in order to travel to another African country, because there are no direct flights between African countries.

The ten state leaders that gathered in Dakar on Wednesday said the summit would be a new starting line for Africa. They pledged to continually invest in innovations in agricultural technology and infrastructure. They promised to actively put into practice the “Malabo Declaration,” a pledge to invest 10% of the nation’s GDP in agriculture made at the African Union Summit in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea in 2014.

Moussa Faki, chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) said that the African governments would cooperate and not hesitate to invest in and support agriculture. He further said that food sovereignty was Africa’s new weapon as well as tool for freedom.