What Sub-Sahara Can Learn From India's 'Green Revolution'
Sub-Saharan Africa has huge potential to become a global food basket, but it is far from being realised. The region is estimated to have 60% of the globally available and unexploited arable land yet it remains food deficient.
Even when arable land is cultivated, hurdles such as limited irrigation, small sized farms, lack of fertiliser and modern agro-technology has kept productivity low. Currently, Africa's shortfall in agricultural output is met by food imports that are expected to grow from USD$35 billion in 2015 to approximately USD$110 billion in 2025.
Low productivity and increasing food demand - due to a 3% per year population growth rate - requires that food production be increasedby 60% over the next 15 years.
CIFOR