{"id":3510,"date":"2019-07-02T11:31:03","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T11:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=3510"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:23","slug":"mechanizing-agriculture-is-key-to-food-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/07\/02\/mechanizing-agriculture-is-key-to-food-security\/","title":{"rendered":"Mechanizing Agriculture Is Key To Food Security"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>By African Renewal<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An African woman with hoe in hand is the default symbol of\nagriculture in Africa, according to the late Calestous Juma, African academic\nand former Harvard Kennedy School professor. Mr. Juma used that image to convey\nthe drudgery-filled farming that women on the continent face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Women grow 70% of Africa\u2019s food on smallholder farms, a task\nanchored by physical labor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, with Africa\u2019s population expected to double by 2050, the\ncontinent must ditch the hoe in favor of modern technology, which will complete\nthe same tasks far more efficiently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A transformation from small-scale subsistence farms to\nmechanized, more commercially viable farms is essential, say experts at the\nGhana-based African Centre for Economic Transformation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currently, mechanization levels on farms across Africa are very\nlow, with the number of tractors in sub-Saharan Africa ranging from 1.3 per\nsquare kilometre in Rwanda to 43 per square kilometre in South Africa, compared\nwith 128 per square kilometre in India and 116 per square kilometre in Brazil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a UN\nspecialized agency that champions efforts to defeat hunger, Africa overall has\nless than two tractors per 1,000 hectares of cropland. There are 10 tractors\nper 1,000 hectares in South Asia and Latin America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Without mechanized agriculture, productivity suffers\ndrastically, lowering farmers\u2019 earnings, notes the Alliance for a Green\nRevolution in Africa, an organization funded by the Bill &amp; Melinda Gates\nand Rockefeller Foundations that seeks to promote agricultural transformation\nand improve food security in Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Africa currently spends a whopping $35 billion annually on food\nimports, according to the African Development Bank (AfDB), which projects that\nif the current trend continues, food imports could rise to $110 billion by\n2050. Africa should be the breadbasket of the world, says AfDB president\nAkinwumi Adesina. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.un.org\/africarenewal\/magazine\/april-2019-july-2019\/mechanizing-agriculture-key-food-security\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By African Renewal An African woman with hoe in hand is the default symbol of agriculture in Africa, according to the late Calestous Juma, African academic and former Harvard Kennedy&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}