President William Ruto has said that Africa must develop tailored agricultural systems to address the unique needs of each community for food production.
Speaking at the World Without Hunger Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Ruto said it is time the African continent invested aggressively to expand sustainable production in all food system value chains.
He said this must also include prioritising strategies that will build resilient food systems.
The President insisted that taking such bold and collective decisions is the only way out of the threat of hunger.
“The stark condition of the global food security situation demonstrates that we are considerably off-track and, without a radical strategic turn-around, are unlikely to meet the second sustainable development goal: Zero Hunger," Ruto said.
“The only way out of this tragic failure requires us to undertake bold and ambitious collective actions in tackling the root causes of hunger,” Ruto said.
He further called on investments in agricultural education in order to properly equip farmers.
Ruto added that this will give a lot of support to farmers when confronting climate change, which has turned out to be the biggest threat to food security.
“Additionally, by investing in agricultural education, we will be able to equip farmers with the skills they need to be efficient, innovative and adaptive. This is especially so in confronting climate change, which constitutes a significant threat to food security because erratic weather fluctuations disrupt food production.”
Ruto reiterated his call for a collective approach to getting ahead of the climate risk to food and nutrition.
He said this can be done by mobilising and deploying adequate resources to embark on unified climate action and exploiting the positive link between climate resilience and food security.
“It is time for us to deploy the power of our partnerships beyond policy-making to securing substantial commitments in pursuit of tangible actions.”
The 2024 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World report states that in 2023, 733 million people in the world faced hunger.
In Africa, the situation is worse with one in five people affected.
The report further revealed that over 2.8 billion people globally cannot afford a healthy diet, and the severity of hunger is classified as alarming, especially in Burundi, Chad, Madagascar, Somalia, South Sudan and Yemen.
