Photo Source: AATF
(Abuja: May 29, 2023) Low agricultural productivity, food and nutritional insecurity and availing smallholder farmers access to life-changing technologies are issues that AATF and ECOWAS have agreed to solve in partnership in the West African sub-region.
Leaders of the two organizations met in Abuja on May 15th 2023 to discuss modalities of ensuring the sub-region is food and nutrition-secure.
This follows ECOWAS recent alarm stating that over 107 million people in the region are experiencing nutrition and food insecurity and require urgent intervention.
During the meeting Dr Canisius Kanangire, AATF’s Executive Director, said AATF has been able to demonstrate that with technologies, Africa can change the narratives which tag the continent as hungry and poor.
“AATF is focused on empowering smallholder farmers across sub-Saharan Africa with agricultural innovations that can generate wealth and health for their families with all communities and countries benefitting as well,” Dr Kanangire said.
“AATF is seeking a sustainable partnership with ECOWAS to help farmers in the region become globally competitive through technology,” Dr Kanangire added.
The Executive Director used the opportunity to brief the ECOWAS Commission leadership on the strides attained by AATF in the last decade.
It includes an active presence in 24 African countries, provision of technological access to reaching 4.8 million farmers while other interventions include the engagement of 47.3 million stakeholders through advocacy, outreach and regulatory support.
Within this period, Dr Kanangire explained that the Foundation was able to produce for farmers over 30,000 metric tons of seeds from its commercialization programs with 178,000 farmers accessing seed markets while 150 seed companies benefited from AATF-led capacity enhancement programs.
He urged ECOWAS to consider a quick harmonization of key policies and laws to enable the free movement of acceptable technologies across the sub-region which will allow farmers to maximize the benefits of technologies for enhanced productivity.
Receiving the AATF team, Dr Omar Alieu Touray, President of the ECOWAS Commission said that the Commission was working with various organisations to improve agricultural productivity in the sub-region.
“When I visited the scientists and experts, we were convinced we cannot be persuading ourselves, we need politicians, NGOs, farmers’ organizations, and other bodies to tell them the possibilities to be attained with technologies in the agricultural sector,” Dr Touray said.
He called for the exploration of low-hanging fruits by both organisations to seek quick solutions to the mir challenges confronting agriculture, farmers and citizens of the region.
About AATF (www.aatf-africa.org)
AATF is an international not-for-profit organization that is empowering smallholder farmers across Sub-Saharan Africa with a wide choice of agricultural innovations that contribute to food and nutrition security to generate health and wealth for their families and communities. Established in 2003 as an African-led entity, AATF works with public and private partners across the full food value chain to access, develop, deliver and commercialize innovative technologies that bring meaningful change to Africa’s agriculture. AATF is driven by a vision of a prosperous and food secure Africa, one where millions of smallholder farmers can transform African agriculture with the same innovations that are transforming food production around the world. AATF believes the farmers in Africa will become globally competitive through use of the best technology, optimal agricultural practices, strategic product value addition and boosted access to efficient markets within and outside Africa.
For further information, please contact: Alex Abutu, Communication Officer, AATF. +2348068701960 / a.abutu@aatf-africa.org
