West Africa has high potential for Investment boost in Agriculture - OECD

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development says agricultural investment in West Africa will grow “very significantly” by 2050 as the population expands and people move from rural areas to cities. West Africa is the world's largest cocoa producer with Cote D'Ivoire producing over 40% of world's output in cocoa.

West African urbanization is increasing at the fastest rate in the world, Karim Dahou, an executive manager at the OECD’s directorate for financial and enterprise affairs, said in an interview at a conference in London. Population in West Africa has doubled every 20 years since 1960 and in cities the number of people has tripled, he said.

“In West Africa, the natural resources are conducive to huge agricultural output, there’s water, there are a lot of hydro-resources,” Dahou said at the Agriculture Investment Summit. “Our agricultural outlook by 2050 is very optimistic in terms of the growth of the sector globally, and including in Africa.”

Investment in West African agriculture will expand as the world tries to meet growing local and global demand, he said. The amount of capital invested per farmer in Africa is “very low,” one sixth of that in Asia and one fourth of that in Latin America, according to Dahou. That’s the reason why yields for many crops in the region are stagnant, he said.

Ghana and Nigeria are leading investments in agriculture in the region, he said. Nigeria, which spends $10 billion a year importing wheat, sugar, rice and fish, plans to boost domestic food production by 20 million metric tons by 2015, according to Akinwunmi Adesina, the country’s agriculture minister.

Cash crops such as cocoa and coffee in West Africa won’t be under threat as the region tackles food security and may even facilitate access to food as they bring in revenue, Dahou said. There’s enough land available to expand and improve yields for both food and cash crops, he said.

“The issue is not really space, it’s intensification,” Dahou said. “That’s what African agriculture, especially West African agriculture, needs.” President Obama also dropped a similar hint in his week-long visit to Africa when in Senegal where he took smooth swipe at China. Obama emphasised on food security for Africa as well as democracy.

United States to Ease Sanctions on Sudan

The top US diplomat in Sudan revealed today that Washington will soon change sanctions regulations that will allow educational institutional in both countries to deal directly with one another.

Washington imposed economic and trade sanctions on Sudan in 1997 because of the civil wars in the country, accusing it of supporting terrorism. In 2007, it strengthened the embargo citing abuses in Darfur which it labeled as genocide.

In 2010 the US announced it was easing sanctions on agriculture equipment and services which allowed half a dozen companies to get export licenses.

Khartoum has lobbied Washington intensively to lift sanctions but little progress has been made on this front.

In an interview with the independent al-Sahafa newspaper the American charge d'affaires Joseph D. Stafford said that the Obama administration is prepared to hold a comprehensive, frank and transparent dialogue with Khartoum on all issues that prevent normalization of bilateral ties.

Stafford noted that security cooperation between the two sides which strengthened more than a decade ago is continuing describing it as "good".

He denied that the US is biased in favour of any party in Sudan and strongly dismissed accusations by officials in Khartoum that Washington is behind the "New Dawn" charter signed by opposition and rebel groups in Kampala last month.

Stafford said that Washington informed Sudanese rebels that they oppose any attempt to overthrow the regime by force and urged them to seek dialogue with Khartoum.

"We are only biased towards peace in Sudan," the US official said.

He said that his country stopped granting visas to Sudanese and reduced its staff since last September following demonstrations that broke out in Khartoum at the US embassy against a film that insulted the Prophet Mohammad.

Stafford called this a temporary measure that he hopes will soon be reversed.