Africa has 60m farms - Report

The Africa Agriculture Status Report (AASR) has said that there are 60 million farms in Africa. This revelation was made at the ongoing virtual African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) Kigali, Rwanda.

This comes on the heels of Food and Agriculture Organisation(FAO) prediction that the agricultural market in Africa will reach $1 trillion by 2030, The Nations reports.

This year’s AASR focuses on Feeding Africa’s Cities by assessing the opportunities, challenges and  policies required to enable African farmers and agribusinesses serve the rapidly growing urban food  markets.

The report seeks to find ways for smallholder farmers to drive food security, rural prosperity,  and inclusive economic growth.

“This report highlights the opportunity for all agriculture industry stakeholders to bring together viewpoints that define the transformation agenda, while outlining the practical next steps to an  agricultural revolution,” said AGRA President, Dr. Agnes Kalibata.

According to The Nations, it indicated that cities shape Africa’s agribusiness environment by affecting patterns of agricultural production and inducing the rapid expansion of food processing and distribution plans.

“This year’s AASR shows that as the centre of gravity in Africa’s agri-food systems shifts increasingly  towards urban areas, a cohort of new, non-traditional actors, including city planners, mayors, district  councils, trader organisations and public health professionals, are becoming key players in the implementation of agricultural policy,”  AGRA’s Chief of Staff and Strategy, Andrew Cox said.