IFAD: Investment in Agriculture R4D is Key to Economic Growth in Africa

Increasing investments in agricultural research for development (R4D) could bring the much-awaited agricultural transformation to Africa and help address the rising wave of youth unemployment and its attendant poverty says President of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), Dr. Kanayo Nwanze.

Delivering a talk at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nwanze said Africa should not shy away from committing more resources to agricultural research and development if they really want to witness an African Green Revolution. "Agricultural research is the cornerstone of development… it is the vehicle that conveys development and we must invest in it," he said.

Dr. Nwanze also supported calls for investments to rejuvenate research institutions such as IITA -a position earlier made by Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo. Such investments will have a positive trickle down effect on the youth by way of generating improved technologies that could attract them to agriculture and also build their capacities in solving both present and future challenges to food security. Citing research studies, Dr. Nwanze said that for every dollar invested in agricultural research, returns on investments were about US$9 in sub-Saharan Africa.

For more information, contact Godwin Atser at g.atser@cgiar.org Corporate Communications Officer (West & Central Africa) or  Jeffrey T. Oliver, o.jeffrey@cgiar.org Corporate Communications Officer (International).