“Development is not something we do for others. Development is something people do for themselves,”- Kanayo F. Nwanze, the president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) gave an inspiring speech at the opening of the plenary session on the 4th day of the Africa Agriculture Science Week. Speaking at the event, he talked of the opportunities and challenges that African agricultural development currently faces and the need to provide smallholder farmers with the tools that they require to benefit from the opportunities in the agricultural sector.
Speaking at a press conference later on that day, Dr. Jimmy Smith, Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute, echoed the same sentiments on behalf of Dr. Frank Rijsberman, CEO of the CGIAR Consortium. Dr. Smith said, “Smallholders are our focus- we want to transform them into commercial farmers so that they become part of the food security response in Africa.”
The featured post – Long Road, huge opportunities for Africa was written by Cecilia Schubert, communications assistant at the CCAFS coordinating unit and a social reporter at AASW6. Read the complete post of the CCAFS blog here.
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Featured image credit: C.Schubert/CCAFS