Conference of the Parties (COP27): African Ministers Explore Ways to Scale up Food Production to Feed the Continent, Bolster Resilience

Conference of the Parties (COP27): African Ministers Explore Ways to Scale up Food Production to Feed the Continent, Bolster Resilience

African agriculture ministers attending the United Nations climate summit in Egypt reiterated a commitment to work with development partners to unlock the continent’s agriculture potential.

During the special ministerial session, there was a strong consensus that Africa can feed itself if supported with green financing and climate-smart technology to boost agriculture productivity.

The African Development Bank hosted the event to allow countries to explore ways to bolster agricultural resilience through adaptation and mitigation. Participating ministers shared success stories and challenges from their respective policies in agriculture.

Kobenan Kouassi Adjoumani, Côte d’Ivoire’s Minister of Agriculture, said, "We must be sovereign in our countries’ fight against food insecurity and the best way is to find funding for agriculture. We must adapt and find solutions to our problems in the face of the disasters we have seen here and there: droughts, floods, cyclones, and so on.”

He added that disruptions associated with the war in Ukraine should provide an impetus for Africa to readapt its agriculture to achieve food sovereignty.

Rwanda’s agriculture and animal resources minister, Dr. Geraldine Mukeshimana, said a key challenge for Africa was a lack of resources to scale up innovative processes to produce enough food.

“Countries are not late in policies - they are not