Access to Technology in Africa Essential to Health for All, Hunger for None
Bayer is a life science company with key competencies in health and agriculture. We believe a world with Health for all, Hunger for none is possible. But the challenges are real. Our food systems around the world are under increasing pressure from climate change, price volatility, fragile supply chains, conflict, and more, leading to an increase in global hunger and malnutrition.
It is clear that more food will be needed to feed a growing population. Which is why we work side by side with farmers to help them sustainably grow more abundant, diverse, and nutritious food. While we strive for higher productivity to help feed a growing population, we equally support farmers’ efforts to reduce agriculture’s environmental impact, respect planetary boundaries and restore nature.
The impact of agriculture on the African economy is difficult to overstate. Agriculture supports over 50 percent of the population in Africa and contributes 35 percent to its GDP, up to 60 percent in some countries.
Despite this, Africa faces rising food imports and persistent food insecurity. More than 140 million people still go without or with too little food every day.
One key reason lies in the way we farm: Africa is home to 65 percent of the remaining arable land of the world, but we utilize only 10 percent. On average, productivity is low relative to other continents. Smallholder farmers, who provide 80 percent of the food in Sub-Saharan Africa, often lack access – to knowledge, innovative farming inputs, mechanization solutions, markets, and much more. That needs to change. In fact, smallholders should be at the core of any conversation around how to achieve food security in Africa.
One key question is: What are we doing as a society to empower smallholders and improve food production on the continent of Africa?
A Farmer Voice Survey supported by Bayer the summer of this year 2024 confirmed that farming is an especially challenging business in Africa, particularly due to three factors: price volatility, weather volatility, and political pressure.
Yet we all know that farmers are solution oriented. They also told us, for example, that they see digital technologies as one of the ways to tackle challenges and improve their farms. What’s more, farmers are keen to harness agriculture practices that improve soil health and yields, and 91% of the farmers surveyed already use at least one regenerative practice.
The survey also revealed that farmers believe that their work is critical to society and they want to be heard and recognized for their contribution.
We as industry leaders – in addition to policymakers and other stakeholders -- must listen to African farmers like the ones at the African Farmers Roundtable and those who participated in the Farmer Voice Survey. We must help empower farmers, and co-create solutions that will maximize yields, improve incomes and livelihoods, and at the same time preserve and restore the soil.
And what we have heard these farmers say loud and clear is:
1. A request for governments to develop policies that promote an outcome-driven, technology neutral, and evidence-based approach to agricultural solutions. This is about access and availability of tools and solutions.
2. A request to support a diverse set of practices and technologies to increase productivity and restore nature. They are saying that regenerative agriculture can be achieved by combining modern and traditional tools – tailored to the farmers’ specific needs, economic context, and environmental conditions.
Growers are increasingly asking the private sector, together with governments and policy makers, international organizations, research institutions and the general public, to help create the conditions in which farming communities can thrive: by developing infrastructure, building capacity, carrying out research and investment in innovations to create an enabling environment for farmers to support food security on our continent.
For us at Bayer, providing farmers with options and empowering them to make informed decisions is a role that we are passionate about and we’ll continue to play. For example, we are investing in a state-of-the-art seed facility in Kabwe, Zambia, that will make high-performing maize seeds available to farmers in Zambia and neighboring countries such as Tanzania, Uganda, Ivory Coast, and Nigeria as early as 2025.
Apart from access to high-quality inputs, supporting African farmers is also about capacity building and knowledge transfer. Smallholders have made clear their desire to to learn about farming techniques that improve yields and, at the same time, improve soil health.
For Bayer, regenerative agriculture is the future of farming, and it is part of the answer growers are looking for. We understand regenerative agriculture as a systemic approach that includes a range of practices that improve soil health, restore biodiversity, conserve water as well as increase yields. We need to transform agriculture to help mitigate climate change, and at the same time improve the economic and social well-being of farmers and their communities.
There is an African proverb that says, “If you walk alone, you can walk very fast, but if you walk with others, you can walk very far.” By working together, we can create an enabling ecosystem for enhanced agricultural production and help farmers in Africa thrive. It is up to all of us to make a more secure and sustainable food future a reality.