With Africa holding the world’s largest arable lands, Africans are being urged to restore their passion for agriculture.
This is because it is the next sustainable sector to revive their economy particularly at a time when global shocks are badly impacting their economies.
The acting Global President for the International Peace and Governance Council (IPHC), Dr Jonathan Ojadah, said the exposure to the oil boom has pushed some countries to deviate from agriculture such that the practice of subsistence agriculture, which used to be a source of livelihood for many, has stopped.
Dr Ojadah made the call last Friday in an interview with the media at the 11th Pan African Leadership, Investment Summit and Honours in Accra.
Organised by IPHC-Ghana in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Creative Arts and Culture, the summit brought together Africa investors to discuss various investment opportunities on the continent.
It was on the theme: “Peaceful Coexistence and Synergy for African Development”.
“Most countries are still undergoing recession so we deem it necessary that we advise every country to take their agricultural investment opportunities seriously because we believe that with food security, hunger will be eradicated.
When hunger is eradicated we can achieve sustainable peace and it is on the back of sustainable peace that investment promotion can survive,” he said.
He said his outfit has embarked on a sustainable agricultural project which he believes will create a lot of good security for the populace.
“We at UNIPGC are partnering the United Nations Association of Ghana to implement the zero hunger agenda of the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of the UN to project the role of agriculture in sustaining the economy towards national development,” he added.
Ensuring sustainable development
In a speech read on his behalf, the Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Dr Ibrahim Awal, said:
“Africa has so much resources but benefits from just a little, therefore, it’s time to seek the opinions of the traditional authorities, religious leaders and civil society organisations to ensure inclusive and sustainable development.
In this vein, with the multi-party democracy that most African countries have chosen, it’s imperative to harness its potential for peace and development on the continent.”
