Africa needs affordable, sustainable innovation in the agricultural sector if it is to improve its food security. This is according to Dr Max Wengawenga, assistant chief economic advisor to the president of the Republic of Malawi.
While innovation and technology have been used to improve agricultural productivity over the years, his message to innovators is to come up with more userfriendly and affordable technologies to increase food productivity, even among the resource-poor farmers.
Food security has been a topic of heated debate in South Africa recently, with the proposed amendment to Section 25 of the Constitution to expedite land reform. Food security is intricately tied to a healthy and strong agricultural sector.
Definition of food security
The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations defines food security as circumstances in which ‘all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life’.
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