Investment in Agriculture

The CBC is working in partnership with African Governments and the private sector to help increase agricultural production in Sub Saharan Africa through investment-led enterprise.

Despite the enormous amount of funding that has been directed towards relieving poverty and starvation in Africa, food security still remains a major problem. Investment in agricultural production has progressively declined over the past 30 years and at the same time the EU and US have increased subsidies to their farmers to such an extent that they have undermined the incentive for African countries to produce their own food. Times have now changed fundamentally; biofuel production is reducing the land available for food crops, harvest failures have reduced production, and change of diet has increased demand at a time when the cost of production caused by the soaring cost of oil has escalated out of affordability for most countries. The cost of production and the price of food has never been higher and the world is heading for a deficiency in the production of staple crops.

The CBC has been working to alleviate poverty and to stimulate business and development in Africa with a range of projects from infrastructure development to trade facilitation, micro finance and mobilising investment. In this context, the CBC is glad to be working to bring new investment in agriculture for self-sufficiency in staple food production.

Africa has the land and the labour to be able to achieve this, but the lack of investment at a local level, along with a lack of market knowledge and focus, has stifled any progress. I am confident that bringing the drive, focus and investment skills of the private sector together with the CBC’s ability to harness government and business interfaces productively and business strengths individually, is a solid basis for future success in changing the effectiveness of farming throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

Not only does Africa need to be more than self-sufficient in food production for its own needs, but its production is also now vital for the world.