The Standard News Paper,

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1143997185&cid=14&j=&m=&d

By Dann Okoth

African Governments have been urged to inject more investments in agriculture to reverse food insecurity and reduced margins for farmers. "Farmers must be given opportunities to diversify and increase their income levels," said Patrick Oketa, the Chief Investment Officer at Africa Agricultural Capital (AAC)."This is pivotal to the poverty reduction strategies for all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa," he added.

The AAC, he said, recognised that the transition from subsistence agriculture to market oriented and high value commercial agriculture is critical for the survival of small farmers and agroprocessors in East Africa, including Ethiopia, Rwanda, Zambia and Malawi.

Challenges

"We are dedicated to providing risk capital to enterprises, which encourage agro-diversification,"he said.

Oketa was presenting a paper titled Strengthening Sub-Regional Value Chains Through Risk Capital Provision at the just ended first East and Central Africa Agribusiness Workshop held in Nairobi. He said sub-Saharan African farmers faced many challenges that weakened the value chain for their products.

His sentiments were also echoed by Komla Bissi, Agribusiness Advisor at the Nepad Secretariat who said poor value chain and gaps in agri-business infrastructure and policies had impacted negatively on the continent?s agriculture. Bissi said there was need for additional investment in commercial and trade infrastructure to lower the cost of supplying domestic, regional and international markets.

"There is also need for integrated value chain approach in infrastructure development,exploitation of regional advantages in infrastructure development and an improvement in sectorgovernance and policy formulation," he said.