AFRICA CALLING

After independence we will have to stand on our own and rely on our own resources, the unifying force, the cement…which had hitherto been supplied by the United Kingdom Government will be removed, and will have to be replaced by new virtues of our own which must be capable of keeping all the diverse elements of the country together, in mutual trust and harmony and with a common national purpose."

Excerpt taken from Awo, the Autobiography of Chief Obafemi Awolowo of Nigeria.

After the Second World War people in Africa wanted change. Only Egypt, Liberia and Ethiopia were independent at that point. But it was Indian self-rule which triggered the momentum leading to independence. Everywhere the mood was hopeful as people were inspired by the vision of a new society free of European control. The year 1960 saw independence sweep across much of Africa. Fourteen countries ceased to be French colonies, while the Belgian Congo became Zaire and Somalia and Nigeria broke from British control.

After 50 years of Independence African economy is being declared the economy of growth the birth of 3rd generation of Emerging economies. In the last couple of years African has been on the map of every business house across the world. The country of Black where torture and pains were the emblems for the citizens has some thing interesting to fell about. In an a recent research finding it was found that Africa grew faster than East Asia, including Japan. Even IMF expects Africa to grow by 6% this year and nearly 6% in 2012, about the same as Asia. Nothing has changed except the perception of the world looking towards the growth and scare resources which Africa possesses. We all know that Africa is famous for Diamond a mine which is mostly smuggled to Europe and other parts of the world. Africa has felt the air of development and Technology. Technology is fast rooming and bridging the hurdles of poor infrastructure of Africa(which is yet to pick up. According to my research I find that Africa is still struggling with meeting its food supply demand in accordance to its population growth.

The three factors that will contribute in Africa to future increase in food supply are expansion of land under cultivation, irrigation intensive projects, and biotechnological increase in yield. Technology will play the pivotal role in upgrading the agriculture segment. But technology alone will not be sufficient to increase the output of African foods items. . The size of land currently under cultivation in Africa for all agricultural crops is about 76.1 million hectares. The agriculture sector accounts for 35 percent of the continents GDP and corresponds to 40 percent of its exports. About 72 percent of the people live in the rural areas and the sector supplies 70 percent of the employment opportunities We find vast amount of land which is not suitable for agriculture in Africa.

The first responsibility of technology will be to transform the barren land into productive and to stop Desertification. It has been found that Potential land for crop production under rain-fed but not in agricultural use, is more than twice the current harvested land. Hence use of hybrid seeds, modern irrigation facility are all in the dream run until the soil becomes fertile to produce. Hence Africa is being found as an immense potential country for development of agriculture giving a way out to the struggling developed economies to survive the de-growth phase. Irrigations stand to be another hurdle for African economy. Africa needs recycle use of water since the cost associated with developing irrigation infrastructure in Africa will increase the cost of production of agricultural output. Biotechnological food supply increase would not be sustainable in African countries without building systematic multidisciplinary strong institutions. Africa needs proper food storage facilities along with strong R&D built in-house to support the African agricultural growth. Moreover proper system needs to be developed for bridging the gap between the farmer and the end user of agri products. Reduction in the gap will enable improvement of farmer’s quality of living. We must not forget that only growth of companies from exploiting the growth of Africa will lead to development. Africa’s development lies within the citizens of Africa. This simple principal is often ignored and ruled out.

My research finding depicts that Africa will surpass Asian economies in the next decade in terms of agricultural growth. Reasons are simple lack of opportunities of growth in Developed nations and Emerging nations will lead all their resources to find growth in Africa. Cumulative technology transfer will improve the growth speed faster than these countries individual R&D. A simple example to prove my saying is that it has more than 600m mobile-phone users—more than America or Europe. Since roads are generally dreadful, advances in communications, with mobile banking and telephonic agro-info, have been a huge boon. Africa did not spend any amount on R&D in technology but cumulative transfer of technology has lead faster growth of Africa. In the same way I find through my research that Africa will be the next emerging nation propelling faster than Asia. Vocational and other agricultural technical education will further instigate and bring more stable growth in the macro levels of African development.

Africa needs to take out of communal ownership and title handed over to individual farmers so that they can get credit and expand. Developed nations are opening up the trade gates with Africa. America’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, which lowered tariff barriers for many goods, is a good start, but it needs to be widened and copied by other nations.

FDI will find its way to Africa and according to my finding I find 25% of Europe, US, China and India respectively are finding growth avenues and to built their foreign exchange and to diversify the change the too in Africa.