Olam Agri, a leading agribusiness in food, feed, and fibre, has spotlighted the enormous potential within the African food value chain.
The Country Head of Olam Agri’s Nigeria operations, Anil Nair, highlighted this potential during the Market Access Africa Conference organised by the African Agri Council in Lagos.
He emphasised that Africa’s food trade deficit could be offset by improving crop yields across the continent. Nair pointed out that despite Africa’s substantial share of global arable land, the continent’s current crop yield fell below the global average.
He noted that Africa possessed vast uncultivated lands that can be better utilised. According to him, “Africa has 18 per cent of the world’s arable land and 18 per cent of the world’s population,” Nair explained.
“With a total land mass of three billion hectares, 253 million hectares are arable, of which 203 million are used for crop production, leaving 50 million hectares available for cultivation as temporary fallow lands and temporary meadows and pastures.”
On Africa’s agricultural output, he said: “On these 203 million hectares of cropped land, Africa produces approximately 250 million tons of cereals and coarse grains, including Maize (92 million tons), Sorghum (29 million tons), Millet (15 million tons), Rice (39 million tons), Wheat (27 million tons), Barley (6 million tons), and Teff (6 million tons).
In addition to cereals, Africa grows significant quantities of tubers, such as, Cassava (208 million tons), Yam (86 million tons), Potato (27 million tons), and Sweet Potato (29 million tons).”
Nair maintained that Africa should not be a net food importer, citing strong crop varieties but pointed out that low crop yields are among several factors hindering higher agricultural productivity on the continent.
“Africa’s crop yields are significantly lower than the world averages. The average cereal yield in Africa is just 1.6 tons per hectare compared to the global average of 4 tons per hectare, which is 60 per cent less.
Specifically, Africa’s rice yield is 2.35 tons per hectare, half of the world average. Africa consumes about 38 million tons of rice annually, with 15 million tons being imported.
The continent cultivates approximately 16.5 million hectares for paddy, producing nearly 39 million tons of paddy or 22-23 million tons of finished rice,” he said Nair highlighted Olam Agri’s Rice Farm in Nigeria as an example of successful yield improvement, achieving 4.6 tons per hectare compared to the continent’s average of 2.35 tons per hectare.
He identified factors contributing to low crop yields in Africa, including the low use of fertiliser, limited adoption of mechanised farming, smallholder farmers’ lack of access to modern agronomic training, insufficient financing opportunities, and inadequate road infrastructure.
