By Sonia Ounissi
TUNIS
(Reuters) - Foreign donors should do more tostimulate private investment to
improve Africa's ailing farmsector and address a worsening food crisis,
delegates at afarming conference said on Friday.
Africa
is struggling to feed a growing population due toyears of neglect of
agriculture and a shift by many countriesto export crops that increased
reliance on food imports.
Africa's
wheat consumption in 2005 grew 3 times quickerthan output, according to the
Japan International CooperationAgency.
A
doubling of commodity prices in the last two years hastriggered riots in
several countries.
The
African Development Bank (AfDB), the only multilateraldevelopment body devoted
only to Africa, had boosted itsagricultural loans by $1 billion (502 million
pounds) to $4.8billion since May 3.
But
the food crisis is also forcing international lendersto rethink their approach,
according to delegates at themeeting of African agriculture officials and
developmentpartners in Tunis.
AfDB
officials said many donors had failed to make creditavailable to African
farmers and that aid to Africanagriculture had declined in the past few years.
"There's
a realisation that we cannot just continue withbusiness as usual," AfDB
Vice President Zeinab El Bakri toldReuters. "There's a consciousness that
donors must worktogether... It also means enhancing private
sectorpartnership."
She
said there had to be a focus on certain staple foods.
"Rice
is one and we are working on that to improve this newrice for Africa."
The benefits of reform are potentially huge -- UnitedNations experts say Africa could triple or quadruple cropoutput over two seasons through simple changes to farmingtechniques.
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