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| Private sector urged to value Africa's agriculture
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Dakar, Senegal (PANA) -
As the conference on financing the New
partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) got underway in
Dakar Monday, the private sector was challenged to give a new
lease to the agricultural sector so as to bridge the gap with
industrialised countries.
Presenting a paper on the West African Economic and Monetary
Union's agricultural policy within the framework of NEPAD, the
grouping's representative, Pape Diouf, said the major task ahead
was feeding the region's high population amid rising urbanisation
so as to reduce dependency on the international market.
The Senegalese minister of agriculture recalled that two thirds
of Africans were rural dwellers who mainly depended on
agricultural production.
"The agricultural sector accounts for 34-percent of the region's
Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Diouf said, adding that its
contribution to the GDP varies from 21-percent in Senegal to
49-percent in Mali and up to 58-percent for Guinea Bissau.
Pape Diouf noted that UEMOA considers the sustainable growth of
agriculture as a challenge that calls for the concerted
management of natural resources "which constitute the region's
public assets now threatened by growing competition for land and
fish resources."
Saying that irrigated agriculture covered less than 10-percent of
the total potential while the utilisation of fertilisers and
pesticides is very low, the Senegalese minister stressed the need
to find ways of reducing rural poverty "by raising the revenue
and status of farmers."
According to Pape Diouf, the revenue generated by agriculture is
about one quarter of that of industries and services." The
minister stressed the need to make agricultural activity more
attractive in terms of revenue and socially.
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| Dakar - 16/04/2002 |
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