Akinwumi Adesina (photo), president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), has on Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2017, discussed some of the harsh challenges that make access to agricultural lands difficult, in Africa. This was on the sidelines of the Leadership for Agriculture (L4Ag) forum that the pan African institution organizes in partnership with Grow Africa and Initiative for Global Development (IGD).

“The current land system makes the land poorer. Africa needs safe land rights, land deeds for women to access lands. The African agriculture is the least mechanized, the continent has many poor famers who still use hoes and cutlers. We must modernize, we must have young educated farmers,” Adesina said, according to Koaci.

He also recalled that 300 million are malnourished in Africa, and that over the 600 million hectares of lands in Savana areas, 400 million are usable, but only 40 million are actually cultivated.