The African Union (AU) called Sunday for increasing agronomic research to find mechanisms resistant to climate shocks and pests affecting crops in the continent.
Entire plantations are destroyed every year due to the inefficiency in confronting these challenges; this threatens the citizens’ food security and limits the export capacity of Africa, which has products of unique quality in the world, the AU said in a statement.
The issue was discussed during the Second Scientific Conference on Coffee, held in Libreville, Gabon, with the participation of delegations from Angola, Benin, Burundi, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Republic of Guinea, Kenya, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda.
The plant is of particular importance to the economies of the region.
Therefore, we must act quickly and fairly not only to preserve profits, but also, and above all, to reactivate the sector and reposition this item. If we want to remain competitive, innovation and modernization of production techniques are no longer options but imperatives’, concluded AU.
