It is worth pausing to digest some of the findings of a recent report released by the World Bank, entitled ‘Growing Africa: Unlocking the Potential of Agribusiness’.

In summary, the document argues that Africa’s farmers and agribusinesses could become key catalysts for ending poverty and that agriculture and agribusiness should, therefore, be positioned at the top of sub-Saharan Africa’s development and business agendas.

There is potential, the report argues, to create a $1-trillion-a-year food market by 2030 by tapping into booming domestic and export markets for rice, maize, soybeans, sugar, palm oil, biofuel and feedstock. Africa’s food systems are currently valued at around $313-billion a year.

The continent’s key advantage lies in the fact that it holds almost 50% of the world’s uncultivated land that remains suited for growing food crops. That equates to some 450-million hectares of land that is not forested, protected, or densely populated. In addition, Africa uses less than 2% of its renewable water sources, compared with a world average of 5%.

The bank also expects food prices to remain on an upward trajectory for a sustained period, which will provide a solid tailwind for future investment.

However, key building blocks need to be put in place and obstacles removed for these developmental and growth objectives to be realised. These include expanded access to capital, electricity and technology, as well as the deployment of irrigation systems to grow high-value nutritious foods.

Other key constraints undermining the development of agribusiness also need to be dealt with, including erratic policies; limited access to land and respect for community land rights; poor infrastructure and high transportation costs; and difficulties for smallholders and small firms to access technologies, information, skills and finance.

The absence of supportive policies, business structures and infrastructure has resulted in a situation whereby, as of today, Brazil, Indonesia and Thailand each export more food products yearly than all of sub-Saharan Africa combined.

Farming productivity will also require attention as African harvests routinely yield far less than their potential. For mainstay food crops such as maize, the bank says the yield gap is as wide as 60% to 80%. Post-harvest losses, meanwhile, are as high as 20% for cereals and are higher for perishable products, owing to poor storage and other farm infrastructure.

Also needed is a closer collaboration between African governments and agribusinesses to feed the region’s fast- growing urban populations, as well as to facilitate exports.

But beyond these difficulties, the sector holds much promise, not least the fact that it is also relatively labour intensive. Therefore, it is important that both farming and associated agribusiness prospects begin receiving the attention they so richly deserve.