{"id":3874,"date":"2020-09-15T07:39:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-15T07:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gracamacheltrust.org\/?p=3874"},"modified":"2026-01-23T09:54:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T07:54:20","slug":"agrf-calls-for-an-urgent-need-to-transform-food-systems-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/featured\/agrf-calls-for-an-urgent-need-to-transform-food-systems-in-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"AGRF calls for an urgent need to transform food systems in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Eliminate the\u00a0hoe<\/b>\u00a0and replace with simple, accessible agricultural technologies. It has to be part of the \u201cindustrialisation\u201d of Africa!-\u00a0Gra\u00e7a Machel<\/span><\/h3>\n

“Women need to be at the forefront of agricultural industrialisation, at the decision-making table and throughout the value chain, including in the development of better farming technologies as African women are still using a farming hoe. In a world where there is new tech-savvy farming equipment easing the physical burden of farming and increasing productivity in other parts of the world\u201d-\u00a0<\/span><\/em>Gra\u00e7a Machel.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

These are the words, Mrs. Gra\u00e7a Machel echoed during this year\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>African Green Revolution Forum<\/a><\/span>\u00a0(AGRF) presidential summit that took place on the 11th September 2020. The summit was organised by the Government of Rwanda and the AGRF Partners Group. It aimed at addressing opportunities and challenges of food systems in reviving African economies during a time in which the continent is confronted with climate change, malnutrition, poverty, the emergence of pests and the COVID19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: AGRF Presidential Summit -Mrs Gra\u00e7a Machel says Women need to be at the forefront of agricultural industrialisation.<\/p><\/div>\n

As one of the worlds\u2019 leading advocates for women\u2019s rights, Mrs Gra\u00e7a Machel joined other leaders in emphasising the need to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable groups. Especially since COVID19 has already found Africa in a situation where millions of women and children are going to bed hungry. She said \u201cInstead of only building resilience, we need to transform the hungry in our societies into producers. The poorest of the poor are the hungry in our society, they are in our rural areas, townships and cities, and these are the people with active possibilities of transforming themselves to become highly productive individuals who would contribute to not only to feed themselves but to feed our nations.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mrs Machel pointed at the drastic increase in numbers of people leaving the rural areas into urban areas due to a lack of basic services and infrastructure. She suggested women in rural areas need to be equipped with more knowledge and access to technology as they are crucial in food production. \u201cWe need to give them the tools to make them highly productive. We need to be intentional and focused and give women the tools that will transform them into highly productive people and using the techniques that are available in the 21st century,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWomen need to be in the forefront of agricultural industrialization, at the decision-making table and throughout the value chain, including in the development of better farming technologies as African women are still using a farming hoe. In a world where there is new tech-savvy farming equipment easing the physical burden of farming and increasing productivity in other parts of the world. Eliminate the hoe<\/strong>!\u201d- Gra\u00e7a Machel.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

To address rising hunger and malnutrition levels amongst our own people, Mrs Machel has appealed for a balance between reviving the rural areas so that they are more productive and transforming the unemployed youth in urban areas by giving them support to be able to use the technologies available today. She cited that this will enable the two social groups to be food producers and be part of the food distribution chain.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Photo: AGRF Presidential Summit session on Defining Food Systems for the Africa we Want<\/p><\/div>\n

The Presidential meeting that sort to\u00a0Define Food Systems for the Africa we Want<\/strong>\u00a0was attended by H.E. Amb. Josefa Leonel Sacko, Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture, African Union Hon. Karina Gould, Minister of International Development, Canada Ms. Gerda Verburg, Assistant Secretary-General and Coordinator SUN Movement, United Nations H.E. Gra\u00e7a Machel, Chairperson, Gra\u00e7a Machel Trust Rt. Hon. Tony Blair, Executive Chairman, Tony Blair Institute for Global Change and Former Prime Minister, United Kingdom.\u00a0<\/span>Watch here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eliminate the\u00a0hoe\u00a0and replace with simple, accessible agricultural technologies. It has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3876,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_rtcl_gb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[742,119,4,81,113,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogs","category-childrens-ryt-highlight","category-featured","category-highlight","category-nutrition-highlight","category-womens-economic-and-social-advancement-highlight"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3874\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.gbstudio.co.za\/gmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}