On April 6, 2023 t e AU Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment (ARBE), Her Excellency Josefa Sacko, and the President of the Africa Food Basket Federation (AFBF), Dr. El-Madani El-Jaily El-Mahdi, signed on behalf the Chairperson of the AU Commission, H.E. Moussa Faki Mahamat, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) reached between their respective organizations. AFBF is a continental non-governmental organization, founded on September 1, 2018 with its current headquarters based in N’Djamena, Chad.
The MoU seeks to bind the two parties to deliver on AU’s set targets in the triple areas of agriculture-led economic growth, food security, and rural development. This overall goal is intended to be achieved through research-established agricultural technologies and innovations, such as the digitalization of farming, fisheries, and animal production, processing, and distribution value chains, among others.
In her remarks, Commissioner Sacko expressed an expectation that AFBF would work closely with her department to harness and galvanize technical capacities in areas where the continent has struggled in to deliver, such as the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) agenda and recently adapted frameworks and strategies. She underlined that “Digitalization of agriculture and food value chains is at the heart of the drive to transform Africa’s food systems”.
On his part, Dr. El-Madani concluded that in order to ensure the operationalization and implementation of this MoU, the respective organizations will agree on the details of a Joint Action Plan.