Description:
Mask-Africa is proud to announce the Food Security Summit 2013, the first in a series of events to discuss ways to accelerate sustainable investment and production in African agriculture to improve food security. Local Government officials, agencies, business associations and representatives from the farming community have come together to form new initiatives. International companies are committed to investing in African agriculture to strengthen food security on the continent. The two day summit will take place in Kampala, Uganda on the 16-17 April 2013. Ministers and officials, along with international agencies, farming associations and NGO’s, will use this summit as an occasion to discuss their aims, challenges and goals, to announce opportunities, time scales, to discuss inward investment, production and their agricultural needs. The growth in food demand is the result of the combined effects of world population growth to over 9 billion by 2050, rising incomes and dietary changes towards higher meat intake. Meat production is particularly demanding in terms of energy, cereal and water. Today, nearly half of the world’s cereals are being used for animal feed. Each day another 200,000 people are added to the world food demand. We must act together with scale and speed. Market-based approaches are essential to implementing viable solutions, as is collaboration among farmers, private industry, governments and civil society. The challenge is enormous but the opportunity is both substantial and achievable. Food security is the priority of many charitable foundations. Funding is being made available to foster scientific and technological innovation which could help to provide sustainable food in the developing world. Just one area of focus is on biotic stresses of crops with the aim of reducing both pre and post-harvest losses. The goal is to provide transformative, out-of-the-box thinking that could revolutionize crop protection, leading to new avenues of research or new practical applications in the field.
