WorldStage– The Director General, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Dr Simeon Ehui, has said that development of rural communities was the panacea to poverty in Africa.
Ehui stated this during the 2025 General Assembly and Annual Conference-Panel Discussion of the International Association of Ivorian Civil Servants (AF2I), which ended at the IITA in Ibadan.
The conference had as its theme: ” Inclusive and Innovative Agro-Industrial Transformation: Youth Empowerment, Jobs Creation and Strengthening Food Security.’
The director general said that there was the need for Africa countries including Nigeria to focus on the growth and development of rural communities in order to really reduce poverty.
Ehui said that the agriculture sector accounted for about 20 per cent to 25 per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of African countries and therefore development must be balanced in both urban and rural areas
“If there is growth taking place and that growth does not take place in the rural sector, we will not be able to reduce poverty.
“Therefore, we must focus on the rural sector to be able to reduce poverty,” the D-G said.
Ehui said that the growth rate in Cote d’Ivoire had been in the order of six per cent to seven per cent annually and poverty reduced significantly, but poverty still remained the high in the rural communities.
This, he said, was the same for many African countries including Nigeria.
According to him, there was the need to focus on youth empowerment in agriculture and make the sector more attractive for them to see agriculture as business and not subsistence.
Ehui said that IITA had in the past 10 years engaged youth in agribusiness programmes, which had been successful with funding from donors.
He said IITA and the association could work together to give great incentives basically to youths for them to be able to use agriculture as source of income, growth, development and ensure food security.
Also speaking,the AF2I President, Mrs Ursule Keita-Tape, said the conference was important because it would address youth unemployment and how to use agricultural research to impart lives of youths.
