allAfrica (January 29, 2015) | Guest column by Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, President of Mauritania and African Union Chair
On the 10th Anniversary of the adoption of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), African Union declared the year 2014 to be the Year of Agriculture and Food Security in Africa. There is much to celebrate; agricultural production in Africa has increased steadily over the last 30 years: its value has almost tripled showing an increase that clearly exceeds the growth rate for global agricultural production over the same period, almost identical to that of South America and below but comparable to growth in Asia based on NEPAD statistics.