English Report | Opening Statement

Economic Commission for Africa Commission économique pour l'Afrique

Opening Statement

Josué Dioné, Director
Food Security and Sustainable Development Division, Economic Commission for Africa

Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Food Technology for Food Security in Africa. Opening Statement Addis Ababa, 22 to 23 November 2001

22 November 2001

Distinguished experts,
Dear Colleagues,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome all of you to this Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Food Technology for Food Security in Africa. As you know, food insecurity affects one out of every three Africans. The problem is expected to get even worse in the years ahead in certain parts of the Region, due to rapid population growth, limited additional land that can be brought under cultivation, and the degradation of the natural-resource base, including loss of soil fertility. In this context, increasing the productivity of the food and agriculture systems is not a mere matter of choice; it is an essential condition for long-term food security and sustainable development. And, raising the level of development and application of appropriate technologies constitutes undoubtedly one of the fundamental elements of any strategy aiming at boosting and sustaining productivity in the food and agriculture sector.

Yet, improving and intensifying the application of food production technologies so as to increase the level of food production alone will solve only part of the problems related of food insecurity. Post-harvest technologies in critical areas such as food storage, processing, preparation, preservation and packaging must also play a significant role. There is no doubt that selective and intelligent borrowing of modern foreign technologies can help. Yet, a viable and efficient strategy calls for careful consideration of traditional technologies that have been or can be upgraded for wide application and broad-based benefit to the African population. Indeed, many modern technologies are either hard to acquire for economic or financial reasons or unsuitable to the socio-cultural African context. Moreover, foreign technologies simply do not exist for solving some of the specific problems and thus meeting the whole spectrum of technological needs of African countries. Technological development and application, relying in many instances on indigenous knowledge and technologies, is therefore an important part of any real solution to the problem of food insecurity in Africa.

During the last two decades, science and technology policy experts have come to recognize increasingly that, in some areas of development, indigenous technologies provide the foundation for socio-economic progress. Food storage, processing, preservation and packaging are good examples of such areas, where technological development has generally been overlooked by policy-makers. Owing to the influence of training often acquired in industrialized countries, policies in most African countries have tended to systematically attach greater importance to new, attractive and imported technologies and less attention to indigenous technologies in general and to those used almost exclusively by women in particular.

Let me give you a concrete example to illustrate the relevance and importance of placing a greater emphasis on indigenous food technology. It is widely known that Ethiopians depend on Ingera – a pancake-like bread made from a cereal called Tef – which is used as a staple to accompanies many other dishes in the diet. Tef is reportedly a nutritional-miracle food, because it contains two to three times the amount of iron in wheat or barley, and many times the calcium, potassium and other essential minerals that would be found in an equal amount of other grains. Tef is milled into flour and turned into batter, which is poured on a large flat oven and allowed to cook. This process proceeds from knowledge and technology that are indigenous to Ethiopia. During the last decade, the properties of Ingera have been thoroughly studied scientifically and the technology for its preparation has been upgraded. For instance, specially designed electric ovens have been developed and manufactured and are marketed in towns and cities throughout the country. Obviously, this technology could hardly have been developed elsewhere than in Ethiopia where its primary beneficiaries/clients – the Ethiopian population at large -- live. This indigenous technology improves the quality control and reduces the preparation time of the product. It is more productive and environmentally friendly for it reduces the consumption of fuel wood. It generates employment for those who fabricate and distribute the ovens. It is particularly beneficial in alleviating the burden on women. Finally the gamut of technologies related to Ingera can be upgraded further to eventually give birth to a whole new industry, much like the bread industry in technologically-advanced countries where hundreds of varieties of breads are produced and distributed.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

This example highlights the potential of indigenous food technologies for food security and sustainable development in Africa. It also sheds light on some of the factors constraining the wide diffusion of indigenous technologies, since their application is often limited to cultural or geographic areas, and the related technological upgrading and manufacturing require an enabling economic and industrial environment. Fortunately, most of these constraints can be overcome to allow indigenous food technologies to play a significant role in African development. This is our belief and this is where this Expert Group Meeting can help a lot. Indeed, we count on your expertise in this field to assist African countries in designing strategies and policies to increase and enhance the contribution of carefully selected and promising indigenous food technologies to food security.

Distinguished experts,

In line with what I just mentioned, the objectives of this meeting are: (1) to get a better understanding of the role and importance of indigenous food technology for sustainable food security in Africa; (2) to share views on issues and best practices in this area; (3) to formulate recommendations for increasing the contribution of indigenous food technology to food security; and (4) to provide guidance to ECA in this area. We are confident that, given your expertise and knowledge, these objectives will be fully met.

We would particularly like to share your views on the best practices regarding critical actions that need to be taken with a view to promote potentially beneficial indigenous food technologies. More explicitly, your views are sought on five distinct but interrelated groups of issues:

(1) How to identify, describe and record information on the best technologies that can be shared and exploited more broadly and provide greater benefits to Africa? How to encourage policy-makers to pay greater attention to these technologies? Which organization should be encouraged to take the lead in developing a comprehensive database and website on indigenous food technology?

(2) How to validate, test or assess selected technologies in ‘laboratories’ and in different agro-climatic, socio-economic and cultural environments? How to make sure that these technologies really do what they are supposed to do and that there are no better alternative technologies?

(3) How to protect and remunerate the owners or the innovators of the technologies? Alternatively, what mechanisms can be used to ensure that the technologies and innovations bring benefits to those (individuals or local communities) who have developed them?

(4) How to exploit, transfer, commercialize or ‘industrialize’ the technologies? Alternatively, how to move the technologies from the ‘familial’, ‘artisanal’ or ‘anthropological’ domain into the realm of business and micro or small business enterprises?

(5) And finally, how to raise the challenge of developing indigenous technologies on the political agendas of governments? What institutions, if any, need to be setup, and what kind of support needs to be put in place for the promotion of these technologies? How to strengthen public-private partnerships within and among the countries of the region in order to achieve potential economies of scale? In other words, what can or should governments do to promote promising indigenous food technologies? What should be the appropriate roles for NGOs, for UN institutions?

Distinguished experts,

Promoting indigenous food technologies can only be a scientific, social, economic, legal, cultural and political process; hence the complexity of the challenges before us, and the very reason why ECA has taken the initiative of convening this meeting of experts. Collectively, we will not fail to find adequate answers to the numerous questions and issues that we need to address.

I am confident that at the end of this meeting, we, at the ECA, will be better informed of the concerns and better knowledgeable and conversant about the issues before us. We will be better equipped to pave the way forward so as to enable the Commission to serve Africa better in this vital area.

On this note of reasonable optimism, I wish you a fruitful discussion and, for those who come from outside Ethiopia, a pleasant stay in Addis Ababa.

Thank you.