President William Ruto has urged African heads of state to rethink their discussion about food security.
Ruto lamented that it's not right to continue talking about cultivating food just for subsistence in Africa, 60 years after independence.
"The fact that we are discussing food as heads of state is not an interesting thing to do," he said.
Speaking during the Dakar 2 Summit in Senegal, Ruto said leaders should instead be discussing how to make farming more lucrative.
"60 years after independence we should be discussing how agriculture is not just going to feed but create jobs, add value and create exports," he said.
The President also said the country is expanding its fertiliser input and is set to increase farming under irrigation.
"This year we have 60,000 metric tonnes made available to farmers, we are increasing our farming under irrigation from 650,000 to 3 million acres in the next 5 years and we have roped in the private sector to provide construction of dams," he said.
More than 20 heads of state and government officials from Africa converged in Dakar, Senegal for the food summit.
Ruto was the keynote speaker at the Summit on ‘Feed Africa: Food, Sovereignty and Resilience' hosted in partnership with the African Development Bank.
The event aims at mapping plans to unlock Africa’s food-producing potential and make it the world's breadbasket.
