Letters: Africa has potential to grow, it just needs committed leaders

THE Vendors Initiative for Social and Economic Transformation (Viset) on Wednesday joined the continent in celebrating Africa Day, which commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity, now African Union (AU), which was founded on May 25, 1963.

The theme for this year was Strengthening Resilience in Nutrition and Food Security on the African Continent, which sought to harness political support in the eradication of malnutrition amongst children on the African continent.

Whilst the African continent has a significant amount of arable land, at 874 million hectares, well north of 65% of this is of poor soil fertility and requires integrated land and water management practices in order to ensure that the over 70 million small holder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa do not face decline in productivity, leading to greater food insecurity.

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