Can Africa Feed Itself?

Does Africa have the potential to feed itself? Yes, and in the near future, says Bingu wa Mutharika, president of Malawi and current interim chair of the African Union.

"Africa is not poor," says Mutharika, who has been Malawi's president since 2004 and has a degree in economics. The continent, he says, "has decided to shift from Afro-pessimism to Afro-optimism."

The president of the southeastern African nation outlines a strategy incorporating subsidies to small—especially women—farmers, improvements in irrigation, distribution of sturdy hybrid seeds, building and upgrading of roads, a push toward alternative clean energy sources such as wind and solar, an increased continent-wide investment in communications technology, and the establishment of a strategic partnership comprising nations such as Uganda, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zimbabwe, countries that Mutharika cites as having "track records of achievement in promoting agriculture and food security."

Hosted by the African Presidential Archives & Research Center (APARC) on October 1, 2010.