Technological Innovation for African Productivity

Philip Aerni, currently project coordinator at the FAO, focused his intervention on the need for technology innovation for African agricultural productivity. He first underlined the fact there is a heteronomous development and an unrealised potential in the primary sector. Policy-makers should focus on finding solutions to motivate people to stay or to get involved in the agro-food business. Aerni also considers that welfare economics which are underlying the CAP reform adopt a wrong baseline assumption,i.e. the private sector and technology innovations are insufficiently taken into account in growth and development. On the contrary, links between universities and the private sector should be further encouraged, as they trigger market driven innovations. Furthermore, private standards are set by European retailers, adopting a one-size-fit-all attitude, which make them defacto law-makers. These private non-tariff trade barriers are very important impediments for the development of the African agricultural sector.