Africa is expected to play a very significant role in global food production in the coming decades as the world's demand for food skyrockets, an official said Wednesday.

The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) chief executive, Ibrahim Assane Mayaki, told a press conference that Africa has the potential to feed a large proportion of the world's population if it efficiently uses its abundant land and labor force.

It is estimated that Africa boasts 60 percent of the world's arable land.

"In the next 30 years the world will have to produce the amount of food that has been produced in the last 3,000 years.

"Africa has a high proportion of land and it has potential in terms of human capital. So Africa will play a significant role in tackling the challenge of feeding 9 billion inhabitants in the world," he said.

The continent needs to take a coordinated approach to transform its agriculture, so that it can adequately feed its people and others in the world, according to the official.

It is in that vein that Africa adopted CADDAP, a policy instrument that the continent is using to boost investment in the agriculture sector, he said.

Adopted in 2003, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CADDAP) mandates African countries to set aside 10 percent of their national budgets for agriculture development.

He said Africa needs to also carefully tackle land tenure issues for maximum agriculture productivity.

"Africa will not have significant progress if we don't intelligently tackle the land issue. Sound lend tenure policies are needed and it cannot be dictated from top to bottom. It should be a combination of both top and bottom and based on wide consultations," he said.

Mayaki advised Africa to make sure trade agreements that it negotiates with the international community do not hamper agriculture development. Endi

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