The CEO of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) agency Dr. Ibrahim Assane Mayaki has challenged African leaders to evolve innovative and pragmatic strategy that will help deal with the emerging trends and challenges of the agriculture sector.

He said agriculture transformation can be achieved when leaders on the continent inject resources into the sector and allow for private sector participation, adding that “the remedies and solutions of the past may not work with the ever more complex issues of today.”

Dr. Mayaki was speaking at the start of the 12th Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) in Accra. The event which is themed: "Innovation Financing and Renewed Partnership to Accelerate CAADP Implementation" assembled experts in the agriculture sector, associations of small scale farmers, donor agencies, women groups among others.

Dr. Mayaki mentioned the continues over reliance on public investment by member states has not yielded the needed result, thereby creating financial dependency to which only donors could respond.

This phenomenon, the NEPAD boss observed, called for renewed partnership that should include other relevant stakeholders with the requisite investment strategies that will ensure the full implementation of the CAADP concept.

Meanwhile, the CAADP Coordinator, Africa Union Commission, Komla Bisi, during the opening ceremony said it is imperative on African Heads of State to create the enabling environment and policy instrument to attract the Private Sector to invest more in the Agriculture sector so as to meet the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Department Program by 2025.

He said CAADP continues to evolve strategies since the Maputo Declaration 2003 where African leaders committed 10% budgetary support towards agriculture development.

A former Nigerian president Olusegu Obasanjo used the occasion to launch the New Agriculture and Food Security Prize 2016. The “Africa Food Prize” is a permanent award for recognizing an extraordinary individual or institution whose contributions to African agriculture are forging a new era of sustainable food security and economic opportunity for all African.

The session will address topics such as funding the African Agricultural Investment, Agricultural Finance Landscape and Policy Environment, Inclusive Access to Finance to empower Women and Youth, Innovative Delivery of Financial Services, Value Chain Finance and Agriculture and Food Insecurity Risk Management.