Agriculture is at a crossroads. For almost thirty years, since the early 1980s, neither the private sector nor governments were interested in investing in agriculture. This is now changing. Over the last few years, agri-food companies have seen an increase in direct investment as a means to lower costs and ensure the long-term viability of supplies:
Foreign direct investment in agriculture went from an average US$ 600 million annually in the 1990s to an average US$ 3 billion in 2005-2007.
The shock created by the 2007-2008 global food price crisis led to the establishment or strengthening of further initiatives, such as the Aquila Food Security Initiative, the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP) or NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) in Africa. Governments are paying greater attention to agriculture than in the past.