400 million hectares of Guinea Savannah land ripe for commercial farming

After yesterday's rather sober post - a much more upbeat post about the potential for Africa to produce food.

The article in FAO News states that: "A vast stretch of African savannah land that spreads across 25 countries has the potential to turn several African nations into global players in bulk commodity production." This is according to a  new study by FAO and the World Bank entitled Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant - Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond. It arrives at its conclusions by comparing the region with northeast Thailand and the Cerrado region of Brazil.

At the moment only ten percent of the Guinea Savannah zone, a vast area of around 600 million hectares of land from Senegal to South Africa, with 400 million hectares suitable for farming, is actually cropped. Follow this link to check out the article in full.