An additional area of strategic opportunity is to be found in the informal sector of Africa's economy. Food self-sufficiency is a very special category in the area of strengthening and diversifying Africa's production capacity. If it can feed its people, Africa will strengthen its human resources, reduce political instability and stem the loss of foreign exchange that has to be spent on imports of food. Government spending in agriculture should not only be on direct inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, or on extension services and technical assistance to farmers and farmers' cooperatives, but also on improvement of rural infrastructures like roads and storage facilities. Creating more jobs in the countryside and making the rural area attractive to live in will reduce the exodus of rural people to cities and provide a larger domestic market for national industries.
Special emphasis is placed on granting legal recognition to the rights of African women to land.
This is very basic because more than 85 percent of the African women of working age are estimated to be involved in agricultural production. AAF-SAP strongly advocates price support policies for food production. Trade and currency exchange rates are also very important in the process of strengthening and diversifying Africa's production base. Under this policy, the rate at which the currency of an African country is exchanged for foreign currency will vary in the cases of different imports and exports and other financial transactions. Conversely, vital imports can be encouraged.