The food crisis threatening African continent is primarily as a result of lack of investment in the agricultural sector.

Agriculture Minister William Ruto has said  the lack of investment coupled with over-reliance on rainfed agriculture makes Africa singularly vulnerable to the vagaries of highly variable and changing climate.

"Africa is lowly irrigated with only 4 per cent of the arable land of sub Saharan Africa under irrigation compared to about 20 percent globally and 38 percent in Asia," the minister said.

He was speaking Tuesday during the opening of the 2009 Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) focusing on the agricultural development for the vulnerable in society.

The Minister said there is need for programmes and policies to increase the capacity of small farmers to boost there productivity and enter dynamic sectors for national, regional and international markets.

He said such programmes should include awareness and capacity building, reduction in transaction costs, and facilitating creation of farmer's organizations.

Ruto said that Kenya has decided to focus on programmes that respond to immediate needs of the poor and food insecure as well as long term measures to increase productivity, income generation and promotion of markets and trade.

The minister said that by putting the plight of the extremely vulnerable at the center of attention, the forum will contribute to a timely and a much needed response to counter poverty and food insecurity.

He said that in sub-Saharan Africa, 38 per cent of children under five are stunted due to the effect of chronic malnutrition and if measures are not taken the number of these extremely vulnerable people may triple in the next generation.

 He pointed out that chronic hunger and malnutrition is a challenge that if not dealt with has negative consequences such as low yields, low productivity and high cost of agri-business.