The hunger in Africa is increasing - despite the fact that the majority of the population is food producers, farmers, fisherfolks and pasturalists. At the same time dumping of products from rich countries destroys local production in many countries in Africa. Norwegian organizations, institutions and companies involved one way or the other in African agriculture decided in the beginning of 2007 to facilitate discussions, mainly among African partners and contacts, about how Africa can feed itself and at the same time preserve the environment. Our starting point was that Africa can feed itself, but when we organized the conference in June 2007 the title for the conference asked Can Africa feed itself? because we thought that would create more interest for the conference. Some of the speakers from Africa came because they were provoked of the title. The title of this book state clearly the common opinion of the conference: Africa can feed itself. This book is the result of the conference. All articles are by speakers at the conference in Norway in June 2007, some are written with colleagues. Some of the articles are speeches from the conference, others are  new articles. All are to the issues taken up by the conference. The articles are placed under the title of the seminars at the conference, but there are overlaps. You will find opinions about strategies in the section about the challenges Africa are facing and in other sections, not only in the section about strategies. Similar with other issues. The organizing committee of the conference (see list below) hope that this book can stimulate work and discussions about how Africa can feed itself and at the same time preserve the environment. I want to thank all the authors for their contributions, and all the institutions, organizations and companies in the organizing committee which made the conference and this book possible.  I also want to thank all the organizers and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for their economic support. Organizations, institutions and companies in the organizing committee: Care Norway, Development Fund, Drylands Coordination Group (DCG), Farmers and Smallholders’ Union, Farmers’ Union, Federation of Norwegian Agricultural Co-operatives, FIAN, Institute for Agricultural and Environmental Research, Ministry of Agriculture and Food, the More and Better campaign, Nature and Youth, Norad - Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation, Royal Norwegian Society for Development, Oikos, Spire - Development Fund’s youth group, The Norwegian Agricultural Purchasing and Marketing Co-operation (FK), University of Life Sciences, Yara International ASA
