As we look to 2012, there are many reasons you might feel gloomy about food security in Africa.
In 2010 there were an estimated 239 million hungry people or 26 percent of the world’s undernourished population living in Africa. Average African cereal yields remained at little over one tonne per hectare. And 67.6% of pre-school age children and 57.1% of pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa were anaemic. In some countries up to 50% of children were stunted.
The famine in the Horn of Africa in 2011 made global headlines, and the looming crisis in the Sahel in 2012 has compounded pessimism about the continent’s access to food.
So is there any seasonal good cheer to be found?
Here are some of the many promising signs for the New Year:
- African governments have been investing in agriculture: eight African countries have exceeded a target to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of 10% of national budgets, and most have made significant progress towards it. Ten countries have met the target to raise agricultural productivity by 6% and another 19 have achieved productivity growth of between 3% and 6%.
- There is an Africa-owned and Africa-led political process for change: through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) African countries and regional economic communities are have been drawing up their own government blueprints for agricultural success.
- Growth is looking more robust in Africa then other parts of the world in the coming year: according to The Economist GDP per capita in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to grow by 5.8% in 2012, with some low income countries such as Rwanda and Uganda experiencing faster growth. The World Bank attributes this in part to improving economic policies.
- African implementers are (in addition to national and regional government commitments) working to ambitious agricultural development objectives: for example the three main goals of the Alliance for a Green Revolution for Africa are by 2020 to reduce food insecurity by 50 percent in at least 20 countries; double the incomes of 20 million smallholder families; and to put at least 15 countries on track for attaining and sustaining a uniquely African Green Revolution – one which supports smallholder farmers, protects the environment, and helps farmers adapt to climate change.
- African researchers are innovating: for example the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement (WACCI) has been established at the University of Ghana to train plant breeders with expertise to improve the indigenous crops that feed the people of the West African sub-region. African farmers are accessing and development conventional, traditional, intermediate and new platform technologies as appropriate across the continent to improve agricultural systems.
- African governments are thinking about the quality as well as the quantity of food we eat: 17 countries have signed up to the Scaling Up Nutrition movement to reduce hunger and undernutrition, focusing in particular on the critical window of opportunity for children between pregnancy and age two.
African agriculture cannot be ignored. According to Roepstorff and Wiggins, most Africans live in rural areas and agriculture remains the single largest source of employment and income. Agriculture contributes 15% of GDP, almost two thirds of total employment (64.7 %), and accounts for more than 75 per cent of domestic trade by value providing a livelihood for the majority of the economically active population. In addition, the potential poverty-reducing impact of agriculture-related growth is three times larger than growth originating from other sectors of the economy
As Mo Ibrahim and Gordon Conway have stated, with strong and dynamic leadership, there is much that African countries and regions can – and must – achieve to attain African food security and move beyond it to wealth creation.
While there is no doubt that significant agricultural development challenges remain for many countries in the African continent, I think there are many reasons to be optimistic about African agriculture in 2012.
I am in agreement with this optimism.There is a lot of potential in the sub Saharan Africa.I am speaking from South African perspective. My only concern is the world should turn their hand up programs to South Africa without expecting the prospective grant receivers to have Phd level of knowledge in requesting grants.A lot of people who deserve grants do not get them because they do not have skills to write grant proposals.Those who can write get the best share of the world’s available grants even if their case is not that compelling or that potential.Look at http://www.phethahatso.org.za for more info. Moeketsi
I think we should be optimisting because there’s a lot of room for improvement with ag yields averaging 1 tonne per hectare in sub-Saharan Africa
I think we should be optimistic because there’s a lot of room for improvement with agricultural yields averaging 1 tonne per hectare in sub-Saharan Africa
The information contained is a positive signal that political will is emerging and significant advancements are taking place to solve the hunger problem in Africa. However, just targeting half way by the end of the present decade somehow indicate that urgency is not of the level it should be. It has been repeatedly expressed in many forums that Africa has a potential to feed the world due to immense land resources, favorable climatic conditions, enough water and above all low populations. It shows that the final goal is a distant reality and the vision to achieve that needs substantial up-gradation. It has to be remembered that first green revolution in countries like India,China and some south American countries like Brazil which saved large populations from hunger in the last century happened at a much faster pace and that too when the present day innovative agriculture was not aided by technological advancements, organised input supply sector and marketing infrastructure. Above all financial constraints of higher magnitude were operative in all the developing countries. In India for example, concerted efforts on few aspects like big irrigation projects( covering only 40 % cultivated area till now ), varietal improvement technologies in cereals like wheat ( introduction of Mexican varieties being more responsive to fertilizers and having more productivity potential ), rice and maize coupled with aggressive supply chains of all inputs turned the country from huge food deficit to surplus in less than three decades. It is all the more significant when the population was much larger than even the present populations of many countries in Africa.
All such experiences and many more farm technology advances which have emerged during the period from the first green revolution story till now, will surely help Africa to mitigate hunger from Africa at a much faster pace and further play a key role in ensuring food security at world level.
The above thoughts are in no way undermining the useful attempts being made to increase food production in Africa but just wishful feelings that opportunities exist which can help in accelerating the pace of progress so that food production increases at a much faster rate than population increase.
These are great comments – please keep them coming.
Innovative and hardworking African agribusiness entrepreneurs such as Josephone Okot of Victoria Seeds (www.victoriaseeds.com) in Uganda are another reason to be optimistic.
As we get closer to the dawn of the New Year, can anyone add even more reasons?
I am involved in Agriculture at the highest level in Africa and yes we are optimistic but the road ahead is still difficult. We need concerted effort among all stakeholders for us to achieve the objectives set out by AUC in the famous Maputo 2003 declaration.