11:24 GMT 11th April 2011
It is a sad commentary on the state of affairs in Africa that we are still talking about food security five decades after most African countries became independent. According to researchers, Africa has performed poorly in achieving food security, defined as ‘a situation in which all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active life’. In African street jargon, it is the ability of people to afford ‘three square meals a day’. As much as 35 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is malnourished. The situation is worse in Central Africa, at 40 per cent. As in most socio-economic indices, North Africa has done very well, with only four per cent of the population suffering food insecurity. Ironically, most of those who go hungry live in the rural areas where there is land to grow food.
The paradox of the situation is that Africa is richly endowed with arable land. Many factors account for the hunger on the continent. First is poor government policies. At the onset of independence, most governments needed import earnings to jump-start the development of their young countries. They instituted policies to boost the production of cash crops. The production of cocoa, oil palm, groundnuts and other exports crops grew in leaps and bounds to the extent that Cote d’Ivoire became the world’s number one producer of cocoa and Nigeria took the spot in palm oil.
Although this policy boosted the economic capacity of the new nations, it was defective in two respects. One, it was sometimes done at the expense of food crops for domestic needs. Two, African governments were not far sighted enough to invest in the processing of the cash crops. The export of the raw products fetched little in the world markets. The beneficiaries of cash crops were those countries, that processed them. As a result, Africa’s predominantly rural population became poorer: they were not growing enough food for subsistence and not getting enough returns from growing cash crops. The net result was growing food insecurity.
Civil strife has also taken its toll. In Mozambique, years of civil war destroyed the agricultural capacity of rural communities. Agriculture, like any other economic activity, needs infrastructure and a stable environment to thrive on. If farmers cannot evacuate their produce, they lose the capacity to engage in further production. Meanwhile, the brutal nature of the conflicts left many farmlands mined. Until these mines can be cleared, the land is off limits. The death toll from HIV/Aids means there is often a shortage of hands to till the land. Although great strides have been achieved in rolling back the scourge, the absence of a cure means it will be years before the problems of labour shortage can be overcome.
A lot has been made of drought, floods and adverse weather conditions that afflict Africa. The truth is, these natural disasters occur in other parts of the world without sending the people to food lines. African governments have simply failed to prepare for these emergencies. Investment in irrigation would overcome the problems of drought, while strategic storage reserves would help deal with interruptions in food production and distribution.
There is an urgent need to invest in food production technologies, which will increase yield per capita. Attention must be paid to basic infrastructure like access roads to aid the evacuation of farming produce to consumption centres. This would boost prices and empower the rural farmer. To guarantee food security, African countries must boost domestic production and also lift the rural dweller out of poverty.
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