Facing up to food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa- the challenges, gaps, and role of agricultural…

21 May 2007

Introduction

There has been a long drawn awareness about the food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa. Over the past three decades, stories of food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa has dominated global news. Africa is the continent where millions of people are on the brink of starvation in a world of plenty. Food availability per capita has declined by 3% since 1990. This is in comparison to capita increases of more than 30% in Asia and 20% in Latin America.

Inspite some minor successes recorded in efforts to improve the food situation in the continent such as the development of NERICA rice and high yield cassava varieties, food security has remained generally elusive for several decades. Some of the challenges of food security in Africa include underdeveloped agricultural sector characterized by unproductive farming systems, low fertility soils, dearth of farm inputs, lack of microcredit to support small-scale farmers, environmental degradation, food crop loss (pre and postharvest), minimal value addition, poor storage facilities, poor food preservation techniques, poor pricing policies, high poverty level of farmers, and inconsistent agricultural policies.

The book, Facing up to food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa: The challenges, gaps and role of agricultural policies, is a collection of scientific and academic papers presented at the 2007 annual symposium of the International Association of Scholars and Fellows (IARSAF) of IITA. The publication lists the causes of food crisis in sub-Saharan Africa to include bad governance, uncontrolled population growth, soil fertility problems, inadequate application of research results, lack of investment in agriculture by the private sector, inconsistent agricultural policies, neglect of small-scale farmers, poor marketing, poor rural development strategies, and neglect of women in agriculture. Others are poor funding of agricultural research, paucity of extension services, and lack of effective communication among key players in the agricultural sector.

The 2007 IARSAF symposium focused on how to proffer solutions to major challenges facing food security in Africa. According to the book, the application of science and technology to enhance agricultural production is the answer in the immediate and long term to overcome the challenges. The book enumerates various crises points on the sub-Saharan food security chains and suggests, what the authors consider, sustainable solutions.

The authors believe that science can be applied in the development of improved crop varieties, underst anding crop growth and yield, control of pests, diseases and weeds, postharvest losses, and to influence and shape policies that will enhance food security. They see science as being capable of building a critical mass of technical knowledge which should be made available to farmers in place of obsolete technologies which are not improving the living st andards of the majority of tropical African farmers.

Various authors who spoke at the symposium made contributions in specific areas of their expertise. They recommended that to end food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa, a synergy of efforts must be made by all stakeholders: governments and nongovernmental organizations, the private sector, researchers, market information service providers, credit providers, food processors, regional and continental organizations, and donors to improve farmers’ productivity for food and for income earning. Among the solutions proffered in the last chapter of the book, the authors emphasize capacity building of African scientists and researchers, and also called for institutional capacity development for sustainable development.

Chapters
The book contains five chapters which deal with current challenges, gaps, and role of agricultural policies; Africa’s food status, implications and challenges in a changing world; balance between food, nutrition and health; sustainable food and wealth creation; policy impacts and challenges to science capacity for agricultural transformation in sub-Saharan Africa.

Conclusion
In the concluding chapter of the book, the authors called for a policy shift from colonial oriented research focus which laid emphasis on export commodities rather than crops that will enhance the living st andards of African farmers. They called for improved funding of research institutes and better African political commitment to agricultural development. In concrete terms, the book says by 2015, Africa should have attained an average annual growth of 6% in agriculture; become a net exporter of agricultural products by improving market-access and integrating farmers in the market economy. The authors called for a strengthened collaboration between international and national agricultural scientists, and creation of partnerships for science and technology capacity.

The book is a collection of well-researched papers with scientific data to support all the inferences drawn by the authors. It is a veritable scientific document for those interested in current trends by local and global actors in the fight against hunger in sub-Saharan Africa.