Abstract
National food security in countries of sub-Saharan Africa requires an abundant supply of cheap and nutritious food for the burgeoning population. At the same time agriculture is a major contributor to the balance of payments for African economies. So agricultural production in Africa needs to increase strongly to meet the demands of both national and international markets. Yet fragmentation of land due to population pressure in rural areas, and the low prices farmers are paid for their produce, mean that in many rural areas in sub-Saharan Africa the farms are already too small to provide food security or a living income for the household. There is a high dependency on off-farm income and little incentive to intensify production. Thus rural households are often ‘reluctant’ farmers, lacking resources or the economic incentives to invest in agriculture. The conundrum that must be addressed is how to provide cheap, nutritious food to feed the growing urban and rural populations while creating incentives to stimulate increased agricultural production. This will require major transformations of the smallholder farming systems alongside creation of alternative employment.
Highlights
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 – Zero Hunger – is arguably one of the most important and difficult challenges faced by mankind
It is recognised that management of soils solely using mineral fertilizers without attention to maintenance of soil organic matter cannot sustain crop production. This has led to the paradigm of integrated soil fertility management (ISFM) (Vanlauwe et al, 2010) that recognises the need for efficient nutrient recycling and use of crop residues and organic manures together with judicious use of mineral fertilisers
Using data from 13,000 rural households across 93 locations in 17 countries of sub-Saharan Africa we found that a staggering 37% of the households were food insecure – unable to achieve household food security even if all forms of income were converted into calories (Frelat et al, 2016)
Summary
Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 – Zero Hunger – is arguably one of the most important and difficult challenges faced by mankind. Africa has a very young population, with 41% under 15 years and a further 19% in the 15–24 years range This means that even if growth rates are curbed immediately more than half of this projected increase will still occur (United Nations, 2017). Sub-Saharan Africa is the region of the world most at risk of food inse curity given current dependence on cereal imports, the rapid rate of population growth and stagnant agricultural productivity (van Ittersum et al, 2016). The triple burden of malnutrition – undernutrition, obesity and micronutrient deficiency – occur side-by-side Addressing these requires an increase in food production and major advances in access to affordable and nutritious food, and education and behavioural change regarding diets. What are the prospects of achieving SDG 2 in Africa? In the remainder of this article I sketch the opportunities and constraints – and the conun drum faced in addressing these two interacting goals simultaneously
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