Abstract
Cereal serves as a very important and vital staple food for many smallholder farming communities in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). In this paper, we examined changes in land under cereal production; changes in cereal yield; and changes in cereal production between 1990 and 2015 in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). The paper looks at the threats and potential of cereal production with respects to how it helps to address issues of food security and improvements needed to enhance and promote production in the region. The study reveals that 33 (75%) of countries in SSA have experienced an expansion in land under cereal production while 11 (25%) of countries have reduced land under cereal production with an average increase of 679,664 hectares. Further, 32 (73%) of countries have experienced an increase in cereal yield, while 12 (27%) of countries have experienced a reduction in cereal yield, averaging to 311 kg per hectare in SSA. The study also shows that 35 (80%) of countries have experienced an increase in cereal production while 9 (20%) of countries have experienced a reduction in cereal production with a total of 1635201 kg per hectare in SSA. Overall, about 71% of the countries in SSA are experiencing a continuous increase in cereal production, yield levels and land area under cereal production, while about 29% are experiencing a reduction in cereal yield, production levels and land area under cereal production. However, SSA still has the lowest yield growth rate with the highest number of food-insecure persons (35.5% of its population), which is forecast to exacerbate further given the continuous population increase. Hence, it is essential to step up cereal production from the current attainable levels to an actual or reasonable and scalable level through innovative research, training, and technological advancement and production capabilities in the region.
Highlights
Agriculture is vital in supporting sustainable rural livelihoods and economic growth for most of Africa’s growing population
The paper advances a qualitative discourse and understanding of the dynamics in cereal production and yield gaps in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) which can serve as an essential guide and information for policymakers and researchers who want to formulate and implement measures aimed at improving cereal production levels in SSA to levels that can address some of the food security challenges for its growing population
The average land area devoted to cereal production in SSA increased from 1522946 hectares in the year 1990 to 2202610 hectares in the year 2015
Summary
Agriculture is vital in supporting sustainable rural livelihoods and economic growth for most of Africa’s growing population. Given the efforts put in place by agricultural researchers and development organizations in the past 40 years, this has paved the way for improving production and yield levels, decreasing poverty and improving food security in the SSA region. It is forecast that SSA is one of the regions in the world highly dependent on cereal imports and its cereal selfsufficiency will continue to fall further from 59% in 2006/08 to 54% by 2050 (FAO, 2010). With such a scenario, food security is threatened. SSA is still the most extensive food-insecure region in the world posing a threat to 35.5% of its population, and it is projected that, by 2028, 24% of its people will still be food insecure (Thome et al, 2018)
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