Time Is Running Out To Help Africa Feed Itself

The Challenge of Feeding the World: Africa’s Role in Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

The challenge of feeding the world is immense, given the unrelenting effects of climate change, from droughts and floods, both of which have increased in frequency and intensity in Africa. To secure global food supplies by 2050 when the world’s population will reach 9.6 billion, Africa must become part of the solution.

The Global Food Security Summit

This month’s Global Food Security Summit in London represents an important step toward galvanizing action by leaders who understand the gravity of the problem. With 65 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa has the potential to achieve internal food security and play a greater role in feeding the world. More productive land could create a food and agribusiness economy worth $1 trillion by 2030 and turn Africa from a net importer of food into a net exporter.

Time for Change

Three key elements are needed to bring about transformational change. Greater investment in research and development to raise overall productivity is crucial. As is more funding to climate-proof agricultural systems, especially by providing millions of farmers with climate-smart agricultural technologies. More investments by the private sector to develop more efficient agricultural value chains that in turn reduce food losses is critical. These elements must come together with strong political will. The Dakar Feed Africa Summit in January, attended by 34 heads of state and government, mobilized $72 billion globally in support of food and agricultural delivery compacts across African countries.

Time to Scale Up Agricultural Technologies and Innovations

The Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), which brings together the global agricultural research centers of the CGIAR, national and regional research organizations, and private sector agribusinesses, is showing impressive results at a scale never before seen in Africa. It has delivered climate smart wheat, rice, and maize crop varieties to over 12 million farmers in the past four years. With the support of the African Development Bank Group’s TAAT initiative, heat-tolerant wheat varieties have been cultivated by millions of farmers in Ethiopia and helped the country achieve wheat self-sufficiency in four years. This is but one of several successful examples.

But overall, the ability to accelerate adoption and scale up promising projects remains limited. To do so, CGIAR must double its annual budget by 2030 to $2 billion annually. Research shows this would be money well spent as $1 of investment in its work provides $10 in benefits for local farming communities. CGIAR innovations need a transmission belt to accelerate their integration into the portfolio of large financiers, including international finance institutions such as the World Bank, the African Development Bank, and other key players.

Special Agro-industrial Processing Zones to Help Reduce Losses

It is estimated that food system transformation in Africa requires $614 billion through 2030. Of that, $15.4 billion a year is envisioned as coming from public funds and $68.1 billion from the private sector. That’s because when the two effectively invest together, public funding de-risks and opens private investment.

Africa Improved Foods, the continent’s first big public-private partnership with the specific aim of eliminating hunger and malnutrition, started with an investment of $65 million from a consortium including the government of Rwanda and global life-sciences group DSM in 2016. Today, it benefits 1.6 million people a day and works with 90,000 smallholder farmers to purchase products at set prices.

But to win the private sector’s trust and investment, governments must first keep their promises. What is needed is an ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders with business and investment-friendly policies.

The African Development Bank, International Fund for Agricultural Development, and the Islamic Development Bank are investing over $1.5 billion in 25 agro-industrial processing zones. Africa loses much of the food it produces due to inadequate storage and poor post-harvest handling and processing. Investing in the development of infrastructure that supports agriculture and agribusinesses such as special agro-industrial processing zones holds the keys for creating new wealth across Africa’s rural economies through processing and adding value to agricultural commodities.

Irrigate to Thrive

The final pieces of the jigsaw to make Africa food self-sufficient are reliable water supplies and good farmer management skills. Currently, less than 10 percent of African arable land is irrigated compared with 30 percent in Asia.

The key is to ensure that farmers decide which technologies to buy and use. In Tanzania, when this approach was followed, farmers saw a 55 percent improvement in water-supply reliability.

Just as improved irrigation will increase agricultural production, so will improved farmer knowledge. Efforts to educate farmers and access market and weather information can reap benefits. Digital Green, operating in partnership with the Ethiopian government since 2011, has reached more than 560,000 smallholder farmers via videos, radio, and mobile phones with advice on sustainable practices and nutrition. It has also allowed an additional 3.5 million farmers to access relevant local digital climate-advisory services.

Governments have long recognized the importance of ending Africa’s food insecurity, for all our sakes. Now it is time to move from words to actions. At COP28, developed countries must fulfill their pledge to double adaptation finance by 2025. Only then will Africa be able to take the necessary steps to feed itself and play a greater part in helping feed the world.

Authors:

• Macky Sall – President of Senegal
• Akinwumi Adesina – President of the African Development Bank
• Patrick Verkooijen – CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation

Uncommon Knowledge

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SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

1. SDG 2: Zero Hunger

   • Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round.
   • Indicator 2.1.2: Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).

2. SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

   • Target 8.2: Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation, including through a focus on high-value-added and labor-intensive sectors.
   • Indicator 8.2.1: Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person.

3. SDG 13: Climate Action

   • Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries.
   • Indicator 13.1.1: Number of deaths, missing persons, and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population.

4. SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

   • Target 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South, and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology, and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms.
   • Indicator 17.6.1: Number of science and/or technology cooperation agreements and joint initiatives between countries in developing regions.

Table: SDGs, Targets, and Indicators

Analysis

1. Which SDGs are addressed or connected to the issues highlighted in the article?

The issues highlighted in the article are connected to the following SDGs:

• SDG 2: Zero Hunger
• SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth
• SDG 13: Climate Action
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals

2. What specific targets under those SDGs can be identified based on the article’s content?

Based on the article’s content, the specific targets under the identified SDGs are:

• Target 2.1: By 2030, end hunger and ensure access by all people, in particular the poor and people in vulnerable situations, including infants, to safe, nutritious, and sufficient food all year round (SDG 2).
• Target 8.2: Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading, and innovation, including through a focus on high-value-added and labor-intensive sectors (SDG 8).
• Target 13.1: Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters in all countries (SDG 13).
• Target 17.6: Enhance North-South, South-South, and triangular regional and international cooperation on and access to science, technology, and innovation and enhance knowledge sharing on mutually agreed terms, including through improved coordination among existing mechanisms (SDG 17).

3. Are there any indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets?

Yes, there are indicators mentioned or implied in the article that can be used to measure progress towards the identified targets:

• Indicator 2.1.2: Prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) (SDG 2).
• Indicator 8.2.1: Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person (SDG 8).
• Indicator 13.1.1: Number of deaths, missing persons, and directly affected persons attributed to disasters per 100,000 population (SDG 13).
• Indicator 17.6.1: Number of science and/or technology cooperation agreements and joint initiatives between countries in developing regions

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  Source: newsweek.com

   

  

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