" [1]As policy leaders gather at various platforms to assess the state of the world economy, the issue of food security in Africa and reducing risks associated with the lack of it, has been foremost on many agendas.
In the last few decades, a number of African countries have experienced severe food shortages. Factors include growing populations, poor weather conditions resulting in low yields and unhealthy livestock, civil strife and poor management.
At a recent food security meeting convened by NEPAD’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) held in Johannesburg, experts in risk management from the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Agence Française de Développement (AFD), and officials from African governments, civil society and the private sector agreed on a roadmap how to reduce and manage the impact of risks related to agriculture and food security.
‘Growth in Africa depends on food security and managing risks related to agriculture’, said Mr. Martin Bwalya, Head of CAADP. ‘Besides Africa’s agricultural wealth, food insecurity in Africa remains at unacceptably high levels. Food security should no longer be an emergency matter’.
‘Risks related to farming and to agricultural trade have caused instability in food supply, reduced food access and utilisation, and badly affected the most vulnerable’, explained Mr. David Phiri, Chief of FAO’s Policy Assistance Support Service. It is therefore crucial to ’reduce vulnerability and strengthen resilience of countries before, during and after food crises and agricultural disasters’, he continued.
The key outcomes of the meeting included an agreement on the need to strengthen information and early warning systems so as to respond promptly to emergencies; support local, national and regional safety nets such as emergency food buffers and strengthen logistics capacities to transport and warehouse these; and to invest in appropriate risk management and insurance systems in countries vulnerable to food insecurity.
The guidelines prepared at the meeting will feed into CAADP and its national agriculture investment plan that aims to increase food supply and reduce hunger across the continent by raising agricultural productivity and improving responses to food emergencies, especially to those most vulnerable to food insecurity.
Through CAADP, 30 African countries have signed the CAADP Compact which brings out national consensus and commitment to give agriculture top priority in terms of budgetary allocation. CAADP has boosted agricultural growth across the continent; accelerated cassava commercialisation in Southern Africa; enhanced livelihoods in rural Africa and improved regional trade in food staples through natural disaster risk management tools and platforms for skills transfers.
