Africa: The growth of resilient food systems after Covid is the key to Africa

Accra – When it comes to food safety, the challenge is not always to produce more, but also to produce quality: to produce healthy and safely stored food.

About 690 million people go hungry every year. The COVID-19 pandemic is projected to add between 83-132 million people to this number based on socio-economic factors. Even before the pandemic, about half of African citizens suffered from food insecurity. And much of African food is of low quality or is lost before it reaches the consumer.

Africa has made great strides in food production over the past decade, although it continues to be a huge net food importer totaling $ 47 billion in 2018. But this pandemic has halted its successes in fighting poverty and disease and progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

COVID-19 isn’t the only challenge. Over the past year, Africa has been grappling with swarms of locusts, droughts, floods and conflicts that have reduced livelihoods and starved many in the region.

Resilient systems require efficient storage and production processes. Post-COVID-19 Africa must invest in adequate storage technology that is lacking in most developing countries and this causes unnecessary waste and significant losses to their economies

Movement restrictions during the blockade also impact commodities such as seeds, fertilizers and agricultural tools which, in turn, have led to a decrease in food production. Many crops were not easily accessible and farmers struggled to get their produce to markets. And then, adding to the crisis, the continent’s meager storage facilities were not up to par.

COVID-19 has shown fault lines in our food production systems and this has compromised the livelihoods of millions of farmers. Food systems on the continent – including production, storage and processing, distribution and transportation, retail and promotion – are dominated by traditional methods that are vulnerable to unexpected crises.

The Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP), one of the African Union continental frameworks under the 2063 Agenda, urges African governments to increase investment in agriculture by allocating at least 10% of national budgets to achieve agricultural growth of at least 6% per year.

Also in the declaration on food security and nutrition during the Covid-19 pandemic, African agriculture ministers pledged to put in place measures that will reduce post-harvest food losses and make food more available on the markets.

Now, as countries struggle to recover from the impact of the pandemic, an action plan is needed to consolidate efforts on these policies.

Past interventions in Africa have focused on food production through the improvement of varieties and crop yields. But we don’t live in normal times. We need to do more than just look at production.

Resilient systems require efficient storage and production processes. Post-COVID-19 Africa must invest in adequate storage technology that is lacking in most developing countries and this causes unnecessary waste and significant losses to their economies.

For example, it is estimated that 60-70% of cereals produced in developing countries are stored in traditional facilities, threshed or unthresed at home. However, most of the traditional methods of storing cereals are peculiar to certain cultures or societies.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 30% of food is lost in the supply chain each year and this figure can be as high as 50% for Africa. In Ghana, the government aims to build silos in various farming communities and provide technologies such as irradiation that will be used to manage, process and store food for future use.

We can increase food safety by making sure that most of what we produce is well preserved and reaches the consumer instead of being spoiled or thrown away.

The world population is estimated to grow to 9 billion by 2050, with Africa contributing more than half to that increase. The availability of food must increase by up to 70% if we are to feed that population. However, instead of producing more, we could strengthen our supply chain to make sure we preserve most of what we grow to meet the needs of our people.

The main problem in sub-Saharan Africa, for example, is not an insufficient level of production. A 2011 World Bank report estimated wheat losses in Africa at $ 4 billion, a loss that could feed 1.6 billion people each year.

These losses are the result of improper post-harvest handling, including drying where farmers rely on traditional sun drying. Using this method can facilitate the growth of fungi that produce aflatoxins that compromise the quality of our food. High aflatoxins are associated with cancer, particularly liver cancer which has been widely reported in some African countries and Southeast Asia. Complimenting agronomic practices, quick and correct drying, sorting and processing of grain reduces aflatoxin contamination to some extent.

This year’s World Food Day under the theme “Grow, Feed, Support Together” was a reminder that African governments should strive to build future food systems that provide affordable and healthy diets for all.

In order for Africa to position itself to face another epidemic, we need to start putting in place robust and modernized storage systems, promote food processing and the storage of food reserves to ensure stability of supply and demand.

As Africa is committed to food security, we should not allow food security to be contracted for food accessibility.

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