September 18, 2023

Africa's youth can fix its broken food systems

topic:	Food Security
located:	Kenya
editor:	Bob Koigi

The African food system has suffered many challenges, including prolonged dry spells and floods, supply chain disruptions, pests, diseases, and conflict, all exacerbated by climate change.

These challenges emerge against the backdrop of a population explosion poised to reach at least 2.4 billion by 2050, which translates to more mouths to feed. 

Farmers who have small holdings and make up the majority of food producers face numerous challenges. These include pests and diseases, both old and new, which can destroy entire harvests in a matter of days. Additionally, a weak harvesting, storage, and transportation system is responsible for up to 40 per cent of all food lost before it reaches the market.

Yet the continent continues to beam with innovative young people, its greatest resource, contributing trailblazing technologies that address the challenges across the value chain. 

These include mobile applications that detect pests and diseases, platforms that inform farmers of the market prices of produce in various selling points in real-time, allowing them to capitalise on the high market seasons, and intelligent greenhouses that monitor crop growth and enhance prudent use of vital resources like water at a time when most regions in the continent are experiencing dwindling water supplies as a result of failed rains. 

The continent has also produced some of the most transformative policies and research and has even been hailed by leading global institutions like the World Bank for its potential to feed itself and the rest of the world. 

What is causing the gap between these advancements in research and their implementation in practice?

The recently concluded Africa Food Systems Forum set to take stock of the continent's agriculture and food systems by congregating industry players from the public sector, private entities, small businesses, farmers and farmer organisations and development partners. 

But while there have been deliberate and proactive engagements on how best to rejuvenate the continent's food system over the years, with this particular forum in its 13th year, Africa continues to face the same problems. 

To realise an African food system renaissance, players must recognise that the turnaround will not just happen; it requires a change of tact. 

We must hold each country and each government accountable for contributing to growing the agriculture sector and promoting the welfare of food producers. 

For example, years after African countries put pen to paper and coined the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, which sought to commit at least 10 per cent of national budgetary resources to agriculture allocation, progress has yet to come to fruition. The continent must come up with metrics to measure such commitments.

Technology has proven itself a panacea to sustainable farming and a source of employment for especially young people. Governments and other industry players must develop robust, actionable policies and legislations encouraging agritech to thrive while streamlining the broken value chain.

To tackle the broken food systems, industry players must also mobilise financial instruments and unlock resources in the public-private partnerships geared towards promoting women and youth-led agribusinesses. Such interventions will go a long way in harnessing food systems that shape Africa's progress while leaving no one behind.

 Image by Annie Spratt.

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