There are pressing needs to pay more attention to African agriculture. A staggering 23% of Africans are undernourished – about 239 million people in total (FAO 2012). Much of this hunger is associated with poor agricultural output. Grain yields per hectare in Africa are only 37% of those achieved in Asia (USDA 2010). The population is increasing rapidly and while Africa’s food imports and exports were about balanced in 1980 the value of food imports to Africa in 2007 exceeded exports by $US 22 billion (FAO 2011). Africa has been able to a certain extent to overcome the effects of its poor food production through imports and food aid but the recently experienced volatility of world food prices and the expected increased global demand for food as the world population increases to 9 billion by 2050 demonstrate that Africa can no longer depend upon a global abundance of cheap food to supply its import market.
Publication year
2014
Authors
Keywords
Agriculture, Food security, Poverty, Drylands, Cheap food
