Turbocharging Food Security

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) has been touted as a timely initiative for solving the continent’s hunger issues by boosting food security. The AfCFTA, one of the African Union’s most discussed development strategies under agenda 2063, has been associated with boosting value-added production across all African economic sectors where policymakers anticipate a change in the agricultural industry. Bring together 55 countries; proponents of the agreement expect that it will revitalize the continent’s efforts to deal with food and nutrition insecurity, Africa’s long-standing challenge in achieving sustainable development. Food and nutrition remain critical components undermining the survival of Africans. While it is not lost on the continent that hunger is a multidimensional issue, the 1.3 billion Africans can only hope that the AfCFTA will boost productivity and end perennial food scarcity issues across the country. The question, therefore, is how individual countries can capitalize on the AfCFTA framework to increase food production.

Hunger Issues in Africa

According to the 2021 State of Food Insecurity (SOFI) report, over 282 million people in the continent were malnutrition. Of these, 24.1% were from sub-Saharan Africa, with growing exposure to food and nutrition challenges impacting socio-economic and human capital development genitively. This has seen individual countries like Kenya increasingly depend on international aid, where 3.5 million of its population faced severe hunger between 2022 and 2023 following four failed rain seasons. Associated with an increase in rainfall failure, the food and nutrition situation in Africa is also associated with the shocks of below-average crop and livestock production, increased conflicts, and the recent Covid-19 downturns.

While most of Africa’s hunger issues are related to agricultural failures, the sector makes up 35% of the continent’s GDP and employs half of its population, highlighting the productivity challenges that the continent face. One would therefore wonder why the continent is highly dependent on billions of dollars of agriculture imports every year despite committing half of its human resources to the sector. Food productivity is thus characterized by the absence of smallholder farmers, who make up 80% of Africa’s food production, from the global supply chains.

With the AfCFTA promising to increase value addition into the sector, individual nation investment in agro-processing remains significantly low in contrast to the current and recurrent food insecurity, price spikes, and disruptions from global shocks. If anything, the fallout from the Russian-Ukrainian war should be a wake-up call for nations to invest in transitioning economies from the current model of exportation of raw materials. So dire is the food situation that several countries, including Tanzania (64%), Sudan (75%), Somalia (100%), Egypt (82%), and Benin (66%), are highly dependent on Russia and Ukraine for wheat needs. While 70% of employment in the sector in the overall agricultural industry consists of women, the sector’s subsistence nature raises questions about African nations’ commitment to solving food crisis issues. Continental activity on food productivity remains inhibited by policy challenges such as the elimination of import tariffs under the AfCFTA promises to increase intra-African agricultural trade by 574%.

Spicing up the food basket

The World Economic Forum notes that agriculture has the potential to increase the continent’s intra-trade, meet local food and nutrition demands, accelerate trade growth, and create employment while enhancing inclusivity. The AfCFTA is tipped to strengthen upward and downstream linkages toward spurring sustainable development across the continent. By building policies for increased intra-African trade on agricultural produce, the agreement is poised to remove trade barriers and reduce tariffs that otherwise limit food movement across borders. The current confusion on maize importation between Zambia and Kenya signifies the need for policy and open-border interventions to end food challenges for the continent. Notably, open borders are bound to increase prices and income for formers sprung investment into the sector. With increased trade and productivity, a surplus to feed Africa and reduce hunger and malnutrition with affordable products is a dream on the horizon.

“One would therefore wonder why the continent is highly dependent on billions of dollars of agricultural imports yearly despite committing half of its human resources to the sector.”

Reducing regulatory barriers under the AfCFTA agreement invites private sector investors, both local and international, to consider Africa an investment destination. Increased market access lowers the costs of agricultural investments while spurring investments into support sectors for inputs and services such as food processing and fertilizers. Africa can benefit from increased productivity and improved infrastructure, ending the suboptimal systems of exporting unfinished agricultural products and importing finished goods at a higher cost. Moreover, underlined under the AfCFTA is the promise of integrating Africa’s knowledge sharing and exchange by facilitating increased labor mobility. Moreover, African nations can expect to benefit from technology transfer, which will improve agricultural productivity. Regionally, the AfCFTA can help strengthen regional value chains by encouraging the development of regional processing and manufacturing industries. In addition to creating employment for women and youth who dominate the sector, this will likely enhance value addition in the agricultural industry.

The roadblocks ahead

As exciting as the promise of AfCFTA is in spurring agricultural activity, value addition, and investment, the implementation process is bound to experience handles that nations must be ready to deal with. Africa has a $170 billion annual expenditure deficit for boosting agricultural productivity to solve hunger and nutrition challenges in addition to border procedures and trade facilitation challenges. However, the AfCFTA focuses on reshaping trade-related policy, finance, facilitation, and infrastructure challenges to increase productivity and market integration to stabilize the agricultural sector. Individual member states face a challenge in policy negotiations and formulation to enhance regional and continental value chain integration. This includes the need for initiatives to have smallholders, commercial farmers, and various input and service providers in the food supply chain. With protectionism policies likely to populate negotiation, consultations to coordinate efforts and avoid potential blockages must focus on creating win-win situations. The realization that a well-fed Africa translates to better socio-economic and human capital development outcomes is needed to enhance collaboration in implementing the AfCFTA and capitalizing on its promise for the industry. Therefore, trade-offs are needed in building productive capacities in various agricultural sector contexts to get a head start on food security.

These are the writer’s own opinions and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoints of Liberty Sparks. Do you want to publish in this space? Contact our editors at [email protected] for further clarification.