Sierra Leone: Food insecurity and poverty, a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa — -FAO

By Stephen V. Lansana

Food insecurity and poverty remains a major challenge to meeting sustainable Development Goals in sub- Sahara Africa with millions suffering from food insecurity in the region, according to to a new report by Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO)

The FAO Assistant Director General and Regional Representative for Africa, Bukar Tijani said that the 2016 Report indicated that food insecurity and poverty remains a major challenge to meeting SDGs target which is, end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa with millions suffering from severe food insecurity in the region.

He made this comment during the launching of the Regional Overview of Food Insecurity and Nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa Report 2016 on Thursday February 23rd, 2017, at the Radisson Blu Hotel in Freetown, with the theme: The challenges of building resilience to shocks and stresses.

He revealed that some 153 million people, representing about 26 percent of the population above 15 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa, suffered from severe food insecurity in 2014/15.

“around one out of four individuals above 15 years of age in sub-Saharan Africa was hungry but did not eat or went without eating for a whole day for lack of money or other resources for food,” Tijani said.

He added that this assessment underlined the significance of the challenge faced by the region in meeting SDGs’ target and the relevance of sustainable and substantial support to food security and nutrition policies and programmes in the region.

He said that several countries in the region remain highly dependent on food imports to ensure adequate food supplies, with some sub-regions depending on imports for up to a third of their cereal needs.

This indicates that substantial demand for food exists for these countries, and there is a need to increase agricultural productivity, food production and value addition, among other things.

The Sierra Leone’s Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS), Patrick Monty Jones, noted that the agricultural sector in sub-Saharan Africa is strongly based on household, small-scale farming, and that majority of African farmers cultivate less than 10 percent of their land, which could be attributed to many factors including poor governance of land tenure and shocks and stresses due to climate change resulting to food insecurity.

The report recognizes the need to spur a broad-based economic transformation, particularly in the agricultural sector, which is the major source of income in sub-Saharan Africa, to generate a substantial reduction in poverty and improve food accessibility.

It cites unstable food markets and commodity prices and natural disasters, including severe droughts and floods leading to failed crops, insufficient pasture feed and water for livestock, as well as persistent political instability, conflicts and other forms of violence as the main triggers of food insecurity and malnutrition in the region.

On average per capita income, the report says it is three times lower in sub-Saharan Africa than in other regions of the world in 2014, although it witnessed a 30 percent increase between 1990 and 2014.

Also, poverty levels declined in the region but remained the highest in the world, with the region being far from halving the proportion of people living in poverty.

Moreover, even though some progress is being made in reducing malnutrition, evidence shows that many countries in the region suffer from a triple burden of malnutrition, that is, undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, and overweight and obesity, the latter being responsible for rising levels of non-communicable diseases.

Monty Jones said “with regards to Africa food insecurity experiences, countries are taking measures to address the problems.” He stated for example, that Rwanda has adopted the ’Girinka programme’ also known as one cow per family to promote increased nutrition and income at the household level, adding that Zambia has also adopted the direct cash transfer to farmers: Zambia’s flagship social protection programme.

In stating the challenges facing the agriculture sector, Monty Jones said inadequate rural financial services, limited large scale irrigation facilities, weak rural infrastructure, weak extension services, heavy reliance on rain fed agriculture and weak capacity in research and statistics and low value addition.

“To overcome these challenges, the agriculture sector strategic objectives and priority activities should include increased production and productivity of staple food crops through value chain approach for food security; promote commercial agriculture; promote and increase value-adding activities for agricultural products, increase the production and export of cash crops, and improve access to finance for farmers”, he recommended.