Africa has the agricultural potential to feed all its people

Despite its abundant fertile land, Africa is importing food. In 2021 alone the continent received more than R68bn in farm products from international sources.

Though one could rationalise these imports by pointing to increased urbanisation and the continent’s rapidly growing cities, the fact remains that Africa has 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and the unrealised capacity to become a global agricultural powerhouse.

At the recent Standard Bank Africa Unlocked conference in Cape Town, it was pointed out that Africa, rather than beneficiating and adding value to what it produces, continues to export raw materials and import finished items produced with those raw materials. This is costing the continent jobs and much-needed foreign income.

An example is Ghana, the second-largest global producer of cocoa beans, which exported an estimated 494,100 metric tonnes of the product in 2022, much of which is processed into chocolate in Switzerland.

The conference included a panel discussion featuring Craig Irvine, CEO of Irvine’s Group; Brian Lever, MD of AGT Foods Africa; Désiré N’zi, CFO: Middle East, Africa and India at Bühler Group; and Marvin Nii Adom Armah, senior account manager at Farmerline.

The panel told delegates that Africa’s agricultural strength included producing some of the world’s highest-quality food, including traditional and rooibos teas, cashew nuts, cocoa, plantains, sorghum, cassava and cowpeas. However, while agriculture is an activity that occupies between 50% and 70% of Africa’s people, its small-scale farmers produce 70% to 80% of its food.

Responding to the question “Can Africa feed itself?”, the panel stressed that while the continent could be self-sufficient, it needed to face and resolve several crucial challenges. These include:

• The limited availability and accessibility of technology in an agricultural sector dominated by small-scale farmers. Government policies and legislation must accelerate the tempo of assistance to small-scale farmers with technology access.
• The lack of “common sense” legislation and policies to cover intra-African trade and exports, the production of GMO foods, the establishment of strong veterinary resources, and the safety of foods and their movement across markets. 
• Closing agricultural gaps. These include the infrastructure gap, which ranges from roads and logistics to the availability of irrigation systems, but most important is the “knowledge gap” and the need for agriculture-based education and training.
• Easier access to financial services to reduce the increasing need for capital and production funds. 
• Using the opportunities presented by inclusive, low-cost, low-barriers-to-entry activities by farmers. An example is the poultry industry, which enables farmers to grow maize and grains and then use these to feed their chickens. As a result of this approach, 80% of all chicken consumed in Africa (outside Egypt and SA) is being produced by small-scale farmers.
• To be competitive, Africa must package high-quality food products while adhering to international food safety standards.
• To feed itself, Africa must reduce wastage and eat what it produces before importing.

Practical interventions designed for meeting these challenges have included reducing the impact of shocks such as geopolitical tensions and epidemics on agricultural distribution by increasing strategic storage facilities, which allows farmers to avoid market fluctuations. 

Despite the opportunities for intra-African trade presented by trade agreements, regulatory requirements still need to be addressed. These range from numerous safety and health certifications for food and seeds to vested interests in various markets, which make moving crops across borders difficult and prevent Africa from reaching its food self-sufficiency objectives. 

The panel said there were many examples of the continent’s agri-production prowess and its growth potential. Some of the successes include:

• Local popcorn production, which has grown to the point where 95% of production is exported.
• A trial with beans to test the market, as a result of which 20,000 tonnes were exported from SA to India, China, and other destinations within three years of the experiment’s beginning. Beneficiation through processing and packaging and shipping in containers rather than bags have seen prices from SA constantly eclipsing those achieved by other African producers. The lesson is that if raw product is exported in inferior ways, the prices obtained through beneficiation will never be achieved.
• The recent opening in Nigeria of a grain processing innovation centre dedicated to finding ways to produce local and ancient grains grown on the continent.
• The growth of databases that can help farmers source the expertise required for developing irrigation systems and other farm requirements. 

The agricultural sector consists of subsistence, small-scale, semi-commercial and commercial farmers. Therefore, it is essential that government and private enterprises form partnerships across Africa to maximise agricultural production.

In Zimbabwe, remarkable results were achieved by leveraging private-public partnerships to encourage villages to produce a single crop. Moving from subsistence farming and varied outputs to a single production with guaranteed prices and assistance with logistics resulted in the production of thousands of tonnes for markets. 

Africa is fortunate in having the land, skills built over generations and markets available for all its produce. The panel pointed out that all Africa needed to feed itself was determination and a commitment to addressing challenges that could be met and overcome for the benefit of all.

This article was sponsored by Standard Bank.