Africa has immense potential to feed itself

THE letter written by Kevan Salim (November 22) does not reflect the truth.

The Russian army’s blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea ports and the ripple effects of Western sanctions against Moscow have raised international food and fuel prices, leaving millions of Africans facing an “unprecedented food emergency” this year, the World Food Programme has said.

Kenya, Somalia and large parts of Ethiopia are at risk of acute food insecurity, the UN’s Food & Agriculture

Organization said this week.

In Sahel and West Africa, more than 40 million people could go hungry in 2022, according to the FAO, up from 10.8 million people in 2019.

Even before the Russian invasion in February, the pandemic and a long drought had already hit African economies hard.

The war in Ukraine made things critically worse since the continent imported about a third of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine.

Over the past decade, Africa’s food import bill has nearly tripled, but its agricultural sector has also been growing steadily.

The continent has immense potential for feeding itself, with vast amounts of arable lands.

But why is it still dependent on imported grain?

A major part of African farmlands is used to grow crops such as coffee, cocoa, and cottonseed oil for export, while the staple crops of the African diet, wheat and rice, mainly come from outside of the continent.

Much of this imported food could be produced locally, according to the World Bank, while African countries’ self-sufficiency could also be boosted by replacing foreign cereal with regional crops such as fonio, teff, sorghum, amaranth, and millet.

African countries could trade these crops between themselves, creating much-needed jobs for their youth and income for their farmers.

The crops could also serve as the basis for a healthy diet.

KENT KIHL |