Africa must prepare for global food crisis

THE tripling costs of fertiliser, rising energy prices and rising costs of food baskets, could worsen in Africa in the coming months

There should be an increased sense of urgency amid a once-ina-century convergence of global challenges for Africa.

The continent’s most vulnerable countries have been hit hardest by conflict, climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic, which has upended economic and development progress in Africa.

Africa, with the lowest gross domestic product growth rates, has lost as many as 30 million jobs on account of the pandemic.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is cause for concern. The war’s ramifications have spread far beyond Ukraine to other parts of the world, including Africa.

Russia and Ukraine supply 30% of global wheat exports, the price of which has surged by almost 50% globally, reaching identical levels as during the 2008 global food crisis. Fertiliser prices have tripled, and energy prices have increased, all fuelling inflation.

The tripling costs of fertiliser, rising energy prices, and rising costs of food baskets, could worsen in Africa in the coming months.

Ninety percent of Russia’s US$4 billion exports to Africa in 2020 were made up of wheat; and 48% of Ukraine’s near $3 billion exports to the continent were made of wheat as well and 31% of maize.

To fend off a food crisis, Africa must rapidly expand its food production. Africa should not be begging. We must solve our own challenges ourselves without depending on others.

The Africa Development Bank (AfDB)’s innovative flagship initiative, Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (Taat) programme — a programme operating across nine food commodities in more than 30 African countries, has made its early successes.

Taat has helped to rapidly boost food production at a large scale on the continent, including the production of wheat, rice and other cereal crops.

Taat has already delivered heattolerant varieties of wheat to 1,8 million farmers in seven countries, increasing wheat production by over 1,4 million tonnes and a value of US$291 million.

Heat-tolerant varieties are now being planted across hundreds of thousands of hectares in Ethiopia and Sudan, with extraordinary results. In Ethiopia, where the government has put the Taat programme to work in a 200 000-hectare lowland irrigated wheat programme, farmers are reporting yields of 4,5 to five tonnes per hectare. Taat’s climate-smart seeds are also thriving in Sudan, which recorded its largest wheat harvest ever — 1,1 million tonnes of wheat — in the 2019-2020 season.