Zero Hunger

Do land, seeds and crops have a gender? Perhaps they do in sub-Saharan Africa, where women produce up to 80% of foodstuffs for household consumption and sale in local markets, according to a report by the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). For crops such as rice, wheat and maize, which make up about 90% of food consumed by rural dwellers, it is women who mostly sow the seeds, do the weeding, cultivate and harvest the crops and sell surpluses.

In 2012 Malawi found itself in a tight spot, again. A food crisis set off by erratic rains, rising food prices and economic hardships slowly unfolded. For the first time in several years, the country’s ability to feed its citizens was at risk. Sadly and unexpectedly, Malawi lost its hard-earned status as an agricultural success story — it used to produce enough maize for its people to eat and still provide a surplus to neighbours. Many wondered what went wrong and whether there could be lessons for other African countries.

Amid raving economic forecasts that Africa will be the next big emerging market, chronic food shortages remain stubbornly immune to solutions. The African Union is aware of this weak link and is working to convince its members to boost investments in agriculture. To emphasize the central role of agriculture in Africa’s economic growth, the regional body has declared 2014 as the Year of Agriculture and Food Security.

Agriculture is not glamorous. It suffers from entrenched negative perceptions. In the minds of many African youths, a farmer is someone like their parents, doing backbreaking labour in the fields and getting little to show for it. Nonetheless, agriculture is the engine driving many African economies. If it were to get the same political support and financial investment as the mining sector, agriculture would be capable of providing more decent jobs and filling millions more stomachs with nutritious meals.

Sierra Leoneans love to eat rice. For them, rice is the food to live on. “It doesn’t matter what other food they eat, they must eat rice at least once a day before they can say they have eaten at all,” explains Umaru Fofana, editor of Politico, a Sierra Leonean newspaper. But now Joseph Sam Sesay, the minister in charge of agriculture, forestry and food security, wants his compatriots to loosen their relationship with rice. Over-reliance on it, Mr. Sesay believes, could affect the country’s food security goal. “I encourage our people to change their habit and alternate rice with other crops grown in the country.” By “other crops,” the minister is referring to yams, cassava and sweet potatoes.

Standing in the midst of a freshly planted maize field, Bright Osei Kwaku recalls that some twelve months earlier he more than doubled his output with the help of improved seeds, fertilizer and advice on farming techniques. Altogether, his two to three acres yielded about 15 100-kilogramme bags of maize, compared with just six bags the year before, when he had no such support.

In an era of lightning speed, ever-present wireless connectivity, high tech is now also being used to benefit livestock farmers in rural areas of Africa. Widely known for being used to track wild animals, GPS, or “Global Positioning System” tracking devices are being adapted by some small- and large-scale farmers to manage their livestock, notably in Kenya, Botswana, and South Africa.

Zimbabwe needs 1.8 million tonnes of the staple maize every year to meet the needs of its people and livestock. Only 798,500 tonnes were produced during the 2012/13 agricultural season. As a result, the country that was once dubbed “the breadbasket of the region” has to make up the deficit with imports and look to donors for food aid. After last year’s harvest, the World Food Programme, the UN food aid agency, forecast that an estimated 2.2 million people—equal to a quarter of the rural population— would need food assistance, from October 2013 through the early months of this year.