Food Security: Sustainable Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa

2002 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uche C. Amalu
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Commodity Prices ◽  
Mineral Resources ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Virgin Land ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Food Imports

Falling world grain stocks, rising grain prices and the poor economic situation of Africa have, since 1995, made food security a major issue. Structural adjustment programmes, the crushing burden of debt, the collapse of commodity prices and mismanagement of national economies have rendered African people even poorer in terms of per capita income and quality of life than they were in the first decade after the attainment of independence. Yet Africa is rich in many ways — for example, in virgin land for agriculture and in mineral resources, including energy. It is rich above all in its people and their determined spirit to face all disasters, natural and man-made. In line with this spirit, Africa is moving ahead on a new consensus that food security through enhanced agricultural production is the continent's most fundamental development issue. Although the economic plans of successive African governments have stressed the goal of food self-sufficiency, the food sector has received little investment or political priority. Africa continues to rely on food aid and food imports, which consume a large part of its meagre export earnings. The increasingly limited capacity to purchase food abroad and the bitter experience of depending on emergency aid are honing a clear determination that Africa must marshal the resources to grow its own food and so release the creative energies of its people to contribute fully to their own development and well-being. Top priority should be given to food security during this process, as no country can consider itself free until it has the wherewithal to provide for the basic needs of its people.

scholarly journals Subjective Well-being of Older Adults in Sub-Saharan Africa Is Most Associated with Food Security, Physical Health and Emotional Support (P04-090-19)

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (Supplement_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Edwina Wambogo ◽  
Nadine Sahyoun
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Logistic Regression ◽  
Food Security ◽  
Physical Health ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Objectives Using the social ecological model, the objectives of this study were to examine (1) the associations between proximate factors (food security and physical health) and measures of subjective well-being (SWB), and (2) the associations of distal community and country level risk factors with SWB, independent of food security and physical health. Methods Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) data of 5585 respondents aged 60 years or older included in Gallup World Poll (GWP) 2014 and 2015 were included in these analyses. GWP collected data on several indicators SWB (eudaimonic, hedonic and evaluative), together with data on food security, physical health, social support and social participation, and country level factors such as quality of roads and public transport. We estimated three hierarchical logistic regression models for each index controlling for country and GWP survey year as a fixed effects. Results In bivariate logistic regression analysis, food security was most associated with higher evaluative well-being (OR 2.80, 95% CI 2.05–3.83) and physical health was most associated with higher eudaimonic well-being (OR 3.30, 95% CI 2.64–4.14). Physical health was also most associated with higher positive experiences (OR 1.83, 95% CI 1.59–2.10), and most inversely associated with negative experiences (OR 0.47, 95% CI 0.41–0.55), in bivariate analysis. In the multivariate models, emotional support explained eudaimonic well-being (OR 3.66, 95% CI 2.41–5.58), and evaluative well-being (OR 1.87, 95% CI 1.26–2.79), followed by physical health and food security, respectively. Conclusions Food security, physical health and emotional support were strongly associated with SWB among older adults in this study. Food security is particularly important for QOL, and has a bi-directional relationship with these other predictors of SWB. Therefore, continued monitoring the food security of older adults in the region remains important. Funding Sources N/A.

scholarly journals Orange-fleshed sweetpotato: Strategies and lessons learned for achieving food security and health at scale in Sub-Saharan Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 511-536
Author(s):  
Amy Webb Girard ◽  
Anthony Brouwer ◽  
Emily Faerber ◽  
Frederick K. Grant ◽  
Jan W. Low
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Beta Carotene ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Or Education ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Implementation Challenges ◽  
Significant Public Health ◽  
Sub Saharan

Abstract Against a worsening backdrop of climate stress and population growth, drought-resistant, highly adaptable, nutritious orange-fleshed sweetpotato (OFSP) stands out as a sustainable food crop that supports household resiliency, food security, and health. Recognized as one of the cheapest sources of vitamin A (VA), OFSP holds promise as a food-based approach to combat VA deficiency, a significant public health concern in sub-Saharan Africa. Because the dominant white-fleshed varieties have no beta-carotene, research initiated in the mid-1990s set out to adapt, develop, and promote VA-rich OFSP as a more nutritious alternative to non-OFSP types. Multisectorial strategies that integrate agriculture with health or education sectors hold promise as effective strategies to ensure OFSP reaches and meets the needs of those populations at greatest risk of VA deficiency – pregnant and lactating women, infants, and children. In this article, we share experiences, findings, implementation challenges, and lessons learned from four integrated programs in Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, and Ethiopia that aimed to improve the nutrition and health of women and children with production and promotion of OFSP. Across these projects, households significantly increased OFSP production. In all but one, changes in OFSP production were accompanied by improved food security and maternal and child diets.

A System Dynamics Model for Subsistence Farmers' Food Security Resilience in Sub-Saharan Africa

2019 ◽  
pp. 293-308
Author(s):  
Benedict Oyo ◽  
Billy Mathias Kalema
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
System Dynamics ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Market Failures ◽  
System Dynamics Model ◽  
Dynamics Model ◽  
Subsistence Farmers ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Donor Support ◽  
Sub Saharan

Food security at subsistence farmers' level in sub-Saharan Africa has become an issue of concern due to increasing vulnerability caused by a number of factors such as: changing climate, resource scarcity (e.g. land and inputs), environmental degradation (e.g. declining soil fertility, deforestation, and surface water eutrophication), market failures and weak public/donor support initiatives. In light of these challenges, farmers must be prepared to survive by self-provisioning. To pursue the fastest and most practical route to improved food security, focus should be on resilience based initiatives at household and community levels. In this paper, the authors investigate the factors that have enabled subsistence farmers to succeed despite the previous shocks and stresses, and develop a system dynamics model for sustainable food security based on initiatives exclusive to the farmers. The model is used to examine the question: how can innovative subsistence farmers engage in better livelihood and market orientated production irrespective of external public or donor support?

Promoting Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. U. Ugwuanyi ◽  
Chukwudi Obinne
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Structural Adjustment ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Food Aid ◽  
Rapid Population Growth ◽  
Adequate Food ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
To Come ◽  
African Agriculture ◽  
Structural Adjustment Programmes

Access to adequate food constitutes the most serious problem for most African households today. Low productivity rapid population growth, food aid and food importation, structural adjustment programmes, illiteracy, environmental degradation, poorly formulated and executed food policies, wars and political instability are among the factors held responsible for food insecurity and food inadequacy in Sub-Saharan Africa. The promotion of food security and improvement of living conditions of the African people should form the core of development programmes in Africa for years to come. Therefore, policy reversals are urgently needed to put Africa on the path of development, and a cooperative regionalism is advocated. Africans both at home and in the diaspora must collectively assume the responsibility for the advancement of African agriculture and economy.

scholarly journals Pathway to achieving sustainable food security in Sub‐Saharan Africa: The role of agricultural mechanization

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 349-366
Author(s):  
Godwin Olasehinde‐Williams ◽  
Festus Fatai Adedoyin ◽  
Festus Victor Bekun
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
Agricultural Mechanization ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Resilient Governance Regimes That Support Urban Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Cities: Learning From Local Challenges

2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mariana Vidal Merino ◽  
Sumetee Pahwa Gajjar ◽  
Aasha Subedi ◽  
Ana Polgar ◽  
Catherine Van Den Hoof
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Climate Adaptation ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Development Framework ◽  
Daunting Task ◽  
Sub Saharan

Local governments in Sub-Saharan Africa face the daunting task of high urban growth and potentially devastating impacts of climate change across local communities and the economy. Urban and peri-urban food production can be among nature-based strategies planned for improving urban food security, reducing emissions, and climate adaptation. Co-operative governance, strategic planning, and accountable institutions are needed to support urban agriculture (UA), in the face of climate risks, unplanned urban development, the gendered nature of food provision, and the inability of urban farmers to self-organize toward optimal market and land access outcomes. Using a case study approach guided by qualitative content analysis with information derived from web analysis, we apply the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to analyze underlying governance factors for UA in three selected Sub-Saharan African cities. Our three case cities of Kampala, Tamale and Cape Town reveal that UA is beginning to receive policy attention toward food security, and recognition for generating environmental, ecological, health, and human well-being benefits. Literature from specific cities however does not yet signal a local awareness and policy thrust regarding the associated and pertinent climate adaptation benefits of urban agriculture. We therefore recommend trans-disciplinary, locally-led, planning-based, and multi-sectoral approaches, involving a range of stakeholders toward recognizing and achieving the climate adaptation, environmental (ecologically restorative) and food security benefits of pursuing urban agriculture. This signals a larger role for the practice in sustainability discourse and SDGs 2 and 11, scaling out and up across large, medium and small towns, and cities of Sub-Saharan Africa.

scholarly journals Intersectional stigma and its impact on HIV prevention and care among MSM and WSW in sub-Saharan African countries: a protocol for a scoping review

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (8) ◽  
pp. e047280
Author(s):  
Gamji M’Rabiu Abubakari ◽  
Debbie Dada ◽  
Jemal Nur ◽  
DeAnne Turner ◽  
Amma Otchere ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Prevention ◽  
Data Extraction ◽  
Grey Literature ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
African Countries ◽  
Scoping Reviews ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Meta Analyses

IntroductionResearch has established that various forms of stigma (HIV stigma, gender non-conforming stigma and same-gender sex stigma) exist across Sub-Saharan Africa and have consequences for the utilisation of HIV prevention and care services. Stigmas are typically investigated in HIV literature individually or through investigating individual populations and the various stigmas they may face. The concept of intersectionality highlights the interconnected nature of social categorisations and their ability to create interdependent systems of discrimination based on gender, race, sexuality and so on. Drawing from perspectives on intersectionality, intersectional stigma denotes the convergence of multiple marginalised identities within an individual or a group, the experiences of stigma associated with these identities as well as the synergistic impact of these experiences on health and well-being. With respect to HIV, public health scholars can examine the impacts of intersectional stigmas on HIV prevention and care utilisation.Methods and analysisReviewers will search systematically through MEDLINE, Global Health, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection and Africa Index Medicus and citations for quantitative studies, qualitative studies and grey literature that include data on stigma and HIV among men who have sex with men and women who have sex with women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eligible studies will include primary or secondary data on stigma related to HIV risk factors experienced by this population. Studies will be written in French or English and be published between January 1991 and November 2020. All screening and data extraction will be performed in duplicate, and if discrepancies arise, they will be settled by GM’RA, LEN, DD or AO. Findings from this study will be reported according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews.Ethics and disseminationEthics approval is not required as there will be no human participants and no protected data will be used in this study. We will disseminate findings through peer-reviewed manuscripts, conferences and webinars.

scholarly journals Is High Whitefly Abundance on Cassava in Sub-Saharan Africa Driven by Biological Traits of a Specific, Cryptic Bemisia tabaci Species?

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Habibu Mugerwa ◽  
Peter Sseruwagi ◽  
John Colvin ◽  
Susan Seal
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Bemisia Tabaci ◽  
Development Time ◽  
Adult Emergence ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Biological Traits ◽  
Population Development ◽  
Species Classification ◽  
First Instar ◽  
Sub Saharan

In East Africa, the prevalent Bemisia tabaci whiteflies on the food security crop cassava are classified as sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) species. Economically damaging cassava whitefly populations were associated with the SSA2 species in the 1990s, but more recently, it has been to SSA1 species. To investigate whether biological traits (number of first instar nymphs, emerged adults, proportion of females in progeny and development time) of the cassava whitefly species are significant drivers of the observed field abundance, our study determined the development of SSA1 sub-group (SG) 1 (5 populations), SG2 (5 populations), SG3 (1 population) and SSA2 (1 population) on cassava and eggplant under laboratory conditions. SSA1-(SG1-SG2) and SSA2 populations’ development traits were similar. Regardless of the host plant, SSA1-SG2 populations had the highest number of first instar nymphs (60.6 ± 3.4) and emerged adults (50.9 ± 3.6), followed by SSA1-SG1 (55.5 ± 3.2 and 44.6 ± 3.3), SSA2 (45.8 ± 5.7 and 32.6 ± 5.1) and the lowest were SSA1-SG3 (34.2 ± 6.1 and 32.0 ± 7.1) populations. SSA1-SG3 population had the shortest egg–adult emergence development time (26.7 days), followed by SSA1-SG1 (29.1 days), SSA1-SG2 (29.6 days) and SSA2 (32.2 days). Regardless of the whitefly population, development time was significantly shorter on eggplant (25.1 ± 0.9 days) than cassava (34.6 ± 1.0 days). These results support that SSA1-(SG1-SG2) and SSA2 B. tabaci can become highly abundant on cassava, with their species classification alone not correlating with observed abundance and prevalence.

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