Friday, March 29, 2024

More Investments In Food Security Needed

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By JEMIMAH NJUKI

There is plenty of science to guide us on what we need to do to achieve greater food security, provide better nutrition, and prevent food shortages and hunger in Africa even in the face of a changing climate.

What has been lacking, however, is consistent and broad-based investment to support smallholder farmers so that they can be resilient and productive.

In the last few months, heavy rains have pounded some eastern and southern African countries. In Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Tanzania, lives have been lost and people displaced after their homes were washed away.

The greatest contradiction though is that just a few months prior to this, the region was hit by a drought leading to hundreds of thousands of people going without adequate food. By March 2019, the UN had declared that 13 million people were food insecure and in need of assistance in southern Africa.

Global data also suggests hard times ahead for smallholders. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) notes a global trend toward increasing worldwide dryness or drought in their 2018 noting that global temperatures have become higher, leading to extreme weather—including severe drought—and that some regions are experiencing longer and more intense periods of drought…Read more>>

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