Time for food independence in Africa is now

I am sure many share my frustration at the quality and cost of food imported into Africa. I am bewildered that some countries accept food imports that are near their expiration date or, worse, spoilt. Beyond presenting potential health hazards, this also has ethical implications.

The problem is not just with imports of food for human consumption. Too many African countries do not cultivate enough grains, thus forcing farmers to import animal feed. Raising industrial livestock becomes uncompetitive as a result and there is a lack of viability to establish homegrown agro-processing industries.

Many African countries have embarked on a path to grow their industrial food production and enhance their overall socioeconomic resilience, a strategy which needs to be emboldened and put into action by both public and private sectors.

This will improve quality, supply, nutrition and sustainability, while achieving regional food security, the transfer of essential skills and poverty reduction.

Healthy economy

A strong agricultural sector, a precondition for food independence, should be the foundation of a healthy economy and we should not be complacent about such a fertile continent, with so much human potential, being unable to produce the food it needs.

We are not only talking about meeting the caloric intake needs of the population but also the quality and variety of the produce, the ability to specialise and to trade on an equitable basis.

Let us complement sustainable food production with “strategic agrarian communities”, very powerful tools for revolutionising the agricultural sector in many countries. Established on conflict-free land, each with a few dozen farms, community infrastructure and agro-processing facilities, one of their core principles is to establish and control, in situ, the entire value chain: Growing of crops and animals to agro-processing (silos, milling stations, cooling facilities) and distribution capacities.

At the heart of this vision is the empowerment of sustenance farmers by training them on modern agricultural techniques and providing them with long-term guidance and technical assistance.

They consolidate into cooperatives, each trained in industrial agricultural production with opportunities for regional trade and, if relevant, a governmental buy-back mechanism. Pooled infrastructure, equipment and marketing mechanisms can make agrarian businesses profitable.

We must ensure that those who are not farmers are integrated into the communities as teachers, mechanics, logistics and service providers, etc.

Agriculture in our modern world can, unfortunately, lead to the destruction of the traditional rural lifestyle: Large corporations engage in monocropping and farmers lack the capital and skills to transition from subsistence to modern farming. Strategic agrarian communities are a sustainable middle path as they build upon local farmers and preserve individual farming households but, in turn, enable modernisation and economic viability.