Page 37 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 16

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dence on food imports leaves them. imagine what this would look like in Food self-sufficiency moves
In 2007, a set of weather shocks in the coming decades, if the climate back on the agenda
Asia set off a cascade of actions crisis deepens and hundreds of mil-
that spiked the price of rice on the lions more Africans are dependent Africa’s dependence on food
international market, with ripple ef- on imports of basic foods. This is imports is a recent phenomenon.
fects on other cereals. Africa, which an unfolding crisis of epic propor- In the 1980s, under pressure from
accounts for about a third of global tions that needs immediate action. the former colonial powers and
imports of rice and wheat, was hit the multilateral lending agencies,
hard. The rise in prices was too The future does not have to look African governments abandoned
much for millions of Africans to ab- like this. There are complementary local agriculture and food systems,
sorb and food riots broke out across actions that can be taken inside and opened the door to massive imports
the continent, from Ouagadougou outside of Africa to ensure that Af- and aid shipments of cereals and
to Cairo, Maputo to Abidjan, and rica has the capacity to feed itself in other basic foods and channelled
Dakar to Nouakchott. In Nairobi, the years to come. Yes, the climate the remaining state support into
a protest over rising food prices for crisis will and is already making food exports of a few cash crops (cotton,
basic foods, called the “Unga Rev- production on the continent more coffee, cacao, palm oil, rubber, etc.).
olution” (Maize Flour Revolution), challenging and will increase the The result was that, between 1980
began in 2008 and lasted until 2011. frequency and severity of weather and 2007, Africa’s food production
shocks such as floods and droughts. did not keep up with its population
Climate change will make such glob- But the extent of these impacts growth and its food deficit grew at
al food price spikes more frequent, can be greatly lessened if fast and an average of 3.4 percent per year.
and will push international prices for deep reductions are made to global Over that period, Africa went from
basic food commodities upwards. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in having a balance of agricultural ex-
Consider maize, one of the world’s the main polluting countries. Such ports and imports to a US$22 billion
most heavily-traded agricultural reductions will require a profound food deficit.
commodities and an important transformation of the global food
staple food for much of Africa. system- from a model that favours It is important to recognise that the
Until recently, yields of maize the industrialised production of majority of these food imports are
were relatively stable in the main cheap commodities that are pro- for staple foods, particularly cereals
maize-producing areas of the world, cessed and shipped to Africa and like rice, maize, and wheat, and dairy
and serious climate-induced yield other parts of the world, to a model and meat products, meaning that
reductions were rare. But with the based on agroecological produc- much of Africa is now heavily reli-
warming of the planet, the chances tion and local food systems. In ant on food imports (and/or food
of major crop losses are increasing, this sense, Africa’s farmers, fisher aid) for its food security. Moreover,
as are the chances of simultaneous people and pastoralists are a leading by the turn of the century, over a
crops losses in the large maize-ex- example for the rest of the world quarter of Africa’s population was
porting areas, such as North Amer- to follow. They are already using considered chronically hungry.
ica and the Southern Cone of Latin agroecological methods to mitigate African heads of state came togeth-
America. Researchers with the US and build resilience in the face of er in 2003 in a first effort to try and
Department of Atmospheric Sci- climate extremes. And they are more come to terms with this intolerable
ences estimate that the probability than capable of feeding the entire situation. They launched a Compre-
for simultaneous major production continent, even in the face of the hensive Africa Agriculture Devel-
losses in the large maize-exporting growing climate crises. What they opment Programme (CAADP)
countries in any given year is virtu- require is access to sufficient and and committed to investing 10 per
ally zero under present-day climate appropriate lands, water, fish stocks cent of their national budgets in
conditions but rises to seven per and seeds, paired with policies and agriculture and rural development.
cent with 2 °C of warming and 86 programmes that support them and But these commitments on paper
per cent with 4 °C of warming. can ensure that food gets to where did not translate (and have still not
it is needed. It sounds simple but translated) into much concrete ac-
If one set of far away, isolated these basic measures towards food tion. Then came the 2007-8 global
weather shocks was enough to cause sovereignty are precisely what is not food crisis. With their populations
food riots across Africa in 2007-8, being done. rioting in the streets over food

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