Food security tests Africa’s unity agenda

There are challenges and paradoxes that necessitate more effective action and cooperation in agriculture and food security in Africa.

An immediate paradox is the reality that we continue to face hunger and poverty in a context where large tracks of agricultural land remain under- and unused.

A second and related paradox is that, we are witness to a situation where many of our farmers are moving from the growing of staple foods to the production of high-value agricultural products for export, including bio-fuel, hence forcing many countries to import basic and staple agricultural products.

The simple reality and fact is that the era of globalisation and rapid liberalisation has, over the past decades, served to fundamentally reshape agricultural productions and consumption in our regions.

With the growth in among others, the consumption of imported rice and wheat, food aid, traditional agricultural sectors continue to be destroyed.

Furthermore, the logic of the global market has created deep contradictions that are clearly not sustainable and with current developments, the consequential path of ‘hunger amidst plenty’ in the future should be a matter that concerns all and sundry and not just our Ministers of Agriculture.

If we combine the consequential realities that emerge from the dominance of the global market with the climatic changes we are faced with and will continue to face, there can only be one logical approach to the future – proactive and visionary interventions.

There is bound to be some intervention in the established path from us all, as peoples, as communities, as governments and as regional and multilateral organisations.

We must deal decisively with our current realities and manage the current agricultural and food shortage crisis to further palliate its effects on us and future generations.

The current scenario, therefore, calls for collective actions and joint initiatives that stem from a wide recognition that, while the market has value, left on its own, it would be creating the conditions that are counterproductive.

Indeed, if we do not address in a decisive manner the agriculture and food security challenges we face, the peace and security and development we all talk about will remain elusive.

In recognising that collective action from African Union member states is most necessary to grapple with the challenges in Agriculture and Food Security, we must emphasise and perhaps the importance of appropriate Governance frameworks.

When the State intervenes, its actions are on behalf of its people.

The participation of people is, therefore, fundamental to any development trajectory we seek to establish.

To retain certainty that its actions are in the interest of its people, there must be some modalities of securing mandates from the people.