Climate change, conflicts like the Ukraine-Russia war and Covid-19 are the leading causes of the global food crisis, especially in Africa. And according to recent reports, an estimated about 300 million Africans are affected by food crisis.

Among those, over 50 million people are expected to face acute food insecurity in Eastern Africa by the end of 2022 due to an unprecedented multi-season drought combined with regional conflict and supply chain pressure.

In fact, in many parts of Africa, the climate crisis is food crisis. With shocks like rising import costs, a growing population, and worsening conditions for food production, the cracks in the current system are beginning to show.

To fix this, Africa needs a sustained food supply system to cushion it from such shocks.

But how much food does Africa need to feed herself?

"How much food do we need, that’s a tall order in terms of numbers but if we take the example of maize, we are largely self-sufficient as a continent. In Southern Africa, we produce more maize than we need and sometimes are having crashing prices.

"In Eastern Africa, we have some exposure; we produce maize but do have a certain amount of exposure. In western Africa in some parts they produce maize,” said Agnes Kalibata, President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) at the sidelines of the ongoing AGRF summit

She added that "if you look at it from that perspective as a continent we are doing well in maize, the reason we are still having hanger pockets in some places even in maize is, can we move it around sufficiently? We are doing it regionally but we can do much more and get from southern Africa”.

Reports indicate that maize yields and harvest area have increased by 71.35% and 60.12%, respectively across Africa.

However, the continent’s colonial past and its position in the global food system as a dependent consumer of cheap foreign commodities has heightened its vulnerability to climate change impacts – not only in Africa but also beyond.

For instance, Africa is able to produce enough wheat or use alternative solutions but the continent remains heavily dependent on wheat from Ukraine and Russia which is currently unviable due to conflicts.

But the solutions to African communities’ challenges could be right beneath their feet.

"Africa needs about 55 million metric tons of wheat. We are only able to produce 25 million metric tons. 15 metric tons to 20 metric tons of wheat that Africa produces is consumed by a few nations in northern Africa. The rest of Africa shares the remaining 5 or so million metric tons. So, the opportunity sits in some of the other products we are producing,” said Kalibata.

Africa is importing what it can produce

She added that there are several figures but the most important one is, "Currently, Africa imports US$50 billion worth of food that can be locally produced. Let’s make sense of this, 2008 when we had a food crisis the number was US$15 billion and it is estimated that by 2030 the number will be US$110 billion.”

Who will achieve zero-hunger targets?

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) also known as Global Goals, are a group of 17 goals adopted by all member states of the United Nations (UN) in 2015 in order to promote prosperity and safeguard the health of the planet in tandem.

To achieve "Zero Hunger”, Africa needs food and according to Kalibata, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa has a continental monitoring mechanism for keeping track of what is happening.

Kenya remains the only country in Africa that showed up in terms of achieving zero hunger targets despite recent drought pushing 4 million Kenyans to starvation

Kalibata says, "Part of what the continental monitoring mechanism looks at are the processes that are taking a country towards food security and whether the country will be able to achieve the targets by 2030.”

To permanently fix the food crisis in Africa, Kalibata said governments must make deliberate and consistent invests in agriculture and food security initiatives

"For a country to use food and agricultural systems and move out of food insecurity and poverty, we need a constant investment of 10 to 15 percent of our GDP for 15 years. That consistency is what makes a change. Remember how Rwanda talks about how many people got out of poverty, those people have also moved out of the hunger sector. So, getting people out of poverty will also deal with hunger,” she said.

For Africa to be able to produce enough food, changes need to be considered, according to Edward Mabaya, "Without transformative change African food systems will continue to slow down human development and will continue our over dependence on food imports.

Added that time is essential, "we must accelerate the transformation of Africa’s food systems”

For Birungi Korutaro, the CEO of Kilimo Trust, Africa need to be interlinked in terms of food supply chains.

"Both retail markets and supply of raw commodities remain highly fragmented within Africa. How are food companies addressing this in order to reap economies of scale? What role does technology play?

"This is one-way food companies are addressing this while leveraging technology,” she said, adding that African countries can move from raw commodity production to value added processing through adoption of models such as public-private owned common manufacturing facilities.