Browsing: Food Security

Kenya's role in an African climate change approach

A considerable gap exists between symbol and substance regarding an African climate change approach. Foreign leaders often nod to how Africa accounts for only four per cent of global emissions but bears the brunt of the devastating climate change effects. Rising temperatures, extreme weather conditions, and ecosystem disruptions threaten millions of Africans’ livelihoods.

For many communities across the continent, the climate threat is already existential. With 18 per cent of the global population, Africa has 16 of the 20 countries most vulnerable to climate change, according to Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative.…

Africa Climate Summit

Kenya has bagged three green investment deals at the recently concluded Africa Climate Summit. The sustainable trade investment deals will see the East African nation partner with Sweden, South Africa and Hong Kong to enhance food security and air travel in the country. The parties involved announced the three deals during a sideline event of the 2023 Africa climate summit in Nairobi.…

StanBic Uganda
  • For millions of households in Uganda, remittances play a vital role in safeguarding food security, healthcare, savings and investment opportunities. 
  • IFAD data shows 75% of money sent to Uganda is used to fight poverty and improve access to nutrition, health, housing and education. 
  • The remaining 25 percent is used to support small businesses and facilitate access to financial products. 

The UN’s International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has partnered with Stanbic Bank Uganda (SBU) in a plan to reduce the cost incurred by Ugandans sending money back home by half through a digital payment platform dubbed FlexiPay. 

The partnership will also provide remittance recipients, especially in rural areas, with digital and financial training to promote the savings culture and foster digital finance uptake among these communities.

Cost of remittances in Uganda

At the moment, the average cost of sending money back home for Uganda’s migrant workers is 11.3 per cent, …

Africa Food
  • One in five people in Africa suffers from hunger.
  • With the rising population, action is necessary to ensure access to healthy and sufficient food.
  • AfCFTA can serve as a strong incentive for farmers and other participants in agri-food value chain.

Africa’s population is expected to hit two billion by 2050 yet her food security systems remain a fleeting mirage largely due to delayed financial commitments. Granted, in the past two decades, most African governments have placed great emphasis on transforming their food systems but it progress has been rather slow.

Financing of food systems

Currently one in five people in Africa suffers from hunger. And with a population of 1.1 billion people, it is imperative to take immediate action to ensure access to healthy and sufficient food by 2050. So how will Africa achieve this momentous goal? Experts say all the moving parts are in place, all except one, the …

GMO Maize
  • World hunger is not the result of food shortage, and opposition to gene-edited crops, but due to political strife.
  • Global food production is sufficient to feed all, but skewed distribution systems create a huge shortfall in countries.
  • Analysis shows that even if GMOs were adopted globally, food shortage will persist.

Globally, Genetically Modified (GM) crops have been touted as the magic wand that could end world hunger. The ability of gene-edited crops to produce more over shorter periods of time and their resistance to diseases has been lauded. Further, GMO’s ability to resist poor weather conditions occasioned by climate crisis are earning them acceptance across nations.

These traits make Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) a solution to global food shortage. Increasingly, naturally maturing crops are yielding little, and their long gestation periods leave them vulnerable to climate crisis. Further their vulnerability to pests and diseases drastically cuts yields, exacerbating food shortages.…

Climate Change Floods
  • Lender AfDB is looking to harness global equity funds to finance climate change mitigation in Africa.
  • AfDB statistics show that only 14 percent of $29.5 billion that was invested in climate finance for Africa in 2020 was from the private sector.
  • AfDB is set to hold climate change financing meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, this May.

An increasing number of people across Africa are grappling with unpredictable but definite cycles of failed rains, flash floods or severe drought as climate change-induced weather patterns become the norm in the continent that is one of the least polluters globally.

“Africa, the continent that pollutes the planet the least, is today one of the world’s most vulnerable to climate risks,” admits the African Development Bank.

In many countries in Africa today, it is nearly impossible for farmers to practice rain-fed agriculture, which is the primary option for 99 percent of agricultural production…

A farmer in Ethiopia prepares his land for planting post Russia-Ukraine (Credit: Pixabay) https://theexchange.africa/

Africa's human development cannot proceed until the first and most basic need—food—is met. A report by AusAID titled Improving food security in Africa reveals that over two-thirds of the population relies on agriculture for income and basic food needs. With food, fuel, and fertiliser crises that have followed the extended Russia-Ukraine crisis, the World Bank has described the current conditions in sub-Saharan Africa as "the perfect storm," which includes the COVID-19 pandemic, skyrocketing inflation, a growing debt burden, and harsh weather.

The World Food Programme's 2022 Global Report on Food Crises estimates that 140 million people across Africa are experiencing food insecurity on a regular basis.

With many countries facing food security issues, many nations have partnered with the World Bank to implement a series of short-, medium-, and long-term actions to combat the effects of food insecurity, such as overreliance on imports and persistent drought. These measures are also…

AfCFTA

AfCFTA’s successful implementation can boost trade and promote Africa’s economic recovery and growth. The AfCFTA is the world’s most extensive free trade area in terms of size and number of nations, with a combined GDP of around $3.4 trillion.
Increased integration would improve incomes, generate employment, stimulate investment, and make establishing regional supply chains easier. In comparison to Africa’s external trade, intra-African trade remains tiny. In 2020, just 18 per cent of exports went to other African nations.…

GMOs in Africa

Time is running out for Africa to guarantee food security for its population. As the saying goes, it is not very reasonable to keep doing the same things and expect different results.

Africa needs crops that can withstand pests and disease, withstand drought, flourish without excessive pesticides and fertilizers, and produce healthy food. Africa needs crops to enable smallholder farmers to prosper. GMOs provide a powerful instrument for Africa to address these demands when other choices fail over time.…

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Activists and agriculture lobbyist have already protested the move by the government to lift the 10-year ban on GM foods. A joint statement signed by Greenpeace Africa and lobbyist groups argued that, “food security is not just about the amount of food, but the quality and safety. Our cultural and indigenous foods have proved to be safer, with diverse nutrients and with less harmful chemical inputs.”

Lobbyists insist that public participation could have taken place, prior to lifting the ban; and are championing for its reinstatement. Furthermore, they are advocating for an inclusive participatory process to be instituted or a taskforce onboarded, to investigate long-term and sustainable solutions to attain food security.

The move has elicited divergent views across the region. Tanzania is firmly opposed to the use of biotechnology in food production, and considering its proximity to Kenya, has upgraded its vigilance to ensure GM food or cash crops…