Covid-19 lockdowns: A threat to informal food markets in Africa
According to Norman Borlaug , a renowned Nobel Peace Laureate, “food is the moral right of all who are born into this world because the right to dissent does not mean much to a person with an empty stomach. We cannot build peace on empty stomachs ”.
Food production is essential to ensure sustainable food consumption. And to ensure access to food for people, the market plays a key role in linking farm produce to both informal and formal markets.
In many parts of Africa, the informal market provides an important source of livelihood for men and women. Although supermarkets, and other formal marketplaces, are on the rise in Africa, the vast majority of food commodities are commonly traded in informal, open-air, markets.
Across all 36 states of Africa's most populous nation , Nigeria, one can find numerous large informal markets, especially for food items. Of note are: the Mile 12 International Market in Lagos; Onyingbo Market in Lagos State; Zaki Biam Yam Market in Benue state; Bodija Market in Oyo State; Nnewi Nkwo Market in Anambra state; and Kurimi market in Kano state.
The informal market approach in the country starts with the aggregation and transportation of farm produce to different markets, where informal food traders buy and resell the produce through a variety of wholesale, retail, and mini-retailing services.
In 2014, I was involved in a study of multiple agricultural value chains that involved administering questionnaires to over 100 informal food traders in Lagos. In addition to confirming that women constitute the majority of players in the informal markets, the study revealed that the agricultural value chain is incomplete without the informal food markets. These serve as an avenue for farmers to sell their produce, thereby allowing people to earn a daily income.
As the current Covid-19 pandemic continues to spread in many parts of Africa, the informal economy is likely to be deeply affected. A report by the International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates that over 61% of the world's employed population makes a living in the informal economy. Africa leads with 85.8% of informal employment, followed by Asia and the Pacific, with 68.2%, and Arab States with 68.6%. The share of the informal sector in the Americas is 40%, while in Europe and Central Asia it is just over 25%.
The potential impact of the global pandemic in Africa is therefore expected to be significant. In its recent series on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on small businesses and informal workers, CNN shared the story of 53-year old market trader Cecilia Achonwa, who runs a local roadside restaurant in Yaba, Lagos. “Before coronavirus, my food business saw lines of people forming to buy their meals. Now they are all gone, and my business is almost at the stage of collapse, ”she lamented.
Given the continued importance of informal food markets, there is need for urgent, collaborative, and practicable actions that address the entire agricultural value chain, from production to market.
As part of their response, governments and other institutional actors need to provide adequate and necessary awareness about Covid-19 to informal food traders. It is also imperative to enforce market regulations and healthy practices on environmental and product hygiene, as well as provide storage and preservation facilities, especially for fresh produce. This will help reduce losses and ensure the availability of products throughout the year.
Written by John Agboola
This article is part of Covid-19 Food/Future, an initiative under TMG ThinkTank for Sustainability’s SEWOH Lab project (https://www.tmg-thinktank.com/sewoh-lab). It aims at providing a unique and direct insight into the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on national and local food systems. Also follow @CovidFoodFuture, our Video Diaries From Nairobi, and @TMG_think on Twitter. Funding for this initiative is provided by BMZ, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development.
