Covid-19: Strengthening small-scale farmers to curb a food security crisis
Agriculture is an integral part of any economy. With a large proportion of Africa’s population living in rural areas, the region’s economy is particularly dependent on a strong agricultural sector. Agriculture contributes to more than 32% of the continent’s gross domestic product. It is therefore at the core of attaining the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially SDG 1 “No Poverty”, and SDG 2 “Zero Hunger.”
With vast tracks of arable land and natural resources, Africa is often described as a food basket for the world. To achieve this potential, however, the continent needs to scale-up transformation of its agricultural sector. This includes developing robust value chains that can sustain food systems and help in combating shocks, such as the current pandemic.
African agriculture is solidly clustered around smallholder farmers, who produce up to 80% of food consumed by households. Although land holdings are small and fragmented, with most farmers cultivating crops and rearing livestock on an average of 0.2–2ha, smallholder farmers can help sustain food systems. This “land army” is therefore very instrumental in building agricultural resilience in the wake of the current global Covid-19 pandemic.
As questions are raised about the impacts of the pandemic on global food security, it is imperative to analyze, and provide evidence-based solutions for, tackling the adverse impacts on food and nutrition security for Africa’s growing population.
According to Agnes Kalibata, President of AGRA Alliance and UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, “to avoid a food crisis, we must provide a safe and productive farming capability for smallholder farmers to continue work, and have access to inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and extension services.”
Even before the emergence of Covid-19, African farmers were facing numerous shocks, such as pest invasions, fluctuating weather patterns due to climate change, extreme drought or flooding, market and price volatility, and insecurity linked to land-use conflicts. An example of the latter is the Fulani herdsmen crisis in Nigeria. The added shock from Covid-19 is likely to pose additional threats to smallholder food production, especially for those involved in traditional farming techniques.
An example is the continued dependence on seasonal, rainfed agriculture for food production, as many smallholders, as well as emerging farmers, cannot afford high-cost irrigation systems. The onset of the rainy season in many parts of west and eastern Africa, which occurs from late March, coincides with the acceleration of the Covid-19 pandemic. The ensuing travel restrictions and lockdowns imposed by many governments mean that some farmers are experiencing challenges in accessing inputs, services, and accessibility to city centers. All of these have serious impacts on the fresh food supply chain.
Fasakin Aduragbemi, a young farmer from Ekiti State, Nigeria shared “Many of the smallholder farmers are afraid of going to the farm to start the new planting season because of the restrictions in the movement of people. As a crop and micro-livestock farmer, I am more concerned about what will happen to my crops sprouting in the field, and the snails in the pen.”
As the Covid-19 pandemic intensifies, Africa cannot afford to tread a path that leads to a food crisis. It is evident that every human being needs food for survival, and we cannot afford to lockdown farmers from producing food. The resulting impacts on food security will surely limit smallholder productivity in terms of acreage cultivation, and yields and post-harvest losses, all of which can lead to a shortage of food for the growing African population.
As the world finds a solution to Covid-19, all stakeholders must show their commitment to supporting farmers to continue working on their farms. This includes ensuring the availability of farm inputs and other required resources, and strengthening linkages among key agricultural value chain players to enable farmers to continue at the frontline of food security and food production.
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.
