What does it take to feed a Continent?
About Foodscape Africa
The world’s current population of approximately 7 billion people is expected to increase exponentially to around 10 billion by 2050.
Producing enough food to feed this growing number of people clearly requires a lot of effort. On the global scale, food production and availability is actually in excess thanks to modern agricultural practices and technologies. However, the production, access and even utility of this food is unequally distributed by region.
According to the World Food Program, 821 million people in the world still do not get enough to eat. 1 out of 5 of these people are in Africa.
Africa has 60% of the world’s un-farmed arable land and yet produces the least food.
As a continent with the third largest land mass in general, the second highest number of people per land area (after Asia) and also the fastest growing population, the African continent is paradoxically that currently with the most agricultural potential and at the same time most likely to suffer any external shocks in the global food market.
While we tackle these unique problems, the world at large also now faces a bigger issue; Providing enough to sustain ourselves and with the capacity to feed our growing population is already taking a toll on our planet’s environmental resources: water, clean air, minerals and fertile soil.
These additional sustainability considerations must also be accounted for while identifying strategies that can stimulate Africa’s Green Revolution.
To shape the future food economy of Africa, local businesses, NGOs, policy makers, international partners and research experts from every sector each have a major part to play.
With ‘Foodscape Africa’, I will occasionally be reflecting on some of the dynamics at play in this environment; from individual enterprise and trade policies, to consumer habits, opportunities for agritech and deeper running socio-cultural and economic issues. The main objective is to ask some critical questions and perhaps make some sense of it all.
So welcome, and let’s have some great discussions!
