Africa’s food security depends on adaptive crops

Africans are increasingly reliant on the small number of staple crops that dominate global agriculture, despite the nutritional and environmental benefits of indigenous crops such as millet, sorghum and  teff,

COMMENT | AGNES KALIBATA & FOWLER | Africa’s food systems are facing myriad challenges, from climate shocks and low productivity to supply-chain disruptions and soil degradation. In 2022, one in five Africans was undernourished, even though the continent’s cultivated land could more than meet its food needs. But that would require effective management and, perhaps most importantly, planting adaptive crops such as millet, sorghum, teff, and fonio.

These underutilized crops have long been staples in African communities and offer nutritional, environmental, and economic benefits. Unfortunately, food companies and retailers often overlook them – which must change to have any hope of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

Rapid urbanization and changing tastes have dampened demand for traditional crops in Africa, increasing reliance on the small number of staples that dominate global agriculture. Only 20 plant species provide more than 90% of the world’s food requirements, with maize, rice, and wheat accounting for 60% of total caloric intake. But relying on a few staples is unsustainable, especially given rising temperatures. Without effective climate adaptation strategies, yields for such crops could decline by as much as 30% by 2050, in which case demand would outstrip supply and even more people would go hungry.

African governments must work with the agri-food industry and farmers to increase demand for climate-resilient and nutrient-rich adaptive crops that would enable the continent to feed its growing population. There are more than 300 such “opportunity crops,” a few of which are popular globally, including lentils, cassava, pumpkin, and sweet potato. But many more are known mainly by the communities that grow them.

Interest in these crops has been growing. Efforts to commercialize fonio in West Africa have been relatively successful, and the ancient gluten-free grain is gaining international attention, with the global brand Knorr naming it as a “Future 50 Food” for a healthier planet. Teff, a cereal grain from the Horn of Africa, is also growing in popularity as a so-called superfood.

National policymakers and international partners have an important role to play in reducing Africa’s overdependence on global staples such as maize and wheat. The Ghanaian government has used policies that promote cereal-flour blending to boost consumption of locally grown sweet potatoes. In Kenya, the International Potato Center has encouraged local women to make chapatis, a type of flatbread, with orange-fleshed sweet potatoes. Making greater use of these crops has nutritional benefits and creates new investment opportunities, especially because consumers have shown a preference for these substitutions.

But to change eating habits and create new markets, policymakers must ensure that African farmers and communities reap the benefits of growing adaptive crops. That is not the case today: climate-resilient and nutrient-dense grains such as fonio are not as commercially viable as traditional staples. In Senegal, the labor-intensive process of removing fonio’s tough hull results in just 10% of the crop reaching market, with the rest consumed by farmers and their families. Therefore, at present, there is little financial incentive to grow fonio. But this can change. Providing farmers with better equipment and processing methods could make the grain more competitive in wider markets.

The large-scale adoption of adaptive crops and their associated technologies requires market and policy incentives, research funding, and regulatory reform. The Vision for Adapted Crops and Soils (VACS), launched by the African Union, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, and the US Department of State, is a step in the right direction. VACS promotes global interventions, including land-use planning and fertilizer technologies for adaptive crops, and helps governments develop supportive policies and build agricultural capacity. It also educates farmers on how to grow adaptive crops

At this month’s Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, African institutions demonstrated their willingness to lead this charge. The AU Commission, in particular, has made important progress with its Africa Common Position on Food Systems, which recognizes that expanding the continent’s food basket will require intentional investment in traditional and indigenous crops. To make this a reality, the private sector in Africa and elsewhere must invest in research and development to scale up production of a new wave of food products made with adaptive crops that are attractive to consumers in Africa and elsewhere.

Policymakers, for their part, must promote the commercialization of opportunity crops by coordinating with pioneering companies, small- and medium-size enterprises, and nonstate actors to address constraints. That could mean leveraging policies like blending targets, providing incentives such as tax breaks and subsidies, and launching public-awareness campaigns. Governments could also use procurement to introduce adaptive crops into meals for schools, hospitals, and other public-sector catering.

Closer collaboration between governments, development partners, the private sector, and farming cooperatives can accelerate the uptake of adaptive crops. Such initiatives promise to help many African countries meet their goals of diversifying their agricultural practices, reducing their dependence on maize, wheat, and rice, and achieving growth that is good for people and the planet.

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Agnes Kalibata, the former special envoy of the UN Secretary-General for the 2021 Food Systems Summit, is President of AGRA. Cary Fowler, 2024 World Food Prize laureate, is US Special Envoy for Global Food Security.

Source: Project Syndicate.