Historical trends of food self-sufficiency in Africa

The majority of African countries are stricken by food shortages and undernourishment, with much of the population lacking reliable access to food supplies and basic dietary requirements. In this paper, we analyze past trends of food production and consumption in Africa, both for the continent as a...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Food security 2013-06, Vol.5 (3), p.393-405
Main Authors: Luan, Yibo, Cui, Xuefeng, Ferrat, Marion
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Agriculture
Air. Soil. Water. Waste. Feeding
Biological and medical sciences
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Environment
Environment. Living conditions
Food Science
Life Sciences
Medical sciences
Original Paper
Plant Sciences
Public health. Hygiene
Public health. Hygiene-occupational medicine
Social Policy
Social Sciences
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Summary:The majority of African countries are stricken by food shortages and undernourishment, with much of the population lacking reliable access to food supplies and basic dietary requirements. In this paper, we analyze past trends of food production and consumption in Africa, both for the continent as a whole and for 52 individual countries within it. Fluctuations in the self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) are used to characterize the stability of a country’s capacity to sustain its own population, and GDP per capita is taken as representative of national purchasing power. Our study shows that Africa’s food self-sufficiency is lower today than it was throughout the entire study period. This is probably a result of demographic expansion, leading to a greater increase in food demand than in food production. At the national level, a decrease in SSR mainly occurred in Northern and Southern Africa, and high SSR fluctuations (i.e. low stability) always appeared in conjunction with low SSR levels. Although “low SSR-low GDP” countries face the most serious food insecurity conditions, both “low SSR-high GDP” and “high SSR-low GDP” countries also need attention.
ISSN:1876-4517
1876-4525
DOI:10.1007/s12571-013-0260-1