World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 166

Food Security In an Age of Falling Commodity and Food Prices : The Case of Sub-Saharan Africa
management . Less than a quarter of the total land area of SSA suitable for rainfed crop production is so used . FAO has estimated that the potential additional land area available for cultivation amounts to more than 700 million ha 5 .
SSA also experiences a large variety of agro-ecological environments , farming systems , and large number of staples . This substantial potential to produce food staples remains unexploited because of the same structural constraints .
Despite this rich agricultural potential , the continent increasingly imports from outside of the region to satisfy demand ( almost $ 68 billion in 2014 on $ 1486 billion world exports ). Many of SSA least developed countries have become increasingly dependent on imported food in recent decades . This dependency may not be a serious issue , as long as other export sectors can be developed to generate revenue to pay for food imports . But in many cases , this has not been achieved .
According to FAO , in SSA , the imports bill of food products in some countries is very high related to the gross domestic product ( GDP ). During periods of rising commodity prices , these countries spent on average up to 5 % or 6 % of their GDP to import food . For Sierra Leone , the proportion was even 22 % to 24 % of its GDP to commercial food imports . During the 2000s , agricultural exports from Africa increased fourfold , but imports rose 2.5 times faster , widening the agricultural trade deficit .
SSA is facing structural constraints . Smallholder agriculture is the predominant form of farm organization . Small farming systems is the most important employment and income source for more than two thirds of SSA active workers , especially women , the young , and the poor . More than 70 % of the poor reside in rural areas , and most depend on agriculture for food production . In SSA , 13 major farming systems were identified with the 5 largest systems , including maize mixed or highland perennial systems , supporting 65 % of Africa ’ s rural population ( Garrity , Dixon , & Boffa 2012 ).
Most farming in SSA is highly fragmented and has a very low labor productivity due to little use of mechanization , fertilizer , pesticides , irrigation , and also due to very limited public support ( for instance , measured by ESP ), which undermines agricultural output and makes the region a net food importer .
Less than 4 % of cropland is irrigated , compared with 35 % to 40 % in much of Asia . Farmers apply < 8 kg per hectare of inorganic fertilizer nutrients ( nitrogen , phosphorus , and potash ) compared with > 150 kg per hectare in much of Asia . As a result , yields of both cereals and tuber crops are low in comparison to the rest of the world ( Tittonell and Giller 2013 ). For instance , a yield gap analysis of cassava in the East African Highlands found a gap of 12.2 t ha , 59 % of which was attributed to fertilizers , 28 % to genetic differences , and 12 % to planting method ( Fermont et al . 2009 ).
Increased production resulted rather from agricultural area expansion often at the expense of the natural resource base . Agricultural productivity in SSA has suffered from decades of policy neglect , years of underinvestment , and extractive practices . Agricultural infrastructure is very weak as the public commitment to
5
Only 10 % of the Guinea Savannah , covering an estimated 600 million hectares , is farmed .
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