Covid 19. Its Impact on Food Security in Sub-Saharan Africa and what should be done.
Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the most vulnerable region to the socio economic impact of covid 19.
This vulnerability is attributed to several factors that include poor health facilities in many SSA countries, and low capacity testing, timely detection and response to covid 19 cases.
Besides fatalities, the impact of the pandemic on the continent’s food security has been severe. Today, 246 million Africans go to bed hungry each day, according to the head of the Africa Development Bank (AFDB) Mr Akinwumi Adesina.
Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for nearly 13 percent of the population globally, with the proportion of the population living in poverty and undernourished remains high among the rural communities.
Agriculture remains the main source of livelihood and food security for majority of the rural population in SSA, with the climatic conditions favouring cultivation of diverse crops.
Agricultural production is mainly rain-fed, with pockets of irrigated land. For example, Western Africa accounts for more than 60 percent agricultural output from the SSA, over the past 24 years, but Land degradation and climate change are now posing additional threats to agriculture.
Experts recommends that in order fully recover from the coronavirus pandemic, Africa must rapidly upscale efforts to boost its food production. This is because without food medicines do not work and without nutrition vaccines are simply not effective.
The continent, therefore must adopt a coordinated approach to address the food security and hunger challenge by harnessing new technologies and systems that increase food production at scale to provide healthy and nutritious food.
The region also need to improve the research capacity and strengthen partnerships to tap into successful innovations to produce more food at affordable prices and with less environmental impact.
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