Towards sustainable food systems in the humid and temperate regions of Africa: insights from Nigeria,

Malawi and South Africa

by

A. Obi

and

E.O.C. Ijeoma

Outline• Introduction

• Explaining sustainable food systems

• Defining food security

• The Gap

• Tackling the problem

• Productivity issues and inequality

• Market Access issues

• Success stories and priority value chains

• Issues and responses

• Mechanism for effective change agenda – the innovation platform

• A sustainable food system is a collaborative network that integrates several components in order to enhance a community’s environmental, economic and social well-being.

• It is built on principles that further the ecological, social and economic values of a community and region.

• Characteristics of a sustainable food system are outlined below (based on Pothukuchi and Jufman, 1999):

Food Systems

• Food systems encompass all the people, institutions and processes by which agricultural products are produced, processed and brought to consumers.

• They also include the public officials, civil society organizations, researchers and development practitioners who design the policies, regulations, programmes and projects that shape food and agriculture.

• The industrial food systems started with the factory system of fast food which changed how food was produced.

• The food system is complex and involved many steps.

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• When food security issues were first highlighted in the seventies, thequestion was whether a nation or a region could command enoughfood to meet the aggregate requirements of its people.

• Special attention was paid to fluctuations in aggregate food supply,and food security interventions were primarily concerned withproviding effective buffer mechanisms against such fluctuations.

• In this context, food security measures came to be identified withmacro-level instruments such as national and international storage offood and balance-of-payments support for countries facing temporaryfood shortages (see Valdes 1981).

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•It was soon realized, however, that this gave a very limited view ofthe food security problem.

•A large segment of a population could be living in hunger even if thecountry had sufficient food in the aggregate during normal times.

•Likewise, a sizeable section of the population could plunge intohunger during moments of crisis, even if the nation had an adequate‘cushion’ to maintain aggregate food availability.

•Adequacy at the aggregate level does not necessarily ensureadequacy at the household or individual level.

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•This point seems obvious enough, but it took some time to redirect the discussions on food security away from the macro level towards the household, and still further towards the individual.

•While the focus on the disaggregated has now become common, the various definitions of food security still differ.

•The following definition offered by a special committee of the United Nations seems reasonably comprehensive:

•"A household is food secure when it has access to the food needed for a healthy life for all its members (adequate in terms of quality, quantity and culturally acceptable), and when it is not at undue risk of losing such access"

Food Security

A formal definition

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life (Committee on World Food Security, 2009).

Food Security as seen by IDAM Cohort 2

• Food security – is access to adequate nutritious food at all times.

• Food security consists of 4 dimensions:

Availability-Sufficient

Access- Physical, economical and social

Utilization- safe and nutritional

Stability- all the time

Tackling the problem

• “Governments could pursue two kinds of policy action: • they could either change the behaviour of farmers, consumers, food processors, and other

economic agents in the system through incentives, regulations, and knowledge; • or they could accept present behaviours and introduce health-specific and nutrition-specific

interventions to compensate for any nutritional damage done or improvements forgone.

• Although changing of behaviour is likely to be more cost-effective and sustainable, the second option is the most common.”

• The priority...is too heavily focused on increasing production.

• While food production needs to increase, there are many problems with this short-sighted supply-side approach.

• It encourages the expansion of industrial agriculture rather than more sustainable and affordable methods. It treats current demand trends, e.g. biofuels, meat-based diets, post-production food waste, etc., as given rather than challenging the policies that encourage them.

• Also unchallenged are the inequities in the distribution of the food we produce, which is more than enough to feed everyone.”

Tackling the problem

• Food system interventions for better nutrition

• Keeping up the momentum of growth in agricultural productivity will be key to meeting demand.

• Production interventions that are gender sensitive and combined with nutrition education are more effective.

• Agricultural research and development priorities need to have a greater emphasis on nutrient-dense foods such as vegetables and fruits.

Source: FAO “The State of Food and Agriculture 2013

A look at the gap…

State of Africa Agriculture [a decade ago...]

Some Statistics <5% suitable agricultural

land in production

Only 4% land in production is irrigated (30% in S Asia)

Low fertilizer use/high depletion of soil nutrients

Agricultural productivity was 25% of global average

Only 1% of commercial lending in Africa goes to agriculture

• Agricultural productivity was low, reflecting the failure to find, adopt and use more productive technologies

• Poor market linkages.

• Inadequate infrastructure and poor land tenure arrangements

State of Africa agriculture [a decade ago…]

Weak private sector

Underinvestment in research; leading to ineffective R&D models; weak and unaccountable institutions

Inappropriate policies

External influences [globalization etc.]

The Root Problem…

Failure to convert research outcomes into socio-economic benefits/real impact/development outcomes

NRM

Productivity

Market

Policy

Little wonder that on Dec 6th 2007…

How did we get here?Population growth Unstructured intervention

Actual investment

RequiredInvestment

Farming Behaviorgap

Technological and Institutional Barriers

Often untamed Institutional issues will prevent socio-economic benefits from the best-bet

technologies

Common institutional barriers

• Land tenure

• Access to credit

• Access to information

• Availability of seeds

• Access to inputs

• Availability of fertilizer

• Market access

• Trade policies

• Product regulations

• infrastructure etc.

Problem tree analysis

Most interventions

target the effects and

not the cause of the

problem

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In the face of the disappearing supplies andmarkets, it was not surprising that manycountries experienced hyper-inflationarytrends at scales that had never been seenanywhere else

.

Gini coefficients and Lorenz Curve

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Farm workers strike in South Africa in 2014

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Market access issues

…but it is not a laughing matter

W.O. Jones (1960) presents David Livingstone’s description of a typical market scene: “theMarket is a busy scene; everyone is in dead earnest; little time is lost in friendly greetings;Vendors of fish run about potsherds full of snails or small fishes…”

Tomato Production and Marketing in the Kano-Katsina-Maradi Vegetable Innovation Platform

What would make the buyers go here instead of Fruit & Veg Town?

Road side vending & Hawking in South Africa

Table: Assessment of sub-regional socio-economic differences, 1988-1998

Indicators Southern Africa

Western Africa

Eastern Africa

Central Africa

Human resource availability ** ** * *

Infrastructure ** * * -

Policy framework ** ** **

Existence of civil society organisations

* (a) ** *** -

Sufficient entrepreneurial skills *** **** *

Availability of organised markets *** ** *

Modest agricultural finance * *

Existence of good natural endowments

** *** ** -

Dual requirements for agricultural growth: Results of a survey of pockets of sustained agricultural growth in Africa

Increased

productivity: on farm

and post-farm

Market

incentives+

Source: Haggblade 2016

Some Success stories - Setting Targets for 15 Priority Value ChainsCommodity supply demand demand improved target input total

2015 2015 2025 yield area cost investment

---------------- x 1000 t --------------- t/ha x 1000 ha $/ha $ x million

rice 17,477 26,047 34,925 4.5 7,761 500 3,881

cassava 137,765 137,937 167,873 24.0 6,995 252 1,763

sorghum 32,142 32,018 42,370 1.8 23,539 151 3,554

millet 21,323 20,877 27,179 1.6 16,987 151 2,565

cowpea 5,928 5,669 7,521 1.3 5,785 126 729

beef 7,332 7,545 11,138 na na na 2,198

maize 58,863 78,529 103,417 3.0 34,472 300 10,342

soybean 1,428 2,797 3,531 2.4 1,471 238 350

milk (dairy) 41,725 51,598 64,165 na na na 3,335

poultry 4,595 5,420 7,725 na na na 5,077

cacao 3,272 632 902 0.9 1,002 800 802

coffee 981 741 1,035 1.1 941 664 625

vegetables 44,500 48,491 68,691 35.0 1,963 1,240 2,434

wheat 23,707 24,645 32,419 4.4 7,368 191 1,407

fish 1,485 2,706 3,545 49.0 72 6,156 445

Aflasafe Development in Africa

Senegal

Burkina

FasoGhana

Nigeria

Kenya

Tanzania

Mozambique

Zambia

Rwanda

Malawi

Burundi

Uganda

The

Gambia

Strain development in

progress

Products under testing in

farmers’ fields

Product ready for registration

Product registered

Aflasafe

• The efficacy of Aflasafe to combat contamination of food crops by aflatoxins from the field up to storage has received further recognition from the Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA), a flagship program on the African Union Commission

Award certificate – with (left-right) Alejandro, Victor, Abdou, and Lawrence.

Challenge to scale up Aflasafe

President making cassava bread a national policy

Promotion of Cassava bread by President Obasanjo -IITA Ambassador

IITA’s Cassava Bread supported by AfDB

Capacity Strengthening through

Training and enhanced access to improved

technology

Market Access

Improving access to inputs through

subsidization

Research and policy

priorities

Tra

de-o

ffs a

nd

syn

erg

ies

Improved environmental

benefit

Improved livelihoods of

farmers

Improved

food security priorities

Impacts

Adaptation of Lucy Holt’s framework

Dealing with Trade-Offs & Synergies

Sustainability implies consideration of health & wellbeing in “social dimension”

waste

Managing the “nexus”

Sustainability is about maintaining ecosystem services at a global and local scale appropriate to place, societal needs and ethical values

Institutions factor Implication/outcome Interventions needed

1. Policy Lack of operational policy and specific objectives

Balanced operational policy with realistic targets

2. Planning Lack of decentralized/participatory agricultural planning

Establish participatory agricultural planning systems and procedures

3. Rural infrastructure Poor water distribution, roads, communication, etc.

Planned piped water, schemes, roads, etc.

4. Inputs/services Lack of readily available inputs/services Establish rural service centers in various districts of the country

5. Marketing/prices Lack of organized marketing and price incentives

Marketing and pricing policy for major products

6. Credit Lack of credit facilities Provide selective controlled credit7. Research Lack of local agricultural research Develop suitable applied research structures.8. Extension Ineffective and inefficient extension Reorganize in-time bound Training and Visit

System. Then, balanced use of communication channels

9. Land tenure Lack of security and negotiability of land rights. Uncontrolled communal grazing

Registration and negotiability of arable land rights. Cooperative grazing schedules

10.Development coordination Uncoordinated rural development approach Decentralized control and coordination policy at District & regional level

11. Regulations and standards Lack of clarity; costly compliance requirements Farmer education programmes. Extension services providing support to producers.

12. Cooperation and collection action Absence of mechanisms for inter-household and inter-institutional cooperation

Civic education on value of cooperation and collective action; demonstration schemes

Issues and responses

A Cost-effective and Rapid Response – the innovation platform

• An Innovation Platform is a physical or virtual forum established to facilitate interactions, and learning among stakeholders selected from a commodity chain analysis.

• Their interaction leads to participatory diagnosis of problems; joint exploration of opportunities and investigation of solutions leading to the generation of agricultural innovation along the targeted commodity chain

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Infrastructural Innovation

TechnologicalInnovation

InstitutionalInnovation

Output categories from Research Action

Innovation Platform

•Research Themes

Productivity

Market

Policy

Product

Development

Natural

Resource

management

Nutrition

•Gender

Socio-economic Benefits

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Illustration of an Innovation platform

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An Innovative Extension

System

1

Expanding

High-Value Markets

6

Develop Value Chains

5

Train Interested Farmers 4

Farmer-to Farmer Assess-ment

3

Organize Self-Help Groups

2

Identify Innovative

FarmersOn-farm

research on HVC/Ps (e.g.

KVKs)

Research on

HV Markets & Value Chains

Innovative extension system

Swanson (2011)

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How to set up a functional Innovation platform

Innovation platform can be set up in different ways, but to be effective, it must have the following qualities;

• It must have cohesion

• Unite the stakeholders on the commodity where they have mutual interest.

• The platform must have potentials to meet the interest of stakeholders on board.

• All stakeholders must have a definite contribution to make and benefit to derive from the platform.

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THANK YOU