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Agriculture remains a critical sector in Africa's socio-economic development and growth. This is because smallholder farming in Africa accounts for more than 60% of Africa's population and approximately 23% of Africa's gross domestic product (GDP).[1] Water availability and access are vital inputs for agricultural production and food security. As such, crops, vegetables, and animal rearing require water to enhance essential food production.[2] However, in many parts of the African continent, there is persistent limited access to quality water.

In the spring of 2022, we taught a graduate level course titled “Agri-food Systems and Economic Development” in Georgetown University’s Global Human Development Program. One of the assignments was writing a policy brief on the impact of a major shock to food systems (such as a significant policy or technological change, natural disaster, or the COVID-19 pandemic) on a sub-population in a country or region. This post by Christian Kamm is based on the assignment.

Urgent international aid is needed in Somalia to avert famine and widespread starvation, according to a new alert issued last week by FEWS Net. While humanitarian aid increased throughout this fall and has so far prevented IPC Phase 5 (Famine)-level food insecurity from being reached, experts warn that the southern and central areas of the country will likely reach such acute levels in April-June 2023.

An innovative market system development (MSD) intervention in Mozambique has helped increase use of agricultural inputs and access to critical market information among smallholder farmers, according to a new policy brief released by IFPRI. These results extended beyond the direct beneficiaries as well, highlighting the potential for such interventions to provide wide-ranging benefits.  

Over the past two years, the impacts of ongoing regional conflicts, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russian-Ukraine war have drastically weakened the world’s already inadequate, unsustainable food systems. This confluence of factors has induced in supply chain disruptions and high and volatile prices for food, fertilizer, and fuel, and the result has been the third global food crisis in less than two decades.