Food Availability

While agricultural productivity has increased in Africa south of the Sahara in recent years, it remains far below productivity in other developing regions, and this gap is only increasing, according to a new book released by IFPRI’s Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI) program this week. This low productivity has undermined the competitiveness of Africa’s agricultural sector both at home and abroad and could exacerbate both poverty and food insecurity in the region due to a growing reliance on increasingly expensive food imports.

Wheat plays a leading role in both the diet and the economy of Ethiopia. According to research conducted by IFPRI for the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA), wheat is the fourth most widely grown crop in the country (after teff, maize, and sorghum) and ranks fourth (tied with teff) in terms of the gross value of production. In addition, wheat and wheat products make up 14 percent of the country’s total caloric intake. Ethiopia also imports a significant amount of wheat for domestic consumption – between 25 and 35 percent.

According to the World Bank’s 2016 World Development Indicators (WDI) report , extreme poverty rates have fallen in Africa south of the Sahara over the last two decades, but not as quickly as in other regions. SSA’s extreme poverty rates declined from around 55 percent in 1990 to around 45 percent in 2012, while extreme poverty in South Asia fell from 51 percent to 19 percent during the same period. Globally, extreme poverty rates decreased from 37 percent in 1990 to 13 percent in 2012.

FAO’s Global Information and Early Warning Systems (GIEWS) has released several new country briefs for Africa south of the Sahara. This series of briefs provides an overview of the food security situation in prioritized countries, focusing on the current agricultural season, harvest prospects for staple food crops and livestock, estimates and forecasts of cereal production, and food price and food policy trends.

Agricultural Productivity in Africa

As a growing population fuels increased demand for food, the pressure on Africa’s agricultural sector also grows. However, agricultural productivity in the region remains low. A new IFPRI book, Agricultural productivity in Africa: Trends, patterns, and determinants, provides an extensive study of the current condition of agricultural productivity in Africa, arguing that the region’s ongoing economic development gives hope for the sustainable expansion of the agricultural sector.