Agricultural Production

Since April 2023, the Sudan has suffered from violent conflict that has displaced wide swathes of the population, significantly disrupted the economy, and led to skyrocketing unemployment, poverty, and food insecurity. Between December 2024 and May 2024, more than half of the country’s population experienced IPC Phase 3 food insecurity or higher, and millions of Sudanese have been without reliable access to food, healthcare, housing, and other critical services.

Smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa face growing pressure to produce more on less land while contending with worsening impacts of climate change. The need for sustainable intensification has rekindled calls for a “Green Revolution” in the region, centered on the widespread adoption of modern inputs such as hybrid seeds and inorganic fertilizers. But introducing new agricultural technologies is not just a matter of making such inputs available; it also requires convincing farmers to try them.

Does Africa need food self-sufficiency to achieve long-term food security?

Not necessarily, according to new research from IFPRI.

With food security continuing to deteriorate across the region and an estimated 600 million people expected to be chronically undernourished by 2030, shoring up Africa’s food and nutrition security has become a priority for the region’s policymakers. This perceived need has been further highlighted by recurring shocks to global food markets, including the 2008 food crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war.

Crop mapping—identifying what farmers are growing on their fields—is essential to agricultural and land use planning and management. It is used to generate yield estimates and crop acreage statistics, predict food prices and assess damages from disasters and also to evaluate ecosystem health—all functions essential for agricultural export nations such as Kenya.

Creating opportunities to more effectively link farmers in Africa south of the Sahara with local, regional, and global markets has become a key development focus in recent years. However, questions remain about the impacts that increased agricultural commercialization may have on household food consumption and food and nutrition security. A recent article in Food Security examines such impacts in Ghana, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Zimbabwe and finds both positive and negative trade-offs to increased market integration.