By Eteobong Ita
Food insecurity is a serious challenge with dire consequences for the unsuspecting. As individuals or a collective, there are actions that can be taken to tackle the menace of food insecurity and improve quality of life. Nigeria is endowed with abundant sunlight, ample arable land with nutrient-rich soil and a tropical climate. Thus, agriculture can no longer be viewed as a way of life but as a business capable of creating wealth and reviving rural communities.
In French, “Let them eat cake” translates to “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche”. Princess Marie Antoinette was the wife of King Louis XVI who ruled France. During a famine in 18th century France ruled by her husband, when Marie Antoinette was informed that the peasants had no bread she said, “Let them eat cake”. Whether she actually uttered the phrase remains a subject of debate. The import is that today her remark reflects either a glib disregard for the starving peasants or a poor understanding of their misery.
Food security is the measure of a person’s ability to access nutritious food in sufficient quantity. The four principal aspects of food security are availability, access, utilisation and stability. Closely linked to effective production, availability is about the quantity of food within a community. Where resources such as water for irrigation do not exist, or land allocated for food production is damaged or degraded, the ramifications can be far-reaching.
Merely having enough food in a community but little or no access to it is futile. Access is affected by a wide range of physical, social and policy-related factors. Proximity to suppliers, infrastructure and cost are factors that can also affect access to food.
Concerning utilisation, some food lack enough value. It is crucial that food is nutritious enough to provide the calories – or energy – people require for their daily activities. Alongside, requisite knowledge and tools to properly utilise food i.e. selection, preparation and storage are essential.
Stability means that access to food is maintained relatively stable over time, with shocks or threats such as natural disasters, climate change impacts, conflicts and price hikes are minimised.
Certainly not an exhaustive list but the major drivers of food insecurity are conflicts, climate change impacts and burgeoning population. To the sceptics, climate change is not a new phenomenon. Earth’s climate has been changing for millions of years. What is alarming is the rate of change. Between the heated debates and cold facts of climate change, water stress, shifting rainfall patterns, increased frequency of droughts and land degradation, conflict – low, medium or high level – is the single biggest factor driving global hunger today. Over 60% of food insecure persons are living in conflict zones. Besides dividing communities, conflict compels people to flee from their homes often leaving behind their only means of livelihood. Much has been written about conflicts causing farmers to abandon long-term agricultural strategies in trepidation that they will lose the benefits of their hard work when they flee.
In a 2020 Global Hunger Index, of the top 10 food insecure countries Nigeria ranked 10, followed by Afghanistan (9), Lesotho (8), Sierra Leone (7), Liberia (6), Mozambique (5), Haiti (4), Madagascar (3), East Timor (2), and Chad (1).
In Nigeria inequality is a large driver of food insecurity. In Lagos for example, child mortality is around 3%. One report claimed that due to malnutrition in Kebbi state 66% of children are stunted with 25% mortality rate.
Although Afghanistan in recent years suffered from drought, its plentiful natural resources and engaging government offered hope that food security will improve considerably. However, following a long historical legacy of military campaigns by foreign armies and strife among internally warring factions, Afghanistan is still not out of the woods.
In Lesotho, 70% of the population depend on subsistence farming for food and livelihood. In the wake of devastating droughts in recent years, crop failures gave rise to a surge in acute levels of food insecurity that culminated in a significant fraction of the population affected.
Since the turn of the century Sierra Leone had taken big steps to improve food stability. Regrettably 26% of the population still contend with chronic hunger.
Much of the food insecurity in Liberia can be linked to the country’s 13-year civil war, which ended in 2001. At the time of filing this report 16% of Liberian families are food insecure.
Intermittently in the last decade Mozambique made great improvements in food security. With nearly one-third of its population facing chronic hunger in 2020, Mozambique reappeared in the list of ten hungriest countries.
On 1 January 1804, Haiti became a free republic following a revolution that began in 1791 declaring independence for all people from colonial – France – rule and enslavement. Not only is Haiti the first free black republic in the world, it fought the French to a standstill. Sadly and in part given the many years of lingering colonial legacy, progress over the decades has been convoluted. Besides its ranking as the hungriest country in the Western hemisphere, political and economic instability coupled with hard-hitting natural disasters have also hindered progress.
Madagascar an island nation off the east coast of Africa is more often linked to its tropical forests, baobab trees and lemurs. In a Financial Times article by David Pilling and Charlie Bibby published on 2 August 2022, the United Nations (UN) called the famine in Madagascar the world’s first climate-change-induced famine. As the world looked on, the people of southern Madagascar grappled with the famine which was locally called “Kéré”.
A third of East Timor’s population suffer from food insecurity. Owing to little or no access, availability and quality issues, more than half of the children are stunted.
Climate change impact brought widespread food insecurity in Chad. Ranking in the top three hungriest countries for the last three years, the level of undernourishment, stunting and child mortality in the country paints a sobering picture – Action Against Hunger (online retrieval date 14.04.2024).
Increasingly food security has become topical and is more crucial than ever before. Hence agriculture can no longer be viewed as a way of life but as a business capable of creating wealth and reviving rural communities.
A mixed approach to boost food security in Nigeria should include investments in sustainable agricultural practices, support for smallholder farmers, a strengthening of value chains with improvements in the handling of post-harvest and storage systems. Climate-smart agriculture, diversification in production and innovation can also enhance resilience and productivity. With challenges vis-à-vis access roads, access to water, power substation infrastructure, bank loans and low interest rates including tax incentives, greater progress is needed from both the public and private sectors.
Governance can be defined as the exercise of economic, political and administrative authority to manage a country’s affairs at all levels. It comprises the mechanisms, processes and institutions through which citizens and groups articulate their interests, exercise their legal rights, meet their obligations and mediate their differences. At the national level the three main actors in a governance model are civil society, the private sector and government. The size and strength of each actor is characterised by the history, culture and politics of a country. Lately, given its far-reaching ability to facilitate information flow, media – also known as the fourth estate of the realm – is an actor in a governance model.
Government can play a significant role in improving food security. In Kenya, a humanitarian organisation is working in partnership with the government, who adopted a Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition (CMAM) and implemented its ideals into government-run health systems. Where seasonal spikes in malnutrition are anticipated, relief is deployed where needed quickly and effectively – leading to improvements in food security for the most vulnerable.
• Ita is an independent journalist and environment consultant.