Adoption of climate-smart technologies for agriculture can help Africa overcome its food challenges

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine has further aggravated the food security plight of Africa. The frequent extreme weather and natural disasters, the continuing impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the conflicts in some regions had already made it difficult for African countries to address their food shortages. The combined impact of domestic and international factors has not only damaged the food supply chain and weakened these countries' food purchasing power, but also increased the supply and demand risk of food aid to Africa by the international community, thereby exacerbating political and social instability in many African countries. African nations urgently need to explore ways to resolve the plight of food insecurity and empower themselves to improve their capabilities of ensuring food security.

There are major obstacles that restrain the success of Africa' agriculture such as small-scale farming, poor infrastructure, limited technical support and low participation of human resources. Meanwhile, food production requires large investment, and involves high risk and low efficiency, which essentially determines that Africa's agricultural industry has many disadvantages in attracting external investment. From the perspective of investment in agriculture, according to the estimates by the African Development Bank, if the African continent wants to become a net exporter of food in 2025 to reduce its excessive dependence on imported food from Russia, Ukraine and other countries, it will need to spend $280 billion to $340 billion to improve its agricultural infrastructure and enhance local food productivity.

On the one hand, African countries should roll out incentive policies to attract external investment, including financial support from international and regional organizations such as the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the AfDB and the African Union Development Agency; on the other hand, they should adhere to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, strive to achieve the target of 10 percent of fiscal revenue going to agriculture, and prevent cuts in their agricultural investment due to inflation, currency depreciation and the reduction of aid funds caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Agricultural production in Africa has for a long time mainly depended on the expansion of arable land rather than the innovation of technologies. Such a model has fundamentally restrained the growth of the continent's own food production, damaged its soil, water resources and biodiversity, and indirectly led to Africa's dependence on imports. In the 2020-21 period, the yield of staple crops in northern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa was 3.10 metric tons per hectare and 2.02 tons per hectare respectively, far lower than the global average of 4.13 tons per hectare.

Climate-smart agriculture can integrate new technologies with the eco-agricultural system. Especially, eco-agricultural science and technology can improve soil fertility, the utilization efficiency of natural resources, and ultimately stimulate food productivity, reduce the impact of fertilizer prices caused by unforeseen circumstances such as climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and gradually reduce the cost of inputs in the industrialized agricultural production mode, such as fertilizer. At present, such agriculture is being put in practice in many African countries, contributing to effectively reducing external risks to food insecurity, improving grain yield per area unit and the transformation and upgrading of agricultural technology, and lowering the threat to the hungry people in Africa.

In the face of the rapid changes in the international political situation and economic pattern, African countries have recognized the importance of enhancing their agricultural independence and self-reliance. However, due to the insufficient construction of storage and other facilities, they are the hardest hit areas for grain post-production loss and waste. In 2019, data from the FAO shows that the estimated annual grain post-production loss in sub-Saharan Africa was about 14 percent. In view of this, African countries should not only strengthen their field management for production and harvest, but also vigorously build storage facilities and restore national and regional food reserve systems, so as to cope with the rise in global food prices and tight supplies.

African countries should also give full play to the role of the African Continental Free Trade Area in the processing, transportation and distribution of agricultural products and optimize the industrial chain for food supply and demand. They need to fully tap the potential of the AFCFTA agreement, increase their food productivity, improve the regional transportation system, and let the agreement play an aggregate effect in food processing, packaging, distribution and other aspects to reduce food losses in all links. They can also take advantage of the AFCFTA to establish a regional food reserve system, which can coordinate with the food reserve systems of individual countries in case of emergencies caused by external factors, and lay the foundation for the stability of the regional food industry chain.

The outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict has seriously threatened the food security of some countries and regions in Africa. The root cause is the vulnerability and external dependence of their food systems, meaning that African countries could be easily manipulated by players in the international food market, which further restricts these countries' abilities to control and respond to food risks. The United Nations Office for South-South Cooperation, the FAO, the UN World Food Programme and other international organizations are committed to providing opportunities and platforms for African nations to participate in South-South cooperation in the field of agriculture and food security, which not only breaks the "donor and recipient" model of traditional Western development assistance, but also treats African countries and other developing countries as equal partners in food security cooperation. It also creates opportunities for the countries to regain food sovereignty and enhance the resilience of their food systems.

African countries should take the initiative to work with international and regional organizations and institutions such as the WFP and the AfDB, as well as other developing countries such as China to deeply participate in South-South cooperation and carry out bilateral or multilateral exchanges and sharing of agricultural knowledge, experience and technology, to empower themselves to respond to emergencies and improve their food security.

The author is an assistant research fellow of the China-Africa Institute and the Institute of West Asian and African Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.