Acquiring Food Security

Even though there has been a considerable amount of success in a number of countries in Africa, food security yet has come out to be something that is unattainable. The agriculture has failed to bring any kind of change in the economies on the continent same as in the case of Latin America and Asia. The major hindrances in consistent food security are the constantly increasing population, poverty, political turmoil, HIV pandemic, poor infrastructure, resurgent conflicts, and shortage of water, soil degradation, and poor management of water, climate change and desertification. 

The starving people are the ones who are poorest amongst the poor, and therefore, decreasing hunger should be very preliminary steps that should be adopted in the direction of the accomplishment of the millennium advancement objective to reduce the problem of poverty by the year 2015. The presence of ballooned number of people, who are hungry and poor, not only comes out to be a bottleneck in the economic development, but also if not catered to, provides an intense basis for social conflict and instability.

Until the time hunger stays to be there in the continent of Africa, it is next to impossible that the continent may think of accomplishing good economic development and food security to cater to the problems of feeding and poverty reduction and gear up the continent to accomplish the millennium advancement objective by the year 2015. Purging of starvation comes out to be one of the chief advancement objectives in the continent of Africa. Whereas a national advancement in the production of food would bring in more income and food, it however, does not provide for everyone all the time.

Food production, food security, food affordability (depending on the prices of the food) and access to food, which could be influenced based on illness, age or gender, are equally important issues that need to be addressed. A number of regions in the continent of Africa have advanced in the direction of accomplishing food security because of the green revolution.

A constantly growing general acceptability has been seen in Africa for the perception that the interconnected problems of poverty and hunger can be most resolved by adopting a multi-faceted approach. This encompasses the developing agricultural yield and growing incomes shelled from rural earnings and proper use of policies and different institutions focused towards motivating farmers and anglers to empower them for getting out of the trap of poverty. Hence, the focus of CAADP is enhancing the supply of food while simultaneously making efforts to decrease poverty, by means of a practical partnership between the private and the public sectors along with the producers and the public.  

Africa is lagging behind in the sphere of science and technology as well. Undermined research and development of agriculture combined with general disintegration of the innovation mechanisms, has eventually come out in the form of reduced yields of agriculture in Africa.  Hence, CAADP Pillar 4 of NEPAD has held it necessary to increase the investment in the field of agricultural research, technology dissemination and development.