The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization recognized the progress made by 13 countries – including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Mauritania and Mauritius – for achieving outstanding progress in fighting hunger at a Nov. 30 awards ceremony that was broadcasted live on webcast.
The award ceremony came on the heels of recent milestones related to Africa’s struggle to fight hunger and prop up family farming.
On Nov. 27, officials from family farmer international networks, cooperatives, the private sector, academia and UN agencies marked the formal closure of the International Year of Family Farming (IYFF) by stressing how the initiative has helped raise awareness of the crucial role played by family farmers in fighting hunger and poverty worldwide.
The Year of Family Farming was considered a resounding success by all.
The Second International Conference on Nutrition – organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Health Organization – saw representatives from over 170 governments gather Nov.19-21 at Food and Agriculture Organization Headquarters in Rome to adopt the Rome Declaration on Nutrition, along with a Framework for Action that provides far-reaching recommendations for national policy-makers.
And the Food and Agriculture Organization just released their annual State of Food and Agriculture report dedicated to “agricultural innovation in family farming.”
With the connection between nutrition and agriculture, this boost means more opportunities in Africa for companies willing to take the risk.
“I think there’s more interest in agribusiness for U.S. companies,” Stephen Hayes, president and CEO of the Corporate Council on Africa told AFKInsider.
Hayes says that includes selling agricultural products such as tools, tractors and even irrigation systems.
“There are even shortages of trained personnel in the agricultural development field as well,” Shari Berenbach, President and CEO of the U.S. African Development Foundation told AFKInsider, noting the organization does “a lot of rural agricultural development” work.
Awarding Diplomas
“Africa is a key area of investment flows to maintain stability in these internal markets,” UCLA’s Judith Carney, author of the 2001 book Black Rice, told AFKInsider. “So it isn’t quite the case that this is a world market but rather an expression of food-dependent countries’ efforts to prevent the instability of supplies of key cereal grains as happened in 2008.”
The Nov. 30 awards recognition by UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization’s Director General, José Graziano da Silva includes awarding diplomas to country representatives for early achievement of the Millennium Development Goal 1 hunger target – to halve the proportion of hungry people by 2015 – or the more stringent 1996 World Food Summit target of halving the absolute number of hungry people by 2015.
According to the UN, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Gambia, Mauritania and Mauritius have reached the Millennium Development Goal hunger target while Cameroon has also achieved the more ambitious World Food Summit target.
The Gambia’s Vice President Isatou, Cameroon’s Minister for Agriculture and Rural Development Menye Essimi, Gabon’s Minister for Livestock, Fisheries and Food Security Luc Oyoubi and Mauritania’s Minister for Rural Development Brahim Ould M’Bareck Ould Mohamed el Moctar are expected to attend the ceremony.
UN data shows that “while progress has been made in reducing the percentage of hungry people globally on the Millennium Development Goal 1of halving the proportion of undernourishment is still within reach, the more ambitious 1996 World Food Summit target of reducing the number of hungry people by 2015 remains out of reach.”
Food security will figure prominently in the United Nation’s post-2015 development agenda, which will replace the Millennium Development Goals that are coming to an end next year.
New momentum for Family Farmers
The crucial role played by African family farmers in the eradication of hunger can not be underscored. But local farmers have little incentive to increase production if they can’t sell their crops because of cheaper imports.
The World Farmers’ Organization thinks this is a shame, noting: “Farmers, better than anybody else are able to select and produce the best food at the highest quality, in accordance with the seasons, climate, and geographical origin of the products.”
The World Farmers’ Organization endorsed the Rome Declaration on Nutrition and the Framework for Action during the Second International Conference on Nutrition and delivered a statement statement, noting “if we really want to improve global public health, then we must invest in farmers.
Increasing food production is very important, however, it must be done in conjunction with public health interventions and improved nutrition education for all. In our opinion, it is impossible to find the proper solution without the support and experience of farmers.”
According to the UN, of the more than 570 million farms in the world, more than 500 million are family farms, supplying more than 80 percent of the world’s food in value terms and collectively representing the largest employment source worldwide.
Their predominance and output mean they “are vital to the solution of the hunger problem,” Food and Agriculture Organization Director-General José Graziano da Silva wrote in the introduction to the new State of Food and Agriculture report dedicated to “agricultural innovation in family farming.”
Policies meant to catalyze innovation will need to go beyond technology transfer, according to the State of Food and Agriculture report, noting policies must also be inclusive and tailored to local contexts, so that farmers have ownership of innovation and take gender issues into consideration.
“We also know that family farming is much more than a mode of food production, it is also a way of life,” said Marcela Villarreal, Director of Food and Agriculture Organization ‘s Office of Partnerships, Advocacy and Capacity Development speaking at the International Year of Family Farming Nov. 27 closing event in Manila.
During November’s International Conference on Nutrition conference, it was noted that the role of the way food is produced, processed, distributed, marketed and prepared is crucial in fighting hunger and malnutrition.
Many of the recommendations adopted by Ministers at the conference focus on ensuring governments are encouraged to strengthen local food production and processing, especially by family farmers, giving special attention to the empowerment of women.
In fact, women farmers are a key emphasis in Africa.
Whether rice parboiling in Burkina Faso, cassava production in Cameroon or small-scale oil palm processing in Ghana, much of the staple food production and processing in West Africa is carried out by women, notes last year’s UN report: Rebuilding West Africa’s Food Potential.
Gendered Crops
“In West Africa, rice is either a gendered crop (traditionally grown by women as a subsistence staple) or it is a crop grown by all members of a household,” UCLA’s Judith Carney told AFKInsider.
“However, there is a gendered division of labor. This is true of the mangrove rice system, which involves physical work of turning heavy clay coastal soils to aerate them prior to planting (men’s work), women do the planting, men take care of canal construction and cleaning, women the harvesting.”
Carney is a professor at UCLA where she teaches courses on African ecology and development, the African Diaspora, food and environment. She also conducts fieldwork on Africa and the African legacy in Brazil and Mexico and is the author of the 2001 book Black Rice, which chronicles the history of rice cultivation along the rivers of West Africa.
“The problem is farmer access to inputs and marketing infrastructure and policies that fail to target women growers,” Carney told AFKInsider. “The development assistance agencies that promoted green revolution hybrids failed to acknowledge the pre-existing gender division of labor, allowing senior village men to appropriate the new technology and cultivation system to the detriment of improving women’s access to improved land. This led to gender conflict and women’s marginalization from improved rice land, the loss of female rice expertise, and failure to achieve anticipated productivity targets in irrigated rice fields.”
And West Africa could use all the help they can get.
Because of drought, armed conflicts and the Ebola outbreak, more and more farmers are unable to prepare for planting seasons that have come and gone forcing some desperate farmers to selling tools and livestock so that they can feed their families. For those able to work their land, they find a shortage of seeds due to looting and because people are eating them for lack of food.
To support governments in transforming commitments into concrete actions, UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization just established the Action for Nutrition Trust Fund to “mobilize resources for programs and projects that foster enabling environments for nutrition, promote sustainable food systems and nutrition-enhancing trade, increase nutrition information, improve food safety and make nutrition part of stronger social safety nets.”