Food insecurity was once perceived as a ‘developing world problem’. Today, with climate action failures, extreme weather conditions, fragmented value chains, as well as local and geopolitical disruptions, food insecurity is a rapidly growing issue worldwide. In fact, The World Bank estimates that between 720 and 811 million people in the world went hungry in 2020 ; that is, 118 million more people facing chronic hunger than the year before. As the global population increases and threats to vital value chains persist, we urgently need to take critical steps to avoid the looming food security catastrophe. These steps must be data and technology-driven, scalable, sustainable, and inclusive.
Scalability and sustainability are heavily reliant on affordability – can producers and processors afford to provide these goods at a cost that is not detrimental to their own pockets? Can the average consumer afford to purchase these goods? Can sustainable food production practices be scaled in various regions and communities? Well, as of November 2021, approximately three billion people, almost 40 per cent of the world’s population, could not afford a healthy diet; with the UN projecting another one billion joining their ranks should further unpredictable events occur. These statistics are a stark reminder that we require low-cost farming solutions that provide farmers and producers, both rural and urban, with the ability to increase their yields, increase produce predictability, and are resilient to external shocks. We need to champion and scale innovations that are data-driven and leverage technology such as Kheyti’s (an innovative company in India) Greenhouse-in-a-Box, working with rural farmers to increase climate-resilient incomes through low-cost greenhouse solutions, and Hydroponic Farms Uganda, providing home-grown climate-smart urban farming solutions, allowing for year-round food production without loss of yields due to climate change or weather-related events.
When discussing scalability and sustainability, one cannot ignore the gender aspect, particularly related to food insecurity. Even though women are the driving force of the agriculture sector, their contribution (which is over 60 per cent of the production of food) is often hidden, and they continue to lack access to and management of resources required for them to integrate into formal markets, achieve financial agency, and for their impact in the sector to be recorded and leveraged to scale. As Sabine Garbarino explains in her article, Closing the gender gap to drive inclusive agricultural development, "gender data makes women in agriculture visible." We cannot truly tackle food insecurity without fully understanding the realities of all actors engaged in the value chain, women included.
The topic of food security is not new, and neither are the discussions around inclusion, gender, or sustainability. However, there has been a recent shift in how these issues are tackled. Food security has become a topical issue amongst those outside of the agricultural sector and not just the practitioners. We have shifted from proposing inefficient ideas to implementing sustainable solutions. Most excitingly, we have started supporting the often forgotten, yet critical stakeholders needed to ensure that we can achieve our goal – SMEs. In recent years, we have seen a rise in initiatives aimed at strengthening food systems through the direct support for SMEs that are "driving enhanced productivity, reducing food waste, promoting healthy diets, and leveraging innovation and technology.” Nourishing Africa is a prime example of this. With a vision of a sustainable and thriving food system driven by dynamic, young, African entrepreneurs, Nourishing Africa is a digital knowledge and membership hub focused on supporting African agri-food entrepreneurs to scale their businesses through collaborative models, peer-to-peer support, and provision of critical resources, tools, and opportunities, including funding, capacity building, data, events, e-learning, media showcase, and mentoring. The Hub serves as a platform for these stakeholders to accelerate their work, connect with each other, and celebrate their successes on the continent. Similarly, organizations such as the Inclusive Business Action Network (iBAN), a global initiative supporting the scaling and replication of inclusive business models, is another example of a vital support network to ensure that businesses are inclusive, scalable and subsequently able to address food security issues.
My work at Nourishing Africa, which supports over 1,600 agribusinesses, from farm to fork, across the continent through our membership platform and activities, has highlighted the importance of support networks for key players and the subsequent impact on their ecosystems. I hope that the ongoing conversations on food security lead to the direct support for SMEs, mainly through financing, market linkages, mutually beneficial partnerships, and conducive regulations and environments for their agribusinesses to thrive, ensuring that we can truly become food secure.
