Smallholder farmers holding together agriculture in Africa

To begin my blog, I wanted to set the scene and provide a brief overview of the current agricultural landscape in Africa. I hope this will be helpful in framing and guiding future posts. 

The agricultural sector employs 48% of the total African population, the overwhelming majority of which are smallholder farmers with 80% of all farms being less than two hectares in size (Blein et al., 2017). While this provides a livelihood for many through the sale of produce to local markets, these small farms are also the primary source of food for the immediate household (Gollin,2014). Moreover, many do not own mechanised farming equipment or have any control over the watering of their crops with less than 5% of arable land in Sub-Saharan Africa irrigated (Christiaensen, 2017).  Yields are therefore largely dependent on precipitation rates. It is important to note that agricultural systems and practices across Africa are hugely diverse reflecting different agro-climatic zones, production processes and consumption patterns which vary between regions at national and local scales.

The persistent problem of food insecurity

Historically, Africa has faced food crises leading to widespread malnutrition and famine. Currently one in four undernourished people in the world live in Africa (Blein et al., 2017). Addressing the UN’s 2^nd SDG of ending world hungry is complex and challenging due to the intersecting issues of inequalities in term of access to land, water and other resources. Food crises occur for a number of different interrelated reasons such as shocks in food prices due to volatile oil prices and extreme weather events; war and conflict which can block humanitarian aid such as during the 2017 famine in South Sudan; and droughts leading to water shortages which caused severe crop losses resulting in part to the 2011 famine in Somalia. However, famines are preventable by improving the access to and management of food along with the introduction of alterative agricultural practices which can mitigate against water shortages.

What does the future hold for smallholder farmers in Africa?

Africa's urban and rural population from 1950-2050 , data source: UN, 2018

Currently, there is a global demographic trend of rapid urbanisation and Africa is no exception to this. However, in absolute terms, Africa’s rural populations are still predicted to increase for several decades (UN, 2018). This will affect current agricultural spaces and hence small farms are likely to decrease in size (Masters et al., 2013). This change to agricultural land will shift available employment and yields for smallholder farmers. 

Additionally, economic growth and changes in customer demand will alter the workings of smallholder farms. Predicted shifts of smallholder farms becoming increasingly commercialised to supply high-value goods to domestic supermarkets, mini-markets and fast-food chains whilst there remains increasing demand for stable crops needed for industrial purposes such as grains for brewing and animal feed will prove challenging and require smallholder farmers to adapt and change in different ways (Gollin, 2014).

There remains many open questions around how smallholder farms can cope with these changing patterns of demand and the impact of climate change on water resources. New technological solutions or alternative ways of practising agriculture – ideas for both will be discussed in following posts – will be needed to accommodate the future demographic, economic and climatic shifts. There is much potential to increase the available agricultural land and crop output across Africa but there remains work do to done in terms of developing infrastructure, enhancing the availability access of fertilizer and seeds, regenerating degraded land, improving irrigation and better distributing and managing of water resources across all scales (Goedde et al., 2019).