Population Growing Faster than Food Production in Africa - FAO

 

This is contained in a report by FAO entitled : ''Greener cities crucial to African food security, '' and made available in Abuja on Thursday.

The report stressed the need for policymakers to ensure that African cities would be 'green' enough to meet their nutrition and income needs in a sustainable way in the foreseeable future.

It said that many cities in Africa were not keeping pace with the increasing demand for food that would match their population growth.

The report further noted that many African countries have recorded strong sustained economic growth over the past decade, leading to more urbanisation and raising hopes of a new era of shared prosperity.

``Increasingly, urban areas also draw people in search of a way out of rural poverty, only to find little if there is any improvement in their lives.

``More than half of all urban Africans live in slums, up to 200 million survive on less than $2 a day and poor urban children are as likely to be chronically malnourished as poor rural children.

``The challenge of achieving a zero hunger world in which everyone is adequately nourished and all food systems are resilient is as urgent in African cities as it is in rural areas, ’’ the report submitted.

Perusing into the future, the report which cited 24 of the world's 30 fastest growing cities will be African, asserted that the urban population of sub-saharan African would have population of between 300 and 600 million between 2010 and 2030.

It therefore advised African policy makers to act fast to steer urbanisation from its current unsustainable path toward healthy `greener’ cities that ensure food and nutrition security, decent work and income and a clean environment for citizenry.

It also urged national governments as well as city administrators to work together with growers, processors, suppliers, vendors and others to give market gardens and urban agriculture, the political, logistical and educational support necessary for sustainable development.

The report voiced particular concern about the future of market gardening, the irrigated, commercial production of fruit and vegetables in designated or other urban areas.

It said the FAO would continue to support action that would help ''low-income households to 'grow their own, ' as a way of improving the quality of their diet, thereby saving cash that have been spent on other needs, and earning income from the sale of surpluses.

As part of its recommendations, the report urged policymakers to zone and protect land and water for markets, and encourage growers to adopt FAO's 'Save and Grow' farming model.

It explained that the model include applying the right amount of appropriate, external inputs such as pesticides, fertiliser and seeds at the right time.

It stated that the document was released ahead of the sixth session of the World Urban Forum scheduled to hold in Naples, Italy from Sept. 1 to Sept. 7, adding that the forum was established by the United Nations to examine one of the most pressing problems facing the world in recent time.

It said such problems include but not limited to rapid urbanisation and its impact on communities, cities, economies, climate change and policies.