Agriculture

China and India have become powerful incumbents in the manufacturing-for-exports and services-for-exports sectors, respectively. This has made it difficult for Africa, as a latecomer, to employ similar growth models for its own development. Given current geopolitical tension, its own comparative advantages and urgent needs, modernizing agriculture should be the growth model for Africa. ...

Millions are severely malnourished in a world where there is enough for all. Hunger and malnutrition stalk more than 3.1 billion people. Yet, widespread hunger in all its forms is a problem which has been largely solved at the macro level in today’s high-income, industrialized countries. Their “escape from hunger and premature death” is a fairly recent phenomenon. It began around 300 years ago, continued for most of the 20th century and is still ongoing today. The problems faced by ...

The agricultural sector is responsible for 72% of global water withdrawals, and is the biggest employer of the world’s most vulnerable and poor populations. Still, close to 84% of smallholder farms in low- and middle-income economies are located in water-scarce regions, with less than one third of them having access to irrigation (UN, 2024). These small-scale farmers also bear the heavy weight of land degradation and climate crisis. It is estimated that food production will need to ...

National and regional visions for the future of water and food security have been at the forefront of sustainability talks. Nevertheless, the role of soil in water and food security and carbon management needs to be highlighted and integrated into these discussions and visions. The dynamic characterization of soil as a medium that accounts for the long-term impact of the agro-environmental conditions is of utmost importance to sustainability of these resources and to sustainable dev ...

Cette étude est consacrée à l’Éthiopie, pays dont l’histoire remonte à la nuit des temps et où l’agriculture représente 70 % à 80 % des emplois. Nation agricole, donc, mais aussi pays au potentiel minier connu, lequel demeure sous-exploité. Depuis le début du vingt-et-unième siècle, l’Éthiopie a développé des liens privilégiés avec une multitude de puissances, émergentes notamment. Au premier chef, la Chine trône en partenaire privilégié, auquel s’ajoutent des p ...

The rise of agriculture technology (AgTech) solutions in Africa has opened significant avenues to transform food systems and tackle long-standing obstacles to enhance smallholder productivity. To effectively expand these promising, yet nascent, AgTech solutions, collaborative efforts involving African governments, development partners, and AgTech innovators are essential. Scaling these solutions requires African governments to establish comprehensive digital-infrastructure and devel ...

Nigeria has the potential to be an economic powerhouse, but food insecurity stalks a large share of its population. Over the last fifteen years, undernutrition has increased from over 7% (2004-06) to nearly 13% of the population (2017-2019). The COVID-19 pandemic of course exacerbated health and nutrition problems. With the current high inflation, an additional 4 million people have been pushed into poverty, from 90 million (Dec. 2022) to 94 million (April 2023) (WBG, June 2023). S ...

Ghana achieved lower middle-income country status by 2011. However, its growth path in the previous decades did not lay the foundations for the economic transformation of Ghanaian agriculture and therefore its overall economy. It relied primarily on extractive and non-renewable resources (gold and oil) and cocoa exports, and it did not diversify. While much progress was made in poverty reduction, pervasive low productivity and job informality continue to condemn millions to poverty, ...

This policy brief was originally published on T20 India website   Supportive policies for tropical agriculture have helped millions of small-scale farmers in Brazil step out of poverty by improving government capacity to design legal frameworks to strengthen agricultural production and family farming. Scientific and technological developments have enabled small-scale Brazilian farmers to produce food while considering local tropical conditions. In contrast, tropical agriculture s ...

If you search on “Google” for a pizzeria in Kyiv, you have many choices, such as “Mimosa Brooklyn Pizza”, “Mamamia”, or “Vesuveo”.  If bombs or supersonic missiles do not scare you, more formal dining pleasures exist. “Feel like a star”, reads one of the ads for the “Matisse”, located on the 15th floor of the “Cityhotel” in the historic part of town - an eatery 52 meters up could be a tempting target for Russian missile attacks. Wladimir Klitschko, a former world heavyweight boxing- ...

It is estimated that $1 trillion to $6 trillion per year (up to 2050) needs to be invested globally if the world is to stay below the 2°C global warming ceiling of the Paris Agreement and to meet its adaptation goals. Currently, investments stand at about $630 billion per year, way below the original target. And although great efforts have been made in the climate-finance area, more than 70% of the funds deployed have gone to one sector, renewable energy, followed by the transportat ...

Seleman Yusuph Kitenge an alumnus of Atlantic Dialogues Emerging Leaders program. Learn more about him here. Introduction Food security refers to the availability of sufficient, safe, nutritious food for all people to maintain a healthy and active life (FAO, 2021; Suleri, 2022). It affects people at global, regional, national, sub-national, and household levels, and presents itself in different forms, including chronic, acute, and transient. Food insecurity exacerbates social tensi ...

Mauritius was on the brink of disintegration in the 1980s, but by 2019 had managed a peaceful transformation from a low income, monocrop, inward-oriented economy to a diversified, outward-oriented, upper middle-income country. Mauritius is now again at a crossroads, having to adapt to accelerating climate change and the impacts of multiple crises. The government of Mauritius has a vision of transforming the country into a knowledge-intensive and inclusive economy of the Fourth Indu ...

This publication was originally published in https://www.mdpi.com/   The Moroccan agricultural cooperative sector is a key player in self-employment and income generation through territorial anchoring. The government’s “MOURAFAKA” program offers support for newly created cooperatives, including strategic diagnosis and training. This paper analyzes the impact of the MOURAFAKA program on the sustainability of agricultural cooperatives in Morocco. Using original data from a survey of ...

The fundamental role that water resources play in human development has been highlighted in multiple ways; the United Nations SDGs underline 17 different goals and over a hundred targets to be achieved by 2030. Out of 169 SDG targets, 59 were found to have direct links and synergies with the water goal SDG6 (UN Water, 2016). Careful policy making and interventions need to be implemented to avoid conflict among sectors and tradeoffs must be well established. The Integrated Water Reso ...

La double crise actuelle de l’énergie et du conflit militaire en Ukraine freine énormément les processus qui se développaient dans l’ère post-Covid 19. Dans ce contexte fragile et tourmenté, la vulnérabilité touche également les chaînes globales de valeur et les systèmes agroalimentaires. La vulnérabilité de la Chaîne Globale de Valeur (GVC) est une fonction de la capacité d’adaptation (CA) face aux chocs et aux impacts potentiels que présentent la fragmentation du ...

Si l’année 2021 fut marquée, dans une situation de rattrapage économique post-Covid, par la progression des cours de la quasi-totalité des matières premières agricoles, minérales ou énergétiques, tel ne fut pas le cas pour 2022, caractérisée, au contraire, par une grande hétérogénéité de trajectoires. Le déclenchement de la guerre en Ukraine a certes conduit à une élévation forte de nombreux produits de base en raison du poids de la Russie, de l’Ukraine voire du ...

While 2021 brought higher prices for almost all agricultural, mineral and energy commodities as the economy caught up after Covid, this was not the case for 2022, with, on the contrary, prices diverging substantially. The onset of war in Ukraine certainly drove up the price of many commodities given the significance of Russia, Ukraine and even Belarus in world production. However, it was the imposition, or not, of trade and financial sanctions against Russian exporting companies and ...

Climate change threatens to reduce the water flow in the Nile and increase the frequency and severity of droughts and floods in Egypt, which already suffers from water scarcity. This threat is a looming crisis as it seriously undermines the Government of Egypt’s long standing food self-sufficiency approach to food security, an approach which is wasteful of increasingly precious arable land and water resources, while achieving neither more food self-sufficiency nor meaningful food se ...

If the recent peaceful transfer of power in Madagascar heralds a new trend, then the Malagasy people can dream big. For decades, the exercise of economic-cum-political power in the hands of a tiny elite has held the entire nation hostage. Today, the high poverty rate—around 80% (2021) stands in stark contrast to the natural resource abundance of this huge enormous island. There is hope, however, that with political stability, the Plan d’Émergence Madagascar (PEM) President Andry R ...

This brief argues for a pan-African food security initiative that would: 1). encourage free trade in food products between African countries; 2). promote multi-country regional investments in infrastructure to enhance agricultural productivity and resilience to climate change; 3). support public-private partnerships to establish fertilizer factories across the continent; 4). create an African council responsible for coordinating and encouraging agricultural research and development; ...

Rwanda is famous for its remarkable socio-economic performance after the ravages of the Genocide against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994. Under the leadership of President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has followed a state-led development model with stunning results. Despite these substantial accomplishments, Rwanda is still a low-income country with extensive poverty. Its agriculture is still of low productivity and highly vulnerable to climate change. Structural transformation has we ...

Le conflit russo-ukrainien fragilise la sécurité alimentaire d'un grand nombre de pays africains, la Russie et l'Ukraine étant deux acteurs majeurs du marché agricole mondial, particulièrement celui du blé. C'est pourquoi, l'approvisionnement en blé du continent est au premier rang concerné par ce conflit qui perdure, dont le premier enseignement concerne le risque de non approvisionnement, en blé russe et ukrainien, des pays qui en sont le plus dépendants. Cette étude montre qu'il ...

Sleepless nights and the tireless search for compromise allowed WTO members to agree on concrete deliverables during the WTO 12th Ministerial Conference held last June. Those results reinforce Multilateralism. And this is a significant gain given the multiplicity of global crises that surround us. The Outcome include 6 Agreements, Declarations and Ministerial Decisions that respond to some of today's challenges, notably on Fisheries and Ocean Sustainability as well as responses to P ...

Implications of Food Systems for Food Security: The case of the Republic of Mozambique Mozambique is resource-rich and strategically located on the east coast of Africa between Tanzania and South Africa. Its mineral wealth includes coal, iron ore, bauxite, copper, gold, rubies, and natural gas. Valuable marine stocks include crustaceans, demersal and pelagic fish which populate its long coastline. Its agriculture is endowed with plentiful land, water, and a generally favorable clima ...

The world is facing its worst food crisis in 70 years as a perfect storm of geopolitical events contributes to a spike in prices. Wheat alone has jumped 53% since the start of the year. Alarmingly, a number of governments have responded to the crisis with export bans. Governments and organizations worldwide must act decisively to avoid knee-jerk neo-mercantilism, which would add to the volatility in the global economy. Globalization is at a fragile moment, and mercantilism still lur ...

Oil dominates Nigeria’s economy- “Africa’s Giant”. Oil revenues are both a blessing and a curse: a blessing because they are the single most important contributor to government revenues; a curse because, through the Dutch Disease, they undermine the productivity and competitiveness of other non-oil sectors, primarily agriculture and agri-processing; and manufacturing, two major sources of non-oil employment and incomes. Since Nigerian governments did not try to counter the Dutch Dis ...

The world food price index collected for the last 60 years by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) hit its highest record in March, declining gently in April. Pandemic, war and death in Ukraine, and droughts in the last 2 years… Such a combination looks apocalyptical. Now it is adding global hunger risks, because of the food price crisis. The rise in global food prices started in mid-2020 because supply chain disruptions triggered food stockpiling. Mobility r ...

Following on the heels of the COVID-19 pandemic and severe drought in North Africa, the Russian invasion of Ukraine – large exporters of food and, in the case of Russia, energy— may inflict increased hunger on the food insecure in Morocco – despite mitigating measures by the government. Morocco is so far successfully shielding its large poor and vulnerable population by subsidizing essential commodities. With memories of the violent protests during the 2007/08 food and fuel crisis s ...

For the second time, Côte d'Ivoire is known for being a "miracle economy" –high aggregate GDP growth of 8% per year since 2012. Despite this achievement, its food systems are unable to deliver food security to most Ivoirians. These systems are being undermined by several structural factors, which include broad-based low productivity and limited diversification of its agri-food sector; the high numbers of extremely poor, some 30% of the population; and the vulnerable who are millions ...

Known for being a climate change hotspot, Morocco is at the forefront of a climate disaster. Consequences are already being felt, whether in the form of increasing temperature or a downward trend in precipitations, which directly threaten the water security and, by extension, the social-ecological systems of the country. The systems by which food, energy, and water are produced, distributed, and consumed heavily depend on one another. Their implicit feedbacks and links are not linea ...

Le sommet afro-européen des 17 et 18 février 2022 à Bruxelles marque la sixième édition de la rencontre de haut niveau entre les deux continents. Ce sommet, organisé traditionnellement en alternance entre l’Afrique et l’Europe, intervient dans un contexte régional et international marqué par la perspective de sortie de la pandémie de la Covid-19, l’épreuve de force entre l’Occident et la Russie et les turbulences que connaissent certaines régions africaines. Face à une E ...

Addressing the increasing demands for water, energy, and food requires a coherent methodology to ensure that  societies have access to them and that conflict over them is avoided. For example, agriculture and food production  require water and energy; energy production also requires water and, in some instances, agricultural products.  Water distribution and treatment can be very energy intensive. Therefore, the benefits of approaching the Water- Energy-Food (WEF) nexus in an integr ...

Mauritius  is  a  refutation  of  the  proposition  that  food  self-sufficiency  at  all  costs  is  the  way  to  achieve  food  security.  Mauritius,  a  trade-dependent  island  economy,  imports  around  three  quarters  of  its  food  consumption. It is food self-sufficient in only local vegetables and fruits. Post-independence governments have succeeded in virtually eliminating extreme poverty. Mauritius has grown at an annual average of 5.3% or 4.4% in per-capita terms for d ...

The transformative potential of regional market integration for a large trading bloc is well exemplified by the European Union which started integration on a modest scale. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) also started on a modest scale and has delivered benefits in terms of promoting growth through greater regional market integration, both within ASEAN and in Asia more generally. ASEAN however runs on different principles to the EU (though there are some similariti ...

After completing his studies abroad, Hamza Rkha co-launched a start-up in 2018 with an associate, at 27 years of age. Their company, named SOWIT, is based in Casablanca, Dakar and Paris. It provides data-based decision support tools to African farmers. Through an App and processed satellite images, it helps optimize irrigation, fertilization and phyto-sanitary situations. “We work exclusively in Africa, says Hamza Rkha, with products designed for the weak connectivity of old genera ...

This paper estimates the economic impacts of climate change over the Brazilian regions until the end of the century. We estimate the direct and indirect impact of the projected changes in climate on the yield of the country’s main crops. The results point to a broad spatial heterogeneity of impacts across the country. Using the extreme scenarios created by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (RCP 2.6 and 8.5), our predictions indicate that the average annual losses ...

Within the context of the United Nations Food Systems Summit taking place in September 2021, this brief discusses key drivers of food systems in Africa, as well as the challenges and opportunities for transformation. It concludes with specific policy options that could considerably accelerate progress towards the transformation of food systems across the continent. Specifically, this policy brief makes five recommendations: it recommends that investment in research and development f ...

Cette étude concerne la Communauté économique des Etats d'Afrique de l'Ouest (CEDEAO), rappelant, tout d'abord, leur diversité géographique, démographique et économique. Montrant ce que ces Etats ont en commun mais, aussi, ce qui les différencie. La CEDEAO, qui réunit quinze pays parmi les plus pauvres de la planète, si on se réfère à leur PIB par habitant, en dollar courant ou en parité de pouvoir d'achat/PPA/. Ce qui explique une démographie explosive, sans que l'on puisse dire si ...

Brazil, an oil-exporting nation, was still struggling to recover from the depression which started around 2014/15 when it was hit by a quick succession of shocks: the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price collapse. The global pandemic triggered major economic dislocations and contractions in foreign and domestic markets, which further exacerbated the fall in demand for oil, sending world prices tumbling further. Poverty was already widespread in Brazil pre-pandemic. And despite recen ...

Selected experiences with GMOs in industrialized and developing countries show that the promise of bioengineering for strengthening food security cannot materialize unless and until GMOs are accepted by the vast majority of consumers as being safe and environmentally friendly. To date, the main effort has been on the supply side: bioengineered plants have desirable traits helpful to farmers, e.g., increased yields, resistance to pests, resilience to weather extremes in a warming wor ...

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed new vulnerabilities in social, infrastructure, and governance systems. In the first months of the pandemic, there was a genuine concern about the capacity of the Global South to contain the spread of the virus. African cities were particularly vulnerable, with some experts1, including the head of WHO2, predicting a catastrophe for the continent. Despite the structural and chronic challenges that African cities face, including informality, poverty, a ...