US officials have said that food insecurity in Africa will worsen this year due to climate change, conflict and market disruptions caused in part by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Cary Fowler, special envoy for Global Food Security, told journalists online from Malawi on Thursday that finding solutions remains critical.
“As much as I wish I could bring the hopeful message that the food crisis will be over this year, we have to recognize that the chief drivers of the food crisis are still with us,” Fowler said. “And it behooves us, therefore, to be looking at solutions for all of those, or adaptive measures. That’s the situation as I see it today.”
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According to the 2022 Global Food Crisis Report, one in every five Africans goes to bed hungry, and at least 140 million people on the continent face acute food insecurity.
African farmers continue to practice traditional farming methods, but the weather has been unpredictable in recent years, causing farmers to produce less food. Farmers complain about high seed and fertilizer prices and a failure to produce enough food for the population.
Drought also has contributed to food insecurity in some parts of the continent, particularly the Horn of Africa, destroying livestock and crops and forcing people to rely on humanitarian assistance for food and medicine.
In 2022, the U.S. government invested $11 billion in humanitarian assistance in 55 countries, including some from Africa.
Dina Esposito, the USAID Global Food Crisis Coordinator, said her government is also supporting African farmers in producing their own food to overcome hunger and food insecurity.
“We have also got a global hunger initiative that is exactly focused on what are the right systems and approaches to advancing agriculture, taking that very localized context in mind, advancing drip irrigation and other forms of water-saving measures where it makes sense, helping farmers adapt to a changing climate in other ways, fundamentally always looking – we see our role really as helping these farmers shift from subsistence farming to more intensified and sustainable production,” she said.
Esposito also said that the U.S. government is committed to partnering with leaders to advance global food insecurity and solve global hunger.
Story was adapted from VOA.
