Bjornlund Vibeke, Bjornlund Henning, van Rooyen André
UniSA Business School, University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Food Secur. 2022;14(4):845-864. doi: 10.1007/s12571-022-01256-1. Epub 2022 Feb 3.
This article is the third in a series of historical reviews on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), exploring why agricultural production and irrigation schemes are underperforming, and how this contributes to high levels of food insecurity. The expression 'food security' emerged in 1974 following the Sahel and Darfur famines. Despite SSA being a net agricultural exporter, food insecurity has persisted and is increasing. This is largely a legacy of the export-oriented colonial agricultural production systems, which procured scarce fertile land, water and labour to meet the needs of industries and consumers in the Global North. Colonialism also undermined the social contract between traditional leaders and communities, which had been instrumental in managing food scarcity in earlier times. Post-independence, agricultural policies remained focused on exports and neglected critical research and investment: integrating food productions systems into the domestic economy; developing supply chains and associated market, storage and value-adding infrastructure; and introducing appropriate technologies. As a result, Africa is the only region in the world where increased export production caused a decline in per capita food production. African nations should be extracted from the debt accrued due to poor colonial investments, World Bank lending practices, and global currency and interest fluctuations, which have crippled their capacity to support agriculture and improve livelihoods and food security. Farming needs to be profitable, which includes farmers being connected to domestic supply chains and market signals, local value-adding, and post-harvest storage. This will create jobs and increase income earning capacity, which is the key to households' food security.
本文是关于撒哈拉以南非洲（SSA）的一系列历史回顾文章中的第三篇，探讨了农业生产和灌溉计划表现不佳的原因，以及这如何导致了高度的粮食不安全。“粮食安全”这一表述在1974年萨赫勒和达尔富尔饥荒之后出现。尽管撒哈拉以南非洲是农业净出口地区，但粮食不安全状况一直存在且在加剧。这在很大程度上是出口导向型殖民农业生产系统的遗留问题，该系统获取了稀缺的肥沃土地、水和劳动力，以满足全球北方工业和消费者的需求。殖民主义还破坏了传统领袖与社区之间的社会契约，而这种契约在早期应对粮食短缺方面发挥了重要作用。独立后，农业政策仍侧重于出口，忽视了关键的研究和投资：将粮食生产系统融入国内经济；发展供应链及相关市场、储存和增值基础设施；以及引入适当技术。结果，非洲是世界上唯一一个出口产量增加却导致人均粮食产量下降的地区。非洲国家应摆脱因糟糕的殖民投资、世界银行的贷款做法以及全球货币和利率波动而累积的债务，这些因素削弱了它们支持农业、改善生计和粮食安全的能力。农业需要实现盈利，这包括让农民与国内供应链和市场信号相连接、进行本地增值以及开展收获后储存。这将创造就业机会并提高创收能力，而这是家庭粮食安全的关键。
