africa

25. Feeding Africa’s Growing
Population
John M. Omiti and Nancy M. Laibuni
Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis
25.1 Introduction
This paper explores issues related to ensuring that Africa can feed its ever-growing
population: reducing food loss and waste; increasing access to markets; reducing
yield gaps between Africa and other developing regions; improving technology for
post-harvest management; and improving governance, in order to achieve better
management of natural resources and strengthen the resilience of vulnerable communities.
Looking ahead, the amount of food needed for Sub-Saharan Africa’s people will
need to increase with population growth. It is estimated that the region’s population
will double from 856 million in 2012 to about two billion in 2050 (UN Population
Division, 2010). To be able to feed this growing population, Africa needs to invest
more in agriculture, to raise overall output, to increase the resilience of output to
shocks such as those from bad weather, and to raise the productivity of land and
labor. African countries also need to take measures to reduce food wastage and to
strengthen the resilience of poor communities to forces that threaten their food supply.
Section 25.2 reviews issues in the reduction of food loss and wastage and Section
25.3 gives recommendations for improving food and nutrition security in the
continent. The last section recommends ways to reduce food loss and wastage.
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