Food Crises Pushing More Africans into Poverty

Sanjivi Rajasingham, The World Bank acting Country Director for Comoros, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles and Somalia, said global food and energy crises were causing serious setbacks to many countries’ reforms and growth strategies, including measures to address poverty and inequity. In Liberia, for example, a 25% increase in food prices in January pushed 200,000 people into poverty. The Bank launched a global Food Crisis Response Program and committed $115 million to help severely affected African countries. He was speaking at a round table on the impact of the global food crisis in Eastern and Central Africa  organized by the World Bank, World Food Programme, and the International Livestock Research Institute.

The meeting recommended several measures, including increasing investment in agriculture, emergency relief assistance, helping poor farmers to access farm inputs like fertilizers and high-yielding seeds, boosting production of traditional tuber, cereal and vegetable crops and mainstreaming them into the food chain, improving livestock development, management and marketing structures, and increasing area under irrigation. 

Dr Joseph Karugia, Coordinator of the Regional Strategic Analysis and Knowledge Support System for Eastern and Central Africa, said that with right policies and other support measures, high food prices could be an incentive for farmers to increase food production.

For more information contact Daniel Otunge (d.otunge@cgiar.org) of ISAAA AfriCenter.