Perils of Hunger, Food Insecurity in Southern Africa- Challenges & Opportunities

By Menghestab HaileJOHANNESBURG, South Africa, Apr 5 2022 (IPS) Food systems are under severe stress around the world now. The thresholds of tolerance are already exceeding limits with millions facing acute food and water scarcity throughout all continents. Over a quarter of Africa’s population are facing hunger and food insecurity. Conflict, droughts, flooding, rising unemployment, inequality, economic crises, and the impacts of Covid-19 pandemic have been ravaging the Continent on an unprecedented scale. Menghestab HaileIn Southern Africa, the food systems are heavily dependent on traditional small holder farmers who are mostly women and old men and is largely reliant on rainfed agriculture which is highly vulnerable to climate change. These are compounded by very high youth unemployment and unfortunately the youth are not interested in working in agriculture in its current form. Evidence points out that more than 50 million people are acutely food insecure, mostly women and children with 36 million of them in Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) 3 and 4. Weather extremes that disrupted recent growing seasons are again wreaking havoc. The last quarter of 2021 was one of the driest for 40 years in southern Madagascar, southern Tanzania, northern Mozambique, southern Angola, Namibia and most of Malawi. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the world’s biggest hunger emergency, home to Africa’s largest population of IDPs and biggest source of refugees, a...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Armed Conflicts Climate Change COVID-19 Economy & Trade Environment Food and Agriculture Food Security and Nutrition Food Sustainability Global Headlines Inequality Labour TerraViva United Nations IPS UN Bureau Source Type: news