## How Africa Can Escape Chronic Food Insecurity Amid Climate Change

_IMF Blog, September 14, 2022_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [How Africa Can Escape Chronic Food Insecurity Amid Climate Change](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/09/14/how-africa-can-escape-chronic-food-insecurity-amid-climate-change)

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## Bibliographic details
- Authors: Laurent Kemoe, Pritha Mitra, Cedric Okou, D Filiz Unsal
- Published: September 14, 2022

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### Overview
- Climate change is intensifying food insecurity across sub-Saharan Africa, compounded by Russia’s war in Ukraine and the pandemic.
- Climate events destroy crops and disrupt food transport, aggravating shortages, high prices, and slower economic growth.
- A new IMF policy paper examines fiscal and financial policies and reforms, including technology transfer, to reduce damage and help countries adapt.

### Climate impacts and vulnerabilities
- One-third of the world’s droughts occur in sub-Saharan Africa.
- Ethiopia and Kenya are enduring one of the worst in at least four decades.
- Countries such as Chad are being severely impacted by torrential rains and floods.
- Most people live in rural agricultural and fishing communities that can’t afford infrastructure to protect them from adverse weather.
- Less than 1 percent of arable land is equipped with irrigation.
- Weather-sensitive domestic food production leads to heavy reliance on imports, with some 85 percent coming from outside the region.
- Weather shocks in supplier regions and weather events that raise transportation costs are passed on to consumers and can erode foreign reserves and weigh on exchange rates.

### How government interventions affect food security
- Untargeted interventions can be inefficient and:
  - Weigh on national budgets.
  - Inflate food prices.
  - Impede competition.
  - Reduce crop yields.
- Examples of problematic interventions:
  - Price controls and numerous and lengthy regulatory processes disincentivize food production, storage, and trade.
  - Subsidies for fertilizer and seeds drive overuse and suppress crop diversification.
- Targeted government involvement can be beneficial, e.g., supporting research and development in building resilience and agricultural productivity.
- Prioritizing policies that best protect the poor is key amid financing and capacity constraints.

### Fiscal and financial policies (policy tools)
- Climate-resilient public investment protects food production and distribution and can create jobs and catalyze private investment.
- Examples of infrastructure and technology:
  - Solar power that facilitates irrigation, water access, and temperature control for food storage.
  - Flood barriers that protect ports and roads critical to food distribution.
  - Digitalization providing farmers access to early warning systems, mobile banking, platforms to purchase fertilizers and seeds, and marketplaces to sell produce.
- Social cash transfers:
  - Targeted and far-reaching social cash transfers help people buy food and rebuild after weather shocks.
  - Cash transfers allow families and small businesses to invest in resilience-building equipment and technology.
  - By offering people control of the support they receive, these cash transfers are more effective at containing inequality than agricultural subsidies.
- Access to finance:
  - Developing financial markets takes time; in the interim, micro-finance or public-private partnerships can provide credit.
  - Establishing collateral through advances in property rights is crucial.
    - With World Bank support, Mozambique and Tanzania are expanding title and survey registers and developing digital land administrative services.
    - A pilot project in Ghana uses blockchain technology to improve incomplete or missing land records.

### Cost-effective structural reforms
- Trade liberalization and import diversification can help stabilize regional food supply and prices.
  - Example: Zambia’s big maize harvest could have helped offset shortfalls elsewhere in Southern Africa if not for a ban on exporting the crop.
- Access to larger markets can:
  - Incentivize investment in agricultural production networks and value chains.
  - Spread knowledge, such as how to plant drought-resistant crops.
  - Spur competition.
- The Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 countries covers most goods and services.
- Empowered producer organizations can:
  - Reach remote climate-vulnerable agricultural communities.
  - Spread new technologies such as digital pest-control devices and high-yield seeds that tolerate heat and drought.
  - Improve climate adaptation training and market information.
  - Aggregate production and sell directly to consumers to increase negotiating power, reduce storage costs, lengthen contracts, expand profit margins, and open access to new markets.
- Regulatory streamlining and better targeting can help build resilience:
  - Appropriate water-use regulations reduce the cost for farmers to establish and expand irrigation systems.
  - Efficient seed registration, like in Kenya, multiplies seed supply and access to resilient seeds.
  - Fertilizer testing, labeling, and registration requirements help farmers access contaminant-free fertilizers appropriate for specific weather shocks, soil, and crops.

### Financing, capacity development, and technology transfer
- Financing constraints:
  - With mounting debt and limits to raising taxes, countries in sub-Saharan Africa will need grants and concessional finance.
- Capacity development and technology transfer priorities:
  - Development partners can support resilience-building research and propagate climate and financial literacy.
  - Financing, capacity development, and transfer of technology and know-how are key to supporting public investment, digitalization, financial inclusion, and structural reforms.

### IMF engagement
- The IMF is supporting countries through climate-oriented public financial management advice and lending facilities.
- The Resilience and Sustainability Trust is soon to be operational and will provide longer-term affordable financing to address climate change and other challenges.

### Key statistics and facts (verbatim)
- "One-third of the world’s droughts occur in sub-Saharan Africa."
- "Less than 1 percent of arable land is equipped with irrigation."
- "Some 85 percent [of food imports] coming from outside the region."
- "Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement among 54 countries."
- "Resilience and Sustainability Trust."

*Source: IMF blog post "How Africa Can Escape Chronic Food Insecurity Amid Climate Change" (September 14, 2022).*

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## References

- [which destroy crops and disrupt food transport](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/SSA/Issues/2020/04/01/sreo0420)
- [Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement](https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/REO/SSA/Issues/2019/04/01/sreo0419)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2022/09/14/how-africa-can-escape-chronic-food-insecurity-amid-climate-change_