Africa, Food, and Agriculture

Abstract

IntroductionAfrican food security depends largely onagriculture. Agriculture supports the livelihoods of 80 % ofthe population and employs approximately 60 % of theeconomically active population, including some 70 % of thepoorest people on the planet. The continent has the largestagricultural area per person in the developing world andcontains about 11 % of both the world’s arable land and theworld’s population (Bank 2008). Plantation and corporate farmingexist, but smallholder, family-owned subsistence agriculture,using simple implements like hoes and cutlasses, is the dominantsystem, with some commercial activity in local trading.Subsistence farming is ``a livelihood strategy where the mainoutput is consumed directly, where there are few if anypurchased inputs and where only a minor proportion of output ismarketed.''Agricultural inputs commonly include water throughirrigation and fertilizers to increase yield. Only 3.7 % ofAfrica is irrigated, ho ...