The number of people facing hunger in Africa is expected to cross the 500 million mark on the Covid-19 induced challenges.
According to the Agricultural Policy Research in Africa(APRA), a continental agricultural policy firm, the pandemic in addition to existing challenges including climate change will double the number of those lacking food from the current 227 million.
Other factors include malnutrition, political unrest and inflation.
Amrita Saha, APRA researcher and Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies say, although households in Africa demonstrated impressive resilience and defied the United Nations World Food Programme’s prediction, the number of those experiencing hunger would double.
''Lockdown restrictions between countries posed one of the biggest challenges which were huge financial losses by halting in-country and cross-border trading,'' says APRA.
This resulted in to decrease in household income that in turn led to higher food insecurity and lower living standards.
The survey shows that the Covid-19 shock brought about by travel restrictions had resulted not so much in a “food production crisis “but into an “income nutrition-livelihood crisis".
This is due to the significant labour shortages and breaks in supply chains that contributed to reduced food supplies and incomes.
The agency further said that there was a lack of state aid and humanitarian relief and social support payments for individuals in Sub-Saharan countries were as low as $5 per person and some could not even obtain the amount.
It also points to discrepancies between support measures provided to urban and rural communities, with the latter being more frequently overlooked.
An associate sociology professor at The University of Ghana, Akosua Darkwah said that the pandemic served to exacerbate and highlight existing concerns, gender imbalance and bias being among them and that women had borne the brunt of Covid 19 related impacts.
“Women in the agricultural sector struggled to access resources previously and Covid -19 only exacerbated the issue,’ Aida Isinika a professor at Sokoine University of Agriculture said.
The researcher recommended various policies to contain the crisis including the adoption of digital innovations to create opportunities for families.
They also want governments to ensure their policies and support measures are more inclusive, encompassing both genders, all age groups and communities.
