Agricultural economics

Africa can feed itself, if allowed

IPN Opinion article

Author: Douglas Southgate

FAMINES are created by policies, not by pests or droughts. Hunger plagues hundreds of millions of Africans, even though they are capable of feeding themselves. The solution is the right sort of policies. Agricultural production has surpassed population growth and reduced hunger everywhere except in sub-Saharan Africa. Poverty and malnutrition are widespread. Environmental hardships such as soil erosion are omnipresent and are only worsening with primitive techniques of subsistence farming.