Support smallholder farmers to end extreme hunger

By Mubatsi Asinja Habati

Eastern Uganda: Each time I read about hunger crises in Africa I am left wondering whether it is due to poor soils or lack of leadership in agriculture. Recently I have come to the conclusion that it is the lack of committed leadership and attention to the agriculture sector that has partly contributed to the current hunger crises on the continent especially in the horn of Africa.

Governments have not demonstrated enough leadership to guide the smallholder farmers that dominate most of agricultural economies to increase food productivity. The budget allocation to agriculture extension services remains incredibly low compared to the size of the population that depends merely on the sector. Farmers get neither enough extension services nor are they given early warning information regarding weather predictions so that they can make informed decisions on when to plant and which varieties to plant.

The farmers largely use rudimentary technology in crop production leading low crop acreage and poor yields and no fertilizers are used. This is in spite of several African governments signing the Maputo declaration pledging to commit at least 15% of their budget to agriculture.

Last year a Charter to End Extreme Hunger, a document drawn up by a coalition of international and African aid agencies, was launched at the United Nations in September. The Charter outlines concrete steps that governments must take to make extreme hunger crises a thing of the past. In an Op-ed, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo urged African governments to pledge to fulfill their commitments to end extreme hunger by heeding early drought warnings and setting up social safety nets for the poor. Obasanjo argued that African governments can start with supporting local food production, a limited use of food export bans, judiciously and carefully tapping into emergency food reserves as steps that can be taken to mitigate this effect.

More specifically, he urges African countries to back initiatives such as the African-led Productive Safety Net Programme funded by African and Western countries whereby cash and food transfers are made to millions of poor farmers in Ethiopia, which gives them a more secure and predictable income, protecting them against sudden hunger crises. Subsistence farming dominates agriculture in most of Africa. Yet little or no government support is given to smallholder farmers who feed millions of across the world.

In Uganda, for example, a government programme on agriculture known as National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS) targets the “poor but active farmers” effectively locking out millions of smallholder farmers from benefitting from the programme. This leaves other farmers sidelined yet they too contribute to the production system. In some areas the government programme has been highly politicized locking out people who supposedly don’t support the current government.

Action Aid International Uganda warns that millions will go hungry if we fail to invest in smallholder farming. Women farmers, in particular are a vital but seldom seen as part of the solution. Eight out of 10 of the world’s smallholder farmers are women, and it is these farmers who produce half the world’s food. In Uganda, women smallholder farmers produce 80% of the food and represent 70% of the farming labor, yet only 20% own land. It will be a combination of investing in small farmers and ensuring land rights of women that will make hunger history on the continent. Action Aid argues that women smallholder farmers play a key role in feeding the 30+ million people in Uganda today and therefore they must be protected from both the current food crisis and the threat of climate change.

Floods caused by extreme weather conditions in Teso sub-region in Eastern Uganda have increased the area’s vulnerability to food insecurity and but government is yet to step in to avert the possible famine here. Finding ways to increase food security in communities living within regions hardest hit by the current food crisis and those being heavily impacted by the increasing erratic weather patterns, could work as a launch pad to ending extreme hunger in the region.

Let us tap into the gift of fertile soils to end hunger in Africa. Starting projects that support women smallholder farmers will make communities to become more food secure as we encourage them to adopt climate change resilient agricultural systems.

Mubatsi Asinja Habati is a Ugandan journalist and blogger.