By Rex Raimond, Senior Mediator and Program Director, Meridian Institute

Urbanization and Supply Chain Changes

Agriculture and food systems in Asia and Africa are changing rapidly in positive and exciting ways. Leaders in Asia and Africa are optimistic about the agricultural potential to feed their countries and help provide global food security. By 2050, 6.3 billion people will live in urban areas. In Africa, the  population  is  expected  to  more  than  double  by  2050  and  its  urban  population  is  predicted  to  grow to 60 percent of the total population. Already, urban areas represent the majority of the African food economy and increasing urban food needs and diet diversification are driving rapid increases in demand. Rural-to-urban food supply chains are developing rapidly to meet expanding urban demand.  African entrepreneurs, both large and small, are investing throughout the supply chain, from inputs to processing to retail. These entrepreneurs are helping farmers achieve productivity gains and providing the critical functions that link rural economies to expanding urban markets in Africa.

Governments Play a Critical Role in Creating Enabling Conditions for Growth and Transformation

As the Chicago Council blog series on Growing Food for Growing Cities illustrates, demand increases and changes create challenges and opportunities for governments. New policies and investments are needed to effectively facilitate value chain development and engage local producers in supply chains for urban markets. A number of countries are demonstrating how sound agricultural policy and implementation can result in remarkable growth rates. In African countries that have experienced high agricultural growth (5 to 7 percent), governments have stimulated growth by creating an enabling environment that includes improvements to rural infrastructure and support in sharing the risks associated with delivering commercial services to the “bottom of the pyramid.”

Sound policies and institutional innovations are important elements of encouraging appropriate growth and engaging the private sector to develop markets and supply chains. Political leadership and vision, a coordinated government strategy, and a long-term commitment are essential to facilitating collaboration among smallholder farmers, supply chain actors (including small and medium enterprises and multi-national companies), ministries, development organizations, and consumers.

Challenges in Evolving Food Systems

As food systems evolve, developing countries and their governments are dealing with new challenges, including food safety. Food safety has traditionally been seen as a public health concern, but is increasingly being recognized as an issue of importance to agriculture and food systems. Food safety affects trade, rural incomes, worker productivity, and consumer confidence. It poses new challenges to policymakers, producers, value chain actors, and consumers.

In developing countries, food safety is typically managed in agriculture produce destined for international markets. Managing food safety in domestic markets—including growing urban markets—poses challenges. Protective measures may not be effective or have unintended consequences, for instance if market rejection results in increased home consumption of unsafe foods by smallholder farmers.

Mycotoxin (aflatoxin in particular) contamination is one of the most challenging food safety issues facing Africa. Every day millions of people across the African continent eat aflatoxin-contaminated food that severely jeopardizes their health. Staple foods, including maize and groundnuts, are contaminated by aflatoxins, a primary carcinogen, which is lethal if consumed in high doses. Aflatoxin affects crops in the field and increases along the value chain without mitigating actions. Currently, for most African consumers, these poisons are unavoidable, with the impact being greatest on young children. Aflatoxins are associated with maternal anemia, low birth weight, and wasting and stunting in children.  Even high nutrient value foods for children, such as milk, are contaminated when animals consume aflatoxin contaminated feeds. In addition to the direct health impacts, aflatoxins affect the volume and value of agricultural sector productivity and cause a loss of export earnings.

This vexing food safety problem is now emerging as a priority for many African countries. The Partnership for Aflatoxin Control in Africa (PACA) is a flagship program of the African Union that is building awareness and political support for addressing food safety problems in general and aflatoxin in particular. For the past four years, Meridian Institute has worked with African partners to establish PACA and develop a continent-wise response. Several African countries are taking the lead in establishing platforms for collaboration across agriculture, health, and trade sectors, and facilitating engagement of producers and processors in key affected value chains to map the problem, prioritize and implement actions to mitigate aflatoxin contamination, and bring exposure to safe levels. The approach taken by these countries demonstrates the importance of creating and implementing new policies and institutional structures to address emerging food system challenges.

Despite the challenges, there are many reasons for optimism. Working with many partners, PACA has developed evidence-based approaches to help countries establish policies and programs for aflatoxin mitigation. This is good news for both rural and urban consumers. Research organizations including the CGIAR Centers and their partners have been testing technologies and best practices for controlling aflatoxin in the field and along the value chain. All partners are now exploring effective ways to encourage farmers, traders, processors, consumers and others to use best practices and remove aflatoxins and ultimately other foodborne hazards from the food supply in Africa. Through our work in support of African leaders, we are encouraged by the interest in food systems and the way this framing can help leverage the expertise, interest, and energy of diverse agricultural and food systems actors to develop solutions for complex problems that will benefit the most vulnerable rural and urban populations.