Southern Africa’s Food Problem Sarju Patel01/25/2014

Mr. McDougold & Mr. HonerTilton School

Thirty-thousand kids starve to death everyday. Hunger is one of the biggest problems in

the world, and there are many solutions that can be put into play to save the lives of the hungry.

People who do not get a sufficient amount of food lack energy to concentrate, study, and work.

Hungry children develop more slowly both physically and mentally than well-fed children. In

order to solve big problems like this, one thing cannot be done to fix it. Many small things must

be done, and like any great thing, it takes commitment and time. In the southern part of Africa,

the poor cannot get their hands on good nutritious food every day. This hunger problem is

serious because a lot of people in southern Africa, like Zimbabwe, South Africa, etc., don’t know

when their next meal will be.

To try and gain this privilege, Africans are working with small plots of land trying to

make a living well enough to support themselves, and possibly a family. Problems in southern

Africa along with the lack of money to purchase food are food availability, food access, food

utilization, and stability of food supply. Lately, Africa is becoming more urbanized, and one of

the main things they’re doing when urbanizing societies is adding more supermarkets to give

people a constant, reliable, and healthy food source at a reasonable price. Also, these

supermarkets could pair well with little food markets and shacks. This has not worked though

because there has been a lot of controversy.

The following can be done: give them better work; help them grow food; build irrigation

canals; support rural banking; improve rural communications; provide training for the farmers.

Lastly, women must be empowered. A study shows that 43% of agricultural labor force in

developing countries around the world are women. If women would be given the same amount of

access to land, technology, etc. as men, the number of poor in southern Africa would drop about

150 million. Applying these ideas into the solution that already exists could give southern

Africans the privilege that most Americans have everyday, which is good nutritious food.

Allowing them to have access to food will give them the opportunity to recreate themselves, and

live in a good, healthy environment.

While many parts of southern Africa are rich, such as the country of South Africa,

which is the 25th richest country (by GPD) in the world, about one out of four people are food

insecure, and don’t know when their next meal will be. The problem in Africa is not the lack of

food grown. The problem lays in failure of distribution and a waste in great amounts of quality

food. While the idea of establishing supermarkets in poorer areas of South Africa is a semi-

beneficial, this solution may still never benefit, or even reach the poorest of poor. The number of

people that are at this level of poverty are high. The following statistic should paint an image of

poverty numbers. In Cape Town, South Africa, a survey taken in 2011 found that over 80 percent

of households in the low income area were either moderately or severely food insecure. Numbers

like these prove that Africa needs help. While the food may be there, it is not distributed well

enough to attend to the community as a whole.

The first cause of hunger is food availability. While Africans do have a good amount of

food, Africans have many problems which are keeping them from having a food source large

enough to bear a hand to a majority, if not all, of the South African community. There are many

obstacles when it comes to farming in Africa. According to World Bank, Africa will lose over

half of its farming land to drought and extreme heat due to climate change (which Africa is one

of the main victims for). Their weather is very hot and dry, the farmers of Africa are not very

experienced or experts in agriculture, and the number of farmers in Africa are slim. To overcome

these issues, more Africans must try to work more with the field of agriculture. Since Africans

have many hardships when farming, like weather, they must multiply their number of farmers.

Farming has been a major struggle in Africa, including Zimbabwe, whose agricultural output has

plummeted since the early 2000’s. Alot of organisations are attempting to help with African

agriculture by researching and finding solutions to significant problems. The United Nations

World Food Programme have hypothesized that the plunge of agriculture is due to the near

drought-like weather. The Masdar Institute of Science and Technology (a graduate level

university focused on advanced energy and sustainable technologies) has been researching,

trying to find a solution to help northern Africa, southern Africa, the Caribbean, and other arid

lands in need of agricultural aid. Masdar Institute has attempted to create technology that will

allow for quality agriculturing to take place, in spite of the arid climate. They are doing this

while working along side other prestigious organizations like the International Center for

Biosaline Agriculture and the World Future Energy Summit (WFES). Together they are working

towards the development of agricultural and water management techniques which are adapted to

arid regions of the world, like the southern parts of Africa. Along with weather, agricultural

training would be beneficial to Africans. This would allow farmers to grow better crops to earn

better profits. Countries like Zimbabwe are beginning to get frustrated because inexperienced

and unknowledgeable farmers are getting the scarce farmland in their country. Giving farmers

experience by teaching could help the flow of money and lead to more productive farming.

Another way to help farmers, due to bad farming weather, would be to build irrigation

canals. Irrigation canals are man-made waterway used to transport water from a water source to

enhance farming soil. Canals could solve farming problems due to dryness. This would allow for

more food availability throughout southern Africa. Along with availability, another problem is

access. Even if Africa creates more farmers and grows more food, no problems will be solved if

food isn’t available to all the parts of South Africa, from rich to poor. To solve this, Africa must

establish many small food markets throughout towns. These markets must have some foods

affordable by the poorest of the poor in southern Africa. Acts like these could help all of the area,

from the poorest to richest.

Another cause of hunger in southern Africa is food utilization and stabilization of food.

In other words, the use and balance of food. Food utilization doesn’t only apply to Africa, but

applies to the world as a whole. The world must strive to not waste food. Food is a precious item,

and shouldn’t go to waste. Some of your leftover food could feed a hungry child in Africa. Along

with smart usage, the people must also stabilize their food. This has two meanings: 1) Africans

must preserve their food for as long as possible. and 2) When they have the option, they must try

to eat the healthier and more nutritious foods. These two ideas of usage and preservation are

more applicable once there is access to food, but they are still very important.

Along with all these problems, one of the main causes leading to hunger in southern

Africa is lack of money in the hands of the people. While there is a fair number of rich people in

southern areas of Africa, there is also a large number of poor who cannot afford food (such as

supermarkets). These people are the ones who are seeking the most help. In order to help them, a

few ideas need to be put into play. In order to help, Africa must support rural banking and

improve rural communications. Rural banking is a form of banking for countries that were in

need of help. This would keep money flowing, and would allow for the poor to maintain their

money in order to obtain good food from markets. Another helpful act could be improvements of

rural communications, or services. Services could be helpful because some Africans may not

know what to do with their money and how to take care of it. Services could really boost the

economy and could really help the people of South Africa. Solutions like these could really help

the people of southern Africa take care of their money, and this would allow them to manage

their money while buying food.

One of the biggest solutions that is being overlooked is the empowerment of women.

Women have as much capability as men. Also, empowering women would double the amount of

work done, and many more jobs would be handed out, which means more would get done.

Empowering women in agricultural and other fields of work could bring more money into

families in southern Africa, which would bring more food for families. Women could farm and

work rural communication services which help Africans maintain their money, use it properly,

etc. Things like these could open up the gate to a rise in employment numbers. A rise in

employment would bring more money into the hands of Africans, which allows for more good,

nutritious food to be purchased. Women could be the answer to Africa’s problems, because they

have the potential to bring money to the families, poor and rich, of southern Africa. Money will

bring food to the table.

Hunger is a big issue in Africa which needs work to be fixed. As of January 14, the

United Nations World Food Programme has aimed to raise 60 million dollars in order to save

about 2 million Zimbabweans from hunger. Organizations like this prove that hunger is a huge

concern that needs attention, and the WFP is doing all they can to help Zimbabwe’s poor and

hungry. People in America, and other places around the world, don’t realize how privileged they

are to have a hot meal in front of them three times a day. People all over southern Africa do the

same work as anyone else around the world, with a much lesser profit. This profit cannot even

allow them to provide for their families. Africa has an opportunity to bring food into their poor

communities of southern Africa by doing many small things that will make a big impact. Doing

all these things will help, if not solve, hunger in southern Africa.

Works Cited

"Hunger Relief Concert Set Sunday." Kilgore News Herald (TX) 22 Jan. 2014: n. pag. EBSCOHOST. Web. 25 Jan. 2014.

<http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=4&sid=faec67d3-b4ce-4a6a-bc57-20ba876ab127%40sessionmgr4004&hid=4204&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=2W6675374985>.

"UN Seeks 60 Million Dollars to Tackle Hunger in Zimbabwe." Qatar News Industry 14 Jan. 2014: n. pag. Print. The news article titled, UN Seeks 60 million dollars to Tackle Hunger in Zimbabwe, was founded on Ebscohost search database. This article gave me insightful information on hunger in Zimbabwe.

This article, from a Herald in Texas, gave me insights on hunger. Ludden, Jennifer. "Malawian Farmers Say Adapt To Climate Change Or Die." Morning Edition (NPR) 01 Jan. 2014: n. pag. EBSCOHOST. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. <http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=4&sid=da917715-deac-4b4d-806e-a78c55404bba%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4204&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=6XN201401011003>. This article gave me many information on the Climate of Africa.

"Masdar Institute and International Center for Biosaline Agriculture to Collaborate on Agricultural and Water Scarcity Solutions." WAM Adu Dhabi 20 Jan. 2014: n. pag. EBSCOHOST. Web. 25

Jan. 2014. <http://web.ebscohost.com/src/detail?vid=3&sid=438f6f5b-f99b-4f87-b29a-9119799951f4%40sessionmgr4003&hid=4204&bdata=JnNpdGU9c3JjLWxpdmU%3d#db=nfh&AN=6FI2181618745>. This site allowed me to research on the Masdar Institute and their work in different climate regions of the world.

Moseley, William, Stephen Peyton, and Jane Battersby. "The Real Solution to South Africa's Food Problem." Aljazeera. Aljazeera, 08 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. This site gave me good information on hunger in the country of South Africa.

"FoodBank South Africa." The Problem. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2014. This sight gave great information on the country of South Africa and hunger, along with a video full of information. Katz, Chelsea.