Speaker Abbas Laments Heavy Burden Of Global Food Insecurity On Africa

The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, has decried that the burden of food insecurity in the world is heaviest on African.

He, however, noted that the parliaments on the continent could address some of the issues causing food crisis.

Abbas made this known while delivering an address at the third plenary session of the ongoing 18th Commonwealth Speakers’ and Presiding Officers’ Conference (CSCOP) in Yaoundé, Cameroon, on Thursday.

The Speaker’s address was titled: ‘Addressing Challenges of Food Security in Africa by Promoting Investment in Agriculture.’

“While food insecurity is a global crisis, Africa sadly bears the heaviest burden of the global lack of access to food and nutrition.

“The 2022 Global Report on Food Crises noted that one out of every five African goes to bed hungry daily while an estimated 140 million out of Africa’s one billion populations face acute food insecurity.

“These observations have been made by various speakers in this session, and there are several causes for this challenge,” Abbas said while addressing other heads of parliaments.

According to the Speaker, some of the factors causing food crisis in Africa are armed conflicts; climate change; impact of the COVID-19 pandemic; rising population; subsistence farming and crude agricultural practices; lack of access to credit, poor infrastructure, and lack of investment in agri-business, among others.

Abbas noted that the movement of the herds “often destroys farmlands and crops, which triggers retaliatory action from farmers who in turn, slaughter the livestock of the herders,” stressing that, “These two actions further worsen the food crisis as both livestock and crops are destroyed.

“Our food insecurity is equally exacerbated with the poor infrastructure within the continent which ensures that farmers are unable to preserve produce, transform them as well as move their produce to urban centres for better pricing.”