Understanding the Nutrition, Health, Climate Change, Deforestation, and Land Access Nexus

Abstract

Agriculture remains the most dominant socioeconomic sector of the African economy, accounting for over 60% of total job opportunities, in the face of low productivity, minimal value addition capacities, and poor quality among others such that its global agricultural value-added hovers around 2%. This is evident in its high level of food and nutritional insecurity across all agroecological zones in which millions of Africans still live on less than $US2 per day. For most low-income, unemployed and vulnerable farming communities in rural and peri-urban geographies, access to food, especially nutrient dense perishable foods may be undermined. More specifically, approximately 419 million additional people could fall into extreme poverty in 2020, particularly in SSA and South Asia (World Bank 2020). Thus, the study provides compelling evidences to the African Union Commission, its agencies, as well as national governments on targeted support to selected strategic crops in the relevant geographical locations on the continent. In other words, documenting and realizing the impact pathways toward nutritional security and sustainable agri-food outcomes are dynamic, and not linearly associated.