One in three people in Africa is hungry, and most of these hungry people live on small farms.
That’s about 240 million people.
Food production has fallen behind population growth for most of the past two decades, and the number of undernourished people is expected to increase another 30 per cent over the next ten years to reach 645 million.
Under a 'business-as-usual' scenario, with the effects of climate change taken into account, the number of undernourished people in Sub-Saharan Africa could triple between 1990 and 2080.
That's the bad news.
The good news is that most African farms have a medium to high potential for increased productivity. So farms that produce not enough, could produce much more.
For a quarter of a century, Self Help Africa has believed that the key to reducing hunger lies in small farms. It's about treating farming as a business, helping farmers to grow food, increase output, and make a profit from their efforts.
And many others are now coming to the same conclusion.
At the World Food Summit in Rome in late 2009, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations said: "The international community recognizes it has neglected agriculture for many years. Sustained investment in agriculture - especially small-holder agriculture - is acknowledged as the key to food security."
And UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon concluded - "Our job is not just to feed the hungry, but to empower the hungry to feed themselves."
Some African countries have reduced hunger in recent years. Which ones?
The ones that invested in agriculture – Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, Malawi, Rwanda.
Self Help Africa doesn’t distribute food aid.
For 25 years, we’ve distributed food knowledge – new seed, irrigation advice, small loans, access to markets, farming advice, resource management. This helps farmers grow more food.
We believe that with inputs such as these, farmers will lift their families and communities out of hunger and poverty.
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