Dear Colleagues,

“Food Security” can be defined as a state when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life” (FAO 1996). In addition to being essential to human existence, food security is fundamental to achieving economic growth, job creation, poverty reduction and global security. For the same reason, the United Nations has made achieving “zero hunger” an integral part of its Sustainable Development Goals 2030 (SDG) (SDG #2).

Despite major efforts by national governments and multinational agencies, achieving food security remains a major challenge in many developing countries. According to FAO estimates, in 2019, the total number of moderately and severely food insecure people globally totaled 2 billion (FAO et al. 2020). Of these, 1.03 billion live in Asia, 675 million in Africa and 205 million in Latin America and the Caribbean. The estimates of current prevalence of undernourishment tell a similar story. In 2019, nearly 690 million people were undernourished globally, which is approximately 8.9% of the total population (FAO et al. 2020). Among them, 250 million people were in Africa (19.1% of Africa’s population), 381 million in Asia (8.3% of Asia’s population) and 48 million in Latin America and the Caribbean (7.4% of the population).

A major way to achieve food security is to eradicate poverty (SDG #1), given that the former is often caused by the latter. The African continent is a prime example of places where both poverty and food insecurity coexist in their worst forms. According to FAO estimates, Africa is significantly off-track in achieving the zero-hunger target in 2030. By 2030, it is estimated that the prevalence of undernourishment in the region will increase from the current rate of 19.1% to 25.7%. This is primarily attributed to the poor plight of Small Holder Farmers (SHFs), who produce around 80% of the total food consumed in Africa (FAO 2011). Given that a major way to achieve the SDG of zero hunger is by increasing agricultural productivity and facilitating sustainable food production (United Nations 2016), transforming the agricultural sector, enhancing production efficiencies and creating opportunities for vulnerable SHFs and others working in food systems are policy priorities.

Food Security Challenges

Major barriers to the achievement of food security (SDG#2) include poverty (SDG#1), lack of access to health (SDG#3), lack of access to education (SDG#4) and inadequate infrastructure (SGD#9). In addition to these traditional barriers, emerging threats covered by other SDGs such as armed conflicts, climate change, pandemics and novel economic shocks also pose significant threats to food security. For example, most of the recent increase in food insecurity can be attributed to the increasing number of armed conflicts, often exacerbated by climate-related shocks (FAO et al. 2020). More than half of all undernourished people in the world live in countries struggling with conflict, violence and fragility (FAO et al. 2017). The growing number of armed conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially in Burundi, the Central African Republic, Côte D’Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and South Sudan, have contributed to the increase in food insecurity in the region (FAO et al. 2020; ACLED 2019). Armed conflicts, when unabated for long periods of time, impair all dimensions of food security, from the ability to access food to the availability of supplies and the livelihoods of rural communities, along with the production chains that ensure the distribution of food (George, Adelaja, and Weatherspoon 2019; FAO et al. 2020).

The lack of resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards and natural disasters (SDG#13) also pose challenges to the achievement of food security. Climate-related shocks affect the availability of and access to key resources such as land and water, thereby causing significant negative impacts on crop yields (IPCC 2007). Economic shocks also contribute to food insecurity. For example, food security challenges have been attributed to domestic and global economic shocks (Akter and Basher 2014; Kavallari, Fellmann, and Gay 2014; Brinkman et al. 2010). Most recently, the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened the food insecurity conditions in many countries (ILO 2020). Preliminary assessments suggest that the recent COVID-19 pandemic may add between 83 to 132 million people to the total number of undernourished people in 2020 (FAO et al. 2020).

Impacts of Shocks to Food Security

The challenges posed by conflicts, climate challenges and economic shocks have been well investigated in recent literature (Adelaja and George 2019a; George, Adelaja, and Weatherspoon 2019; Adelaja and George 2019b; Buhaug et al. 2015; Hsiang, Burke, and Miguel 2013). However, very little is known about some of the emerging new threats to food and agricultural security. The list of emerging and continuing threats that the literature has not adequately empirically addressed includes (1) recent forced displacement, (2) recent major health epidemics and pandemics, (3) recent special economic shocks (for countries that are natural-resource-dependent) and (4) recent political instability (for countries experiencing unusual political problems). Key to sustainability is the development of resilience and adaptive capacity to withstand the current and emerging shocks.

Proposed Focus of Special Issue

The proposed Special Issue of Sustainability will focus on the emerging threats and shocks to food and agricultural security in SSA, specifically the threats related to armed conflicts, forced displacements, pandemics, emerging economic challenges and possible political challenges. As co-editors, we shall attract leading scholars to produce new scholarship aimed at filling the gap in the literature, advancing knowledge about new threats, and providing insights on policy and strategy solutions to dealing with such threats.

Prof. Adesoji O. Adelaja
Prof. Dr. Justin George Kappiaruparampil
Guest Editors

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