Challenges and Opportunities for African Agriculture and Food Security: high food prices, climate change, population growth, and hiv and aids
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Over the past decade, economic and agricultural growth in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has resumed. The secular downward trend in agricultural prices ended in the early 1990s; growing incomes in Asia and Africa, combined with continued rapid population growth, are fueling food demand, which is expected to lead to a gradual upward trend in international real agricultural prices. For Africa the major agricultural growth opportunities will be in regional and domestic markets for food staples. E conomic and agricultural growth have resumed despite continued high population, the AIDS crisis, and the onset of measurable climate change. Climate change will provide both challenges and opportunities, and countries need to strengthen their general capacities to deal with stresses and weather shocks in line with general agricultural development priorities. Population growth adds to the challenge of increasing per capita income and feeding Africa. It will also drive further agricultur al intensification and in many place has led to improvements, rather than deterioration in the natural resource base. The fight against HIV and AIDS in rural areas is lagging badly and will need to be intensified via participatory approaches to prevention, expansion of HIV and AIDS treatment to rural areas, and massive improvements in rural safety nets. To seize the agricultural growth opportunities that derive from recent policy and price trends, SSA will have to support economic grow th via continued sound macroeconomic policies, further improvements in the investment climate, and investments in infrastructure and institutions.