Africa Agriculture Status report 2020: Feeding Africa's Cities
Urban populations are growing faster in Africa than all other regions of the world. Feeding Africa’s cities, and providing access to good quality food, presents a major challenge but also a major opportunity to the continent’s 60 million farms. The report focuses on ‘Feeding Africa’s Cities’ by assessing the opportunities, challenges and policies required to enable African farmers and agribusinesses to serve rapidly growing urban food markets. The report seeks to find ways for smallholder farmers to drive food security, rural prosperity, and inclusive economic growth. The report begins by outlining the opportunities provided by Africa's urban food markets to the continent’s 60 million farms. It indicates that cities shape Africa’s agribusiness environment by affecting patterns of agricultural production and inducing rapid expansion of food processing and distribution. After recognizing the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, the report defines five focus areas in a bid to overcome the problem of urban under-nutrition and accelerate the urgency of urban food system planning. The report was launched on the opening day of the 10th African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), which was held virtually from September 8 to 11, 2020.
