“There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread”.
Mahatma Gandhi

Africa Knows about those harvests that bring the bread, she knows about the toil of sowing seed and the prayers for rain that come or do not come in season, or too heavily or too late. She knows about the pain of hunger and the eventual sweet solace of bread. So, why is Africa often hungry? It makes no sense. More than Asia, where the Wisdom of Mahatma Ghandi comes, Africa has a great diversity of crops that are a result of the great variety of landscapes, soils, climates and cultures that ought to make it the bread basket of the world.

In 2008, the global production of major cereal crops set a world record of about 2.15 billion tons. The harvest was large enough for food or feed but also to rebuild dangerously depleted global grain reserves.

And yet Africa still struggles to feed its people, hunger has never been so rampant, with nearly 220 million Africans lacking food eat day. Food prices across Africa rose by more than 60 percent in 2008, and despite the global recession, commodity prices will still rise again.

So, who will feed the hunger? Most likely, it will not be international donor agencies air dropping food for famished children across the region. God may not appear in the form of bread, but the bread will appear from the hands of small holder farmers, most of them women, who till the soil daily and provide the food that feeds the hungry in Africa today. More than 80% of most countries in sub-Saharan African relies on rural produce from women farmers who need more support, quality seeds, better fertilizer and irrigated land to secure the crop.

Africa needs a “Green Revolution” soon. Organisations such as AGRA “Agriculture for a Green Revolution” based in Nairobi Kenya and Accra, Ghana, are working with the richest global partners – G8 countries and others to invest over $10billion to near-term food aid and longer term agricultural development.

After harvests often comes famine, the old cycle of boom and bust. With climate change affecting the impact of all investments, Africans farmers must build resilience in ways that they have never done before. And yet, I truly believe that we carry within us all the answers we seek without. Africaknows.com is a celebration of that knowing.

Photo Credit: A dry and empty landscape during the height of the 2009 drought in Gilgil, Kenya.