Food security and African agriculture

Food security has become an important indicator of progress in agricultural development, but it is a concept that is hard to measure and that is context-specific. In this article an attempt is made to understand the four main pillars of food security — namely food availability, access to food, the utilisation of food and stability — in the context of African agriculture. The analysis leads to the conclusion that at least four aspects of the concept need specific attention in the African context: (1) the open-ended nature of the definition of food security; (2) the security aspects of the definition; (3) the effect of instability; and (4) the ‘missing middle’ that lies between the production of farm commodities and the consumption of food products. Future research should concentrate on these aspects in order to better address the challenge of food security in Africa.