• Summary :
    • Background and rationale:

Food security is currently facing a critical juncture, necessitating fresh reflections and approaches. Despite three decades of steady improvements, the goal of "ending hunger and malnutrition" is one of the few Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) that is deteriorating, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where the prevalence of food insecurity is the highest globally and continues to rise (FAO, 2023). The newly available Food Price for Nutrition database reveals that a significant portion of the African population cannot afford sufficient calories, nutrient adequacy, or a healthy diet, leading to severe health issues and further impeding local social and economic development. This crisis is partly due to the continent's heavy reliance on food imports, with intra-African trade making up a minimal portion of total food imports. Recent challenges such as climate change, pandemics, conflicts, and new geopolitical conditions have exacerbated the situation by affecting global food supply chains, prompting many Sub-Saharan African countries to seek "food sovereignty" by boosting domestic supply and intra-African trade through regional trade agreements like COMESA, SADC, ECOWAS, and the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA).

The potential of AfCFTA and regional agreements to enhance food security and environmental sustainability hinges on the depth of these agreements and their enforcement. While shallow agreements focus on tariff removal, deeper agreements incorporate additional policy issues like nutrition, food safety, and environmental provisions, which are crucial for improving food quality and safety. However, for Non-Tariff Measures (NTMs) associated with these agreements to be effective, small-scale and resource-poor African farmers must comply with them, which is challenging due to the "lemons" problem where the quality of food products is not directly observable, affecting market dynamics and limiting incentives for supplying higher-quality products. Despite these challenges, small-scale African farmers have shown they can improve product quality when there is a clear reward for doing so. However, the lack of accessible quality assessment and certification bodies, along with the high costs of certification, remain significant barriers. Addressing these issues requires food system-level transformations coordinated by effective public policies to ensure the emergence and sustainability of quality recognition and certification systems, thereby supporting smallholder farmers and enhancing food security across the continent.

  • Objective :
  • General : to study conditions for increased intra-African trade of major food products

 

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  • Specific :
  • To assess the potential for quality improvements in current food production originating from domestic small-scale farmers.
  • To investigate conditions for the emergence and sustainability of scalable recognition and certification systems for the quality attributes of food products that originate from the overwhelmingly small-scale African farmers.
  • To assess the impact of related food systems transformation on farmers’ income, consumers’ diets, intra-African trade, and environmental preservation.
  • To develop in-depth research on the research-to-policy nexus as a means to enhance evidence-based policy decisions in food system transformations, leveraging its strong partnerships with local and international stakeholders
    • Main methods :

The methodology for the AfriGAP study encompasses comprehensive primary data collection and the utilization of secondary data sources, focusing on Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire, with the aim of capturing a wide array of agricultural, economic, and nutritional information.

In both Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire, the study will conduct panel surveys targeting an expected sample of 1500-2000 farmers across 200-250 locations within each country. Detailed information will be gathered on:

  • Household Level: Characteristics of households and farms, overall production and commercialization choices, consumption patterns, and food security outcomes.
  • Plot level: Field contour and GPS location, soil and crop samples, and crop-cut data at harvest time to assess agricultural practices and outcomes.
  • Additional panel data collection efforts will include:
  • Urban consumers: Around 300 urban consumers in each country will be surveyed to collect data on household characteristics, consumption choices, nutrition outcomes, and information on frequently consumed food items.
  • Value chain intermediaries: Approximately 100 intermediaries in each country will provide data on trading patterns.
  • National and international stakeholders: Data from an expected sample of 25 stakeholders will document the level and evolution of strategic engagement towards quality certification.
  • Food importers: Around 50 importers from Burkina Faso and Kenya will be surveyed to understand their willingness to trade quality certified crops from Côte d’Ivoire and Ethiopia, respectively.

Laboratory analyses: crop and soil samples will be analyzed at a single laboratory location using ICP-OES and CHNS equipment for homogenous analyses of crop and soil characteristics

Secondary data will complement primary data to generate broader geographic and temporal estimates of key indicators.

Sources include:

  • Remote Sensing Data: From platforms like NASA’s MERRA-2, Sentinel-2, and Landsat/MODIS fusion data, along with FAO’s GAEZv4 data.
  • Trade Data: Both formal and informal trade data from WACTAF and FEWSNET.
  • Price Data: Time and geographically disaggregated data from the Ethiopian Statistical Agency and Ivorian Institut National de la Statistique, and the Food Prices for Nutrition database.
  • Household Survey Data: Large-scale, multi-country, and multi-year data from the World Bank’s LSMS/ISA and USAID’s DHS repositories.