THE seasonal nature of the African food system implies there are times when raw materials for particular food products are unavailable.
No matter how much consumers have acquired a taste for such food, they have to look for substitutes. This is where irrigation and scientific discoveries can push the boundaries of knowledge to ensure the consistent availability of diverse raw commodities for conversion into products.
Fragmented production makes it difficult to sustain continuous innovation. When pumpkins are out of season, enterprises that make pumpkin juice and pumpkin-flavoured ice cream have to look for substitutes that may be more expensive.
That is why every harvest requires tracking of supplies and prices in different markets. Such details can inform investment in food processing and ripening facilities.
For instance, the size of fruit processing equipment to be set up in a particular community should be matched with the volume of fruits harvested in that community per given period, minus fruits that can be consumed locally in a raw state and other uses.
The value of real-time data collection for agroecology innovation
Investment in data and evidence will make a difference in sustaining innovation around agroecology in many African countries.
A real-time and frequent data collection system linked to local agroecology markets where the majority get their food is critical in supporting continuous supply and innovation with agroecology commodities. That will prevent cases where consumers who do not find agroecology commodities end up resorting to whatever is available. Consumers who love small livestock like goats and indigenous chickens, end up resorting to exotic meat whose agroecological origin they may not be able to ascertain.
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Tracking sources of food makes it possible for consumers to know if what they are buying is, indeed, agroecology and organic or not. In the absence of evidence-based market linkages, rural farming communities see middlemen coming to buy goats and other commodities in bulk and take them away on big trucks, but the farmers continue to wonder where their commodities are going and how much the middlemen are paid where they will be taking those commodities.
Capacitating traders to gather data about commodity flows in different markets
Enabling value chain actors can increase the visibility and traceability of food systems in ways that build confidence in the quality and sources of food. Given the increase in ICT skills among value chain actors, data collection is no longer the preserve of economists, researchers and statisticians. Value chain actors like traders in territorial markets can be capacitated to be part of a data collection system at the following levels:
Traders in local markets can be identified as key informants at the local level. Community markets often do not have too much diversity, such that a local trader is likely to sell an assortment of all commodities demanded by local consumers. A trader can patronise all commodities and know sources as well as market trends for each of the commodities.
The local trader can be capacitated to provide information on supplies, prices, sources and challenges. Capacity building will ensure quality information is shared and address the temptation by traders not to share prices in order to hide information from competitors.
Each trader can provide information mainly on types of commodities, sources, units of measurement and prices.
The trader can also compile a database of traders or buyers such that this group can evolve into a knowledge platform.
Territorial markets are becoming generators of income for rural Africa
There is no longer any doubt that territorial agroecology markets have become superior generators of income for rural areas, demonstrating the extent to which rural development is driven by agroecology markets.
A lot of trading of agricultural commodities happens at community levels, but there is no one collecting such statistics and monitoring local market trends. Unfortunately, formal institutions that can organise these markets are often missing in most African countries.
In countries where these markets handle more than 70% of the food, it means that a greater amount of food is not handled formally. By aggregating and consolidating commodity volumes, agroecology markets can also ignite trading, processing, leading to employment creation. Transporters also start coming in. The supply chain in agriculture, which supports markets, generates income for employees of supply chain nodes and if they have income, they go and demand non-food items like clothes, food and support retail enterprises, boosting manufacturing.
The vibrancy of agroecology markets anchors more than 50% of the money circulating in most African countries, generating income for women and youth quietly through domestic and export market channels. Innovation is no longer a preserve of corporates or multinationals as territorial markets have become superior generators of income for rural areas, demonstrating the extent to which rural development is driven by markets. Rural people are now also participating in buying and selling, after which they build nice houses and buy solar panels. Knowledge brokers like eMKambo (www.emkambo.co.zw) are now more in demand in the new ecosystems where markets are more than a collection of individual enterprises.
It is through continuous innovation around food that malnutrition can be addressed in many developing countries by converting raw commodities to diverse products whose availability is not bound by seasonality. Many African communities are realising the importance of diversifying and managing local diets to avoid cases where malnutrition can be found to be high in communities that produce diverse food. The fact that malnutrition is high in agricultural communities may imply that the abundance of food is not the only solution, but rather using innovation to ensure the availability of the right combinations of foods throughout the year.
African countries cannot continue suffering from malnutrition when there is such diversity of foods. In many African countries, malnutrition has a rural profile even though agriculture is largely done in rural areas. Why should under-nutrition be on the rise in areas where food is produced and innovations are happening at several local universities?
- Charles Dhewa is a proactive knowledge broker and management specialist.
