Introduction
African food security depends largely on agriculture. Agriculture supports the livelihoods of 80 % of the population and employs approximately 60 % of the economically active population, including some 70 % of the poorest people on the planet. The continent has the largest agricultural area per person in the developing world and contains about 11 % of both the world’s arable land and the world’s population (Bank 2008). Plantation and corporate farming exist, but smallholder, family-owned subsistence agriculture, using simple implements like hoes and cutlasses, is the dominant system, with some commercial activity in local trading. Subsistence farming is “a livelihood strategy where the main output is consumed directly, where there are few if any purchased inputs and where only a minor proportion of output is marketed.”
Agricultural inputs commonly include water through irrigation and fertilizers to increase yield. Only 3.7 % of Africa is irrigated, however, and fertilizer...
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Glazebrook, T., Kola-Olusanya, A. (2013). Africa, Food, and Agriculture. In: Thompson, P., Kaplan, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_486-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_486-1
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Africa, Food, and Agriculture- Published:
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6167-4_486-1