Food Production， Food Supply and Nutritional Status Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa.docVIP

Food Production, Food Supply and Nutritional Status Trends in Sub-Saharan Africa Agriculture is the backbone of the economies of most sub-Saharan African countries. In 1994, 69 percent of the economically active population in sub-Saharan Africa were engaged in agriculture, as compared with 84 percent in 1961 (FAO, 1995f). Table 4 shows average annual production (in tonnes) and rates of growth of major food crops in sub-Saharan Africa during four periods. The analysis is based on five-year averages up to 1985 and a four-year average for 1991 to 1994, to reflect the long-term changes over the time span 1961 to 1994. The rate of growth in production of cereals increased from an average of 1.3 percent during the period 1961 to 1965 to 3.6 percent during the period 1971 to 1975. It remained stable at a rate of 2.5 percent from the period 1981 to 1985 to the period 1991 to 1994. Among the grains the fastest growth in output was achieved in rice, but its effect on growth of total cereal output was limited because of the relatively small share of rice in cereal production. It is notable that the growth rate of pulse production has declined substantially since the 1960s and that the rate of growth of production of oil crops, after suffering a rapid decline during the 1980s, recovered significantly during the early 1990s. For sub-Saharan Africa as a whole, exports of cereals declined and imports expanded rapidly during the 1970s and 1980s (Table 5). Imports nearly doubled between the 1960s and 1970s and trebled from then to the 1990s, reflecting both structural food deficits resulting from rapid population growth and food shortfalls caused by drought and civil disruption in various parts of Africa, especially during the 1980s and early 1990s. In the mid-1980s, 20 percent of the staple food requirements of sub-Saharan Africa were provided by imports. This proportion is predicted to rise by the end of the 1990s (FAO, 1992e). Since the 1980s availability of basic food staples fo