Why is Africa still hungry?

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Majority of African population are hungry simply because African leaders are foolish and selfish, they never encourage agriculture/Education and they still our money and bank it in European, Arab, and Asian/American banks just for theirs and family self use.

[Personal details removed by Moderator] Africa is still hungry due to the following:
1. Climate change has hit the continet badly;late rainfall,heavy rains leading to destruction of crops.

2.Dependency on foreign Aid in form of food making local people very lazy to produce for themselves.

3. Rural Urban migration where the energetic population move to urban centres to look for white color jobs.
4. inappropriet Government policis in education and Agriculture.
5. Corruption by goverment officials in utilization of funds earmarked to improve Agriculture.
6. Unexploded ordinances,the population fears to cultivate for due being blown off by land mines,especially countries like Sudan emerging from armed conflict.
7.Neo-colonialism by the west to perpetual control Africa as the dark continent with Poverty,hunger,conflict diseases,and so on.
Ajaviga Juba,South Sudan

Africa is still hungry because of her failure to institue good governance. Everyone almost all of African past and present leaders were and only interested in personal investments at the expense of the larger population. As such, policies related to agriculture are taken to benefit the immediate families of these leaders which subjects the continent to go hungry, despite its rich soil.

Africa is still hungry even though much has been done to improve seeds, the introduction of drip irrigation, grouping of farmers, green houses etc. The main reason Africa is still hungry in spite of the above mentioned advances is because the small-scale farmer (most rural Africa is populated by small scale farmers) has not been given direct access to the marketplace. The farmer does not get the worth of their effort. Middlemen and brokers get the benefit while the farmer languishes in poverty. A way is to be found which will give direct market access to the farmer, so they will be motivated to produce even more and also earn from their sweat. Google Uza-Mazao to find out about a very simple way to give market access to the farmer.

[Personal details removed by Moderator] He guz look here.
This "animal" called hunger seems to be the order of the day year in year out.To me the reason is simple and clear,BAD GOVERNANCE.
Most of the countries tend to ignore the Agricultural sector yet its the back bone of peoples way of living.Imagine the allocation of very little budget to Agriculture,the little that is also allocated seem to be diverted in some form of corruption by some officials who control the Finances,poor facilitation to the few Agric officers who suffer teaching farmers on modern methods of farming. Imagine the ratio of 1:2000 farmers to be tought by one Agric Officer.Lack of subsidies by the Government on inputs hence resulting to high costs of production,lack of good markets to sell some of produce inorder to raise incomes.The list is endless but the message bad governance.

Ekulu Emma

Africa is still hungry because of drought, conflict and lack of good governance in most African countries like Congo and Sudan.

This report is disheartening and depressing but we have to face reality. It clearly shows that the government of these countries are not doing enough in investing in both commercial agriculture and agricultural technology. There are modern day equipment and methodolgy that will help to improve agricultural yield. Priority should be given to agriculture in order to alleviate hunger and make the countries self sufficient in food production.

Most African countries are still hungry because they don't implement their agricultural policies.Even if they're implemented,most farmers still want to stick to the traditional way of farming due to fanincial constraints.

Africa is still hungry because majority of it's populace depend on the Governments confers and greed on the part of the wealthy ones due to fact that they are feeling reluctant to releasing fund for investment on Profitable ventures that could generate employment for the unemployed so that they can at least be independent. Even if funds are released by both Government and the Rich, only families and friends benefit from it forgetting about the poor and the Ghetto hustlers.

[Personal details removed by Moderator]Some african leaders use hungry as a tool to beg money from outside and bank it in their acounts. They can´t encourage people to produce because they take benefit from it.

chichongue

I personally think alot of it has to do with poor marketing structures. In order for farming and agriculture to really succeed it has to be seen as an economic activity as rewarding as any other urban activity that for the past 100 years have been attracting the millions of rural poor from the countryside to the cities. If small scale farmers were assured a ready market for their produce this would definilty promote agriculture across the continent. This shouldnt be confused with state controlled crop marketing. History has shown us how many agrarian based economies that due to their reliance on the state went on to fail. The market forces of supply and demand within a domestic setting should be what dictate the crop the farmers will grow and not the state. What African farmers need are gauranteed markets with little or no involvement of middlemen this is the key. Agriculure needs to be seen as a dynamic industry that young people can activly participate in knowing that they will get paid for their crops. As it stands it is seen by many as an occupation for the elderly and uneducated. How then can we improve the marketing of agricultural produce? There are probably many ways of getting this done but i think the experiences of Ethiopia and their electronic agricultural commodity exchange is a step in the right direction and one that has proven to be a success thus far. A key element in the running of an efficient market is the availabilty of Information and this is where electronic agricultural commodity exchanges play a role.

If the BBC is genuinely interested in why our people are hungry, it should look in the mirror. For far too long, it has promoted aid as the panacea to our people's misery, thus diverting much-needed critical attention from its sole cause: misrule. Indeed, even when it finds it necessary to refer to an instance of misrule, this is often presented as a mere irrelevance by switching emphasis to so-called "externalities" like "unfair" trade (as if trade can ever be fair) - all supposedly in the name of "objectivity."

None of this would matter to me, however, but for the fact that this attitude has consigned our people to an eternal life of misery.

Many africans are still going hungry due to three main contributing factors:
1. Corruption - African politicians for the most part think only of themselves and their self accumulation of power and money. They dont care about the harsh consequences on their people,environment and infrustructure. It's all about themselves and their respective families. One word GREED!
2. Environmental Degradation - The continual destruction of some of the most beautiful and bio-diverse ecosystems in Africa has destroyed many key water catchments, eroded away much of the once abundant grazing land and therefore overexploited what land that remains as primary agricultural land.
3. Reliance on Western donors has not helped to develop Africans but to make them reliant on foreign aid in the form of food handouts and medical assistance. Nothing is going to change until Africans come together to help themselves. Aid organisations tend to solve the problem for today but sustain the problem for tomorrow, very few of the major Aid organisation actually solve the problems they just maintain them.
Most development money handed out in the form of grants and loans by the West is stolen and hardly ever feeds through to the people...

Easy question, but let's do this step by step. Send this question to a number of particular African politicians directly, then we can take it from there. You could start by asking them if they pay taxes. While you are there, ask them if they know a thing or two about those violent attacks we see during and after elections. You might also want to ask who controls "international aid to help poor people of Africa". If you are lucky, you will get fictional "expenditure reports" and "ghost workers". Maybe, just maybe, you could sneak in that oh-so-common mystery about their rivals and opponents "disappearing" in "tragic accidents" and their subsequent numerous "investigations" that "leave no stone unturned". Perhaps, you will be lucky enough to find their children "suffering in poor Africa". Keep your fingers crossed.

When you are done, we will definitely be able to answer the hunger question properly.

Africa is still hungry because all the projects we are undertaking are not significantly aiming at the problem on the ground many of the projects are hijacked by some few people who use Africa as the field to make wealthy for themselves but not for African. Africa need to focus on their real problems and work to solve them and not work for others.

Africa is hungry due to insane politics by self-serving governments whose only object is to enrich themselves and their family by any means possible. They have caused man-made droughts and by keeping the uneducated masses in the dark promote their own self enrichment objectives. Why worry about the starving people when your belly is full by the flying in of foodstuffs to keep your self fed, the exorbitant shopping fees [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]to keep yourself dressed and languishing in the lifestyle to which you are really not accustomed too but have deemed to be a perk of your 'job'.

The money is supposed to run out when there are no more taxpayers due to no employment etc, but because of the ignorance or guilt complex of those who give aid, there is no financial accountability and the corruption, bribery, intimidation will continue unabated. And Africa will continue to be the begging bowl of the world...Cry the beloved continent!!

No dought the greedy African leaders to blame and support they get from European countries. All of African leaders are dictators, selfish, heartless and cruel leaders. No wonder Africa will never progress even after a million years of freedom.

Why is Africa still hungary? Simple! Because many African Leaders and Politicians have long throats, big pockets, and are heartless human beings, who think of self not us.

Africa will remain hungry as long as food aid is doled out. Why would you grow food when it is given for free?
Food must be grown in the hungry countries. So aid workers need to check out of Africas five star hotels and get to work with the people. Teach them, show them, do not feed them.

Africa is still hungry and will continue like that unless some thing is done to rescue the situation that is escalating given the early warnings of large scale wars that have been fought and those that are under way.
Many African leaders have not yet paid attention to food production, most of the available resources have be spent on purchasing modern military hard ware.Angry minds that are continuing to be found in Africa can also be attributed to colonialists many societies have spent time fighting oppression, injustice unequal representation in the administrative strictures where some ethnic groups were empowered by the colonial masters to rule over the other

ask this fundamental question Pm meles and he will tell u that this is by now a white man's headache , not his or africans - hunger

Africa is still hungry mainly because of its selfish and corrupt leaders that never let go power until they are driven out with bloodshed. Sadly, we have witnessed over and over again that even those who came to power after the bloodshed, become much greedier and ruthless than the ones they replace. I strongly believe that Africa will remain hungry until the continent is able to elect honest leaders who put their country first before themselves.

Simple. Continued exploitation by the west and continued mismanagement by African leaders.

I strongly disagree with Kirk Strathern’s comment that Africa is still hungry because of the endless aid it is receiving. I don’t think Mr. Strathern is an African nor has any knowledge of what is going in Afri ca. For your information, Mr. Strathern, African farmers have self dignity and a strong desire to become self reliant. It is unfortunate that people like you blame the victims of repression and unfathomable greed. In my opinion, aid donors should be as accountable as those heads of governments who are accepting the aid. I am sure most of these donors are aware of what happens to the food aid they are giving to Africa. The real issue here is relentless mismanagement by government officials of anything and everything they lay their hands on. They are totally responsible for continuous hunger, poverty and disease in Africa.

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Africa is hungry because of:
1. Poor governance - selfish leaders who do nothing apart from eat
2. dependency on relief - people become lazy to find food by themselves, after all Aid is there!
3. Reliance on rain for agriculture - the climate has changed severely, hence rain water is not enough for agriculture!
4. Taboos and culture - Africans are still conservative on the types of food to be eaten. I am in a place where everything is food as long as it is not poisonous. This include, dogs, snakes, monkeys, snails, frogs and many more! in Africa, such foods are an abomination! Its time we opened up and start eating some things..i don't mean we eat everything, but at least lets diversify our food.

People! there is a lot of wisdom in the phrase "You are what you eat". I don't want to eat everything four legged and crawling for the sake of diversifying my food. We can produce plenty of food that is edible and also acceptable if we manage our land and our natural resources properly. By that I mean if we get rid of the "hyena" prime ministers, presidents and what not that we have in Africa.

Majority of African population are hungry because
(1) we lost our identity to the so-called colonization.
(2) our leaders are selfish and corrupt.
(3) the western world want us to be like that so that they will always give aid and dictate to our leaders what to do.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

Superficially, this is a simple question. Basically, the hungry go without food because they don't have money to access food. Africa grows enough food for its population.

The unemployed masses in the urban areas don't have the money to buy food in the markets. Subsistence farmers grow just enough for themselves. Sometimes, not even enough to last them a whole year. When they run out of food, they don't the money to buy food in the market.

Poor infrastructure means farmers have difficulty getting their produce to market.

Often when there is a famine in one part of a country, there is plenty of food in another part of the country, or the neighbouring country has plenty of food. It is difficult to move food around the continent because of poor infrastructure. Poor infrastructure also means transport costs are high in Africa.

If they had the choice, most subsistence farmers would chose to do something else. Most of them don't have the knowledge, capital or aptitude for farming.

I believe that farming should be left to those with the knowledge, capital and aptitude for farming: commercial farmers. Farming should be treated as a serious business. Farming should not be treated as a hobby or a part-time activity.

I believe that we should encourage entrepreneurship in other areas of the economy. We should create jobs in other areas of the economy for the unemployed urban masses and failed subsistence farmers. Employment would give these people a steady wage which they would use to buy food in the market.

Just blaming African leaders is not a solution. Not all 53 African leaders are corrupt. That is an unfair generalisation.

We as individual citizens must do our bit to solve Africa's problems. If you have an entrepreurial bent, start a business. Employ some people. Don't just complain. Do something postive.

Why is Africa still hungry?

Because we moved away almost completely from agrarian life to industrial life, not remembering that we need to put food in our stomach before we can be active on the industrial front.

From personal experience I know that people get hungry between meals. True I skip meals when I am very busy, little distractions here and there. I suspect people from Africa are, unfortunately fall victim to this hunger phenomenon. Yes they get hungry on a daily basis just like we do here in Europe. I have friends in all the continents and I notice that they eat daily; I suspect they must be hungry too?

1. Most African governments to do not make longterm/ sustainability plans. They react to one crisis after the other. If it rains nobody plans for drought they dwell in the abundance of the rain.
2. In the semiarid regions people are not enthusiastic about crop farming. they rely on a few animals and when the drought comes those animals die.
3. There is minimal trade between countries so if people are dying in Ethiopia at the same time there could be a surplus harvest in Rwanda. this can be improved by enhanced trade.
4. Countries like Kenya has a rain fed economy. Failure of rains kills wild animals in the parks, lowers coffee and tea yeilds, affects horticulture output, kills cattle and goats. Just like in the old testament.
5. The only solution is looking for alternative sources of water, creating silo's with a good government food security strategy, and build industries that do not require agricultural products as raw materials.

Because of drought, a result of the exploitations of the colonialists and destruction of the environment cause by a variety of commercial and industrial ventures in the region as well as neighboring continents.

Why wouldn't Afica be hungry?No one is willing to be the sacrificial lamb,but interestingly they rather be slaves to our "masters".Can you imagine that an independent country still rather be call a "step child" I mean LIberia.Now if you are a step child what treatment do expect to receive?As long as we remain dependent and will not engage in self iniative plans and project that will help eliviate poverty than we will always rely on "help" from them.Now if they "help" us as claimed, where do you think they're gonna get that amount of money to waste.They definitely will make use of our resources and in return give us the waste as "help".