The title of this Blog post: 'How Africa Eats: Trade, Food Security & Climate Risks' is the new book (297 pages) edited by erudite scholar, David Luke, Professor in Practice & Strategic Director, Firoz Lalji Institute for Africa, London School of Economics & Political Science (LSE). David was in Abuja for a whole week on the invitation of Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit/German government's development agency (GIZ) and ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) to promote his book. On the 4th, 5th and 6th of November 2025, I was one of the valued panelists who critiqed the book at various venues in Abuja: Fraser Suites, UN House (ILO, UNIDO & FAO) and Saffron Cafe. David gave an outstanding account of himself at each venue, where he eloquently presented the contents of the book with panache!
.jpg)
Prof. David Luke's presentation: David made his presentation thrice in Abuja - twice at Fraser Suites on the 4th of November 2025. The presentation in the morning was to Nigerian Journalists from the print and electronic media. In the afternoon, the audience comprised the diplomatic community, civil society. government officials, etc. On Day 2, the presentation was at UN House (ILO/FAO/UNIDO). On Day 3, the final day and on his way to the airport, at Saffron Cafe, David interacted with selected stakeholders. Africa has 60% of the arable land of the world, but the citizens have no food to eat. Many other bodies have undertaken similar research, e.g. Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and International Food Policy Research Centre (IFPRI). The uniqueness of this book is that it interrogates the intersection of trade with food security and climate change. Many African countries are far from achieving SDG 2 - achieve zero hunger, food security/improved nutrition and sustainable agriculture by 2030.
David calls attention to the fact that some major questions were posed in the book: Why does food deprivation exist on such a scale in Africa? What are the implications for policy? Why is it that food insecurity affects millions of persons in Africa (in 2022, about 280 million persons were undernourished). I commend the UN Agencies like FAO, UNIDO, etc. for providing credible statistics for us to work with. 340 million Africans lack stable food in Africa, we seem to have normalised hunger - but hunger in any country or continent is abnormal. At least 42 out of the 54 African countries import food. Africa's population continues to grow alarmingly. Africa's exports are mainly commodities with no value added. In the book, we looked specifically at 8 commodities - yam, cassava, maize, wheat, fish, rice, meat and poultry.
Trade deficit persists in Africa. Food import remains high. The 1.2 Degrees Celsius rise in global temperature has reduced maize, wheat, etc. yields in sub-Saharan Africa by 5.8%. There has been some progress in climate adaptation - farming practices e.g. irrigation, drought-resistant seed varieties are now available. Adaptation is huge in individual countries' NDCs. There are comprehensive African Agricultural Development Plans where it is stipulated that 10% of every African nation's resources should be dedicated to agriculture. Only Rwanda is on target to meet the SDCs. Public expenditure on agriculture remains low. There's no subsidy for farmers. There are also climate finance challenges. ODA in agriculture boosts productivity. We also need to take cognisance of Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) - tax on certain imports in proportion to greenhouse gases emitted during their production.
Who then are the actors? *Small Holder Farmers (Peasant Farmers) - SHFs. 80% of SHFs are at the subsistence level. They lack information on markets, have weak links to markets and are deprived of electricity and other infastucture. * Medium Scale Farmers e.g. University/Polytechnic graduates, i.e. Agro-preneurs - they constitute approximately 40% of farmers in some countries like South Africa. *Intermediaries who link farmers to markets. Their overall impact appears beneficial. Agriculture Marketing Boards (AMBs) still exist in some countries to ease market failure. *Some Multinational Corporations (MNCs) invest in agriculture, provide inputs, training and supermarket chains...
Some concluding remarks: *Intra-African trade generally under-performing, especially wheat, rice, meat and poultry. *Africans import agricultural products from the Western world rather than engaging in horizontal trade with other African countries because it's cheaper to do so on account of the fact that these commodities are heavily subsidised in Western countries, while African governments do not provide any subsidy to farmers. *The partial equilibrium vs the general equilibrium model *AfCFTA would have little effect on how Africa trades and/or eats. *West Africa benefits most from Agricultural Trade Extension (ATE). Note that in the AfCFTA, there's no Agriculture Chapter *Climate change threatens food security in Africa *Food dominates intra-African trade (no value added). *Agric negotiations remain contentious at the WTO.
Before Prof. David Luke's presentation on the 4th of November at Fraser Suites, Lennart Oestergaard (Resident Rep. FES) and Arne Schuffenhauer (GIZ Project Leader, ECOWAS Agriculture & Trade Project) welcomed us to the parley, while clarifying the essence of the meeting. Then came Alban Masaparisi's (Sahel West Africa Club - SWAC/OECD). In the morning on 4th November, Dr. Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa (Independent Peacebuilding Consultant), Prof. Olawale Ogunkola (University of Ibadan) & Mrs. Blessing Irabor-Oza (President, Organisation of Women in Trade - OWIT) were the discussants for Prof. David Luke's presentation.
In the afternoon on 4th November, the discussants for both Alban Masaparisi & Prof David Luke's presetations were: Dr. Alaba Olumuyiwa, Justin Bayili and Evince Yegbemey. Alban's presentation was on: 'Intra-Regional Food Trade in West Africa: New Evidence, New Perspectives'.
Alban Masaparisi - 'Intra-African Trade in West Africa: New Evidence, New Perspectives:
OECD/SWAC interracts with the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade Programme. But what's the true size of intra-African trade in West Africa? Official data is used as baseline - about $10b per year. Visible and invisible traded food products are not the same. There are starchy foods, cereals, vegetables, fruits, animal protein, etc. We need to re-visit the narrative of food vs free trade. ECOWAS countries trade food with a median of 12 partners. Two-thirds of relations are between non-border countries. Senegal, Ghana and Cote d'Ivoire account for 58%, 48% and 39% respectively of their trade at their borders. Calories traded in the region feeds up to one quarter of the total population each year. One third of total food entering Bamako and Ougadogou transit via internal corridors. It's expected that regional food market will quadruple between 2010 and 2030, to reach $480b. 8 countries were surveyed...
Alban's concluding remarks: *Regionalise food sovereignty and agricultural export policies. The region is a huge market and fundamental source of food for West Africa * Move beyond border facilitation to holistic trade promotion policies including, but not limited to access to finance, information sharing, infrastructure, etc. *Invest in robust data systems for intra-regional food trade. Up to 85% of intra-regional food trade not measured.
Dr. Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa: My observation is that Alban Masaparisi's presentation largely compliments Prof. David Luke's. Besides, as a Gender/Peacebuilding Consultant, I am partiularly interested in the fact that in many countries in West Africa and indeed Africa, there are intra-national conflicts. In Nigeria for example, there are insurgents, kidnappers, bandits, etc. There is no semblance of peace in these nation states. How can we then talk about 'trade' in such an environment? Besides, the withdrawal of the AES states from ECOWAS has made West Africa more vulnerable. ECOWAS is viewed as a toothless bulldog in some quarters because she couldn't make the deserting countries toe the line. Inter-regional cooperation for intelligence gathering to strengthen the Peace Architecture should logically precede meaningful trade.
My other expertise is gender. The role of women in the agricultural value chain remained a recurring decimal in the three-day discourse. Although there are extant studies on women and trade, none seems to have pulled together the specific roles of women in trade, climate stress and agriculture. Would Prof. David Luke and his team be looking in that direction for the next book? Meanwhile, African Women's Network of AfCFTA (AWNA), of which I'm a member of the Executive has validated research work on 'Challenges & Opportunites for Women in the AfCFTA'. Hauwa Mustapha is the President of AWNA. We are ready to support Prof. David Luke and his team with credible field research in Nigeria. See for example - dayokusa.blogspot.com/2025/11/the-impact-of-afcfta-on-womens.html
Besides, another source of worry for me is the amount of wastage of farm produce. Food wastage is irreconcilable with chronic hunger in Africa! Better storage facilities and wholesome preservation techniques could make this a thing of the past. Could the release of the stipulated 10% for agriculture from the national budgets of nation-states in Africa assuage the phenomenon of food wastage and other challenges? Going forward, when the AfCFTA agreement is to be reviewed, an 'Agriculture Chapter', which is currently missing, should be inserted. The book should be updated every five years, because germane new developments in agriculture, climate change and trade in Africa would have piled up.
On the 2nd day of the programme at UN House, Lennart Oestergaard (Resident Rep FES), Vanessa Phala-Moyo, Represented by Ndalata (Director, ILO Office for Nigeria), Philbert Abaka Johnson (Country Director, UNIDO - Nigeria) and Dr. Hussein Gadain (FAO Representative in Nigeria & to ECOWAS) contiributed to discussion after warmly welcoming us. They all said the publication of 'What Africa Eats' was timely and a valuable addition to the discourse. Philbert Johnson emphasised the fact that Africa is seating on a time bomb with so much hunger in the land. Something must be done desperately to begin to move positively towards zero hunger towards 2030 (SDG 2). But there are so many obstacles on the way to food security as identified in the book...
More information about the book - 'What Africa Eats:
As at July 2025, the book had 21,443 Abstract views, 2,008 Downloads, 653 Reads & 1 Citation. The book was published by LSE Press in June 2025 (Source: https://dd.org/10. 31389/lsepress.hae)
Paperback: 978-1-911712-34-3
MOBI: 978-1-911712-37-4
PDF: 978-1-911712-35-0
EPUB: 978-1-911712-36-7 (Source: press.lse.ac.uk/books/e/10.313 89/lsepress.hae)
Chapters:
1) David Luke
Introduction: Towards a re-assessment of food deprivation in Africa
2) Jamie MacLeod
Africa's trade, food security & climate risks
3) Olawale Ogunkola & Vinaye Dey Ancharaz
4) Vinaye Dey Ancharaz
Policy, resources, actors & capabilities
5) David Luke et al.
Intra-African food trade
6) Jamie McLeod
Expected impact of the AfCFTA on food security
7) Colette Van der Ven
Food security in the AfCFTA legal framework
8) Vinaye Dey Ancharaz
Africa's bilateral food trade
9) Colette Van der Ven & David Luke
WTO's legal framework & Africa's food security
10) David Luke
Conclusion: Trade, food security & climate risks
On the whole, Prof. David Luke spent a memorable week in Abuja, democratising the contents of his highly rated book at various fora. Congratulations!...
L-R: Prof. David Luke, Dr. Dayo Oluyemi-Kusa & Lennart Oestergaard...David was in Abuja to promote the predecessor of 'How Africa Eats' - 'How Africa Trades'...
.jpg)
