Modelling food security in Africa using panel data analysis

Abstract

Agriculture has seen the success of green revolution and food security Asian developing countries (Pingali, 2012). Less than ten African countries invest more than 10% of their national budgets into the agricultural sector yet the sector plays a key role in economic development (Goyal & Nash, 2016). Over 54% of Africa's workforce depend on the agricultural sector for income and employment as shown in figure 1 below (FAO, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 2020). This represents people who earn their living from working in crop and animal farms . Agricultural farm produce is exported to other continents and earns African countries valuable foreign exchange that is used in the purchase of necessities which are not produced locally. The agriculture sector also provides food and raw material to other sectors of the economies. The success of non-agricultural industries depend on quality food to feed their workers with the necessary nutrients to allow them achieve their maximum output levels.