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Can Africa feed itself? The role of the woman/L'Afrique peut-elle se nourrir elle-meme? Le role de la femme.

Article Excerpt
Agriculture accounts for 30% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and women contribute 60-80% of the labour used to produce food both for household consumption and for sale. In Benin 70% of the female population live in rural areas, where they carry out 60-80% of the agricultural work and furnish up to 44% of the work necessary for household subsistence and in Congo, Women account for 73% of those economically active in agriculture and produce more than 80% of the food crops (IFAD, 1993:6).

The number of hungry people in Africa has continually risen despite it being the back bone of many economies in Africa and women are caught in this crisis, an increase of 20% from 176 million in 1993 to 210 million in 2006. Alarming reports of the food crisis and soaring prices have been blamed on lower agricultural production, weather shocks, more meat consumption and shifts to biofuels crops, reports from the World Bank indicate. The wheat prices are up 120%, rice's are up 75% and yet poor families spend up to 80% of their budget on food.

Africa is said to be larger than the US, Europe, Brazil, Australia and Japan combined and its GDP of 47 economies of Sub-Saharan Africa in aggregate approximately GDP of Belgium so why the disconnect? Can Africa feed itself? And can the role played by women be ignored?

Back in my village in Emgwen Constituency, Nandi North District, in...