The irony is that, despite the majority of the total labor force working in agriculture, the region is still unable to feed its growing population. For example, between 20 and 75 percent of the population in 29 countries in Central, Western, Eastern and Southern Africa were reported in 2004 to be undernourished. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where 75 percent of the total population of 51 million people were reported to be undernourished, 50 percent of infant mortality is related to malnutrition. Poor nutrition impacts on health, education and the opportunity to participate fully in community and public affairs. Most often women and children carry a disproportionate burden from food insecurity.
Africa spends between US$15 and 20,000 million on food imports annually, in addition to the US$2,000 million it receives in food aid annually. These are vast amounts of money that the region can ill afford to externalize, and which could be used to revitalize agriculture, particularly the low-input agriculture whose yields are limited, and thus increase productivity. About 70 percent of Africa’s poor, and at least two-thirds of its population, live in rural areas depending mainly on agriculture and natural resources for their livelihoods.