Household food insecurity in sub-Saharan Africa: lessons from Kenya

Abstract

Food security is one of the most challenging issues in sub-Saharan Africa which has continued to generate debate. Literature abounds showing that Africa is the only region in the world where per capita food production has declined during the last two decades. Food self-sufficiency ratios dropped from 98 per cent in the 1960s to about 86 per cent by the mid-1980s, implying that, on average, each African had 12 per cent less home grown food in the 1980s than 20 years earlier (Kates et al., 1993). Subsequent evidence on food production in this region continues to paint a gloomy picture.