Agricultural Challenges & Digital Solutions

Rethinking Food Security

In the international environment, the concepts of “food security” and “food sovereignty” are often identified as the same in the media, the scientific community, and the authorities. At the same time, these concepts have completely different meanings, sets of tools, and ideological influence. It is therefore necessary to clearly define the subject — food security, sovereignty, or some combination of their components — in order to avoid vague interpretations.

The concept of “food security” was officially defined in 1996, when the World Food Summit was held at the FAO headquarters in Rome. According to the adopted declaration, food security is considered achieved when “people have physical and economic access at all times to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.” While this definition has become widely accepted and firmly entrenched, it is not without notable flaws.

Food security focuses entirely on the eradication of hunger and malnutrition. It means that people are provided with adequate nutrition regardless of the origin of products — locally produced or imported — and the approaches to production. In achieving food security, environmentally friendly, ethical, and equitable production may therefore receive little attention. The concept is linked to a global food system controlled by market institutions and prioritizing the interests of major players in the agro-food sector, including agricultural holdings and industry corporations.

Over the past 30 years, efforts to address hunger and malnutrition in African countries have operated within the framework of food security. While this approach narrows the issue down to ensuring access, it allows influential players — primarily Western governments, corporations, and traders — to leverage it for their own needs and interests. Their objectives include stockpiling food within their own borders, purchasing arable land in developing countries, and maintaining control over agricultural technologies, production chains, education, and expertise. Lobbies, suppliers, intermediaries, traders, and other international actors play a decisive role in perpetuating Africa’s dependence on food imports. These groups advocate for reducing protective tariffs through international platforms such as the WTO and regional economic communities.

From Food Security to Food Sovereignty

As countries of the Global South gain increasing political and economic weight and influence shifts from North to South, an alternative approach to food policy is emerging: the concept of food sovereignty.

Today, food sovereignty is interpreted more flexibly. Rather than being viewed as an alternative to food security, it can be understood as its extension. It goes beyond the ultimate goal of eradicating hunger and malnutrition and focuses on sustainably achieving self-sufficiency through local food systems and environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable production, distribution, and consumption. Unlike food security, it assumes a broader socio-economic impact. The key actors are countries themselves, small and medium-sized local producers, and households.

Involving internal actors in the transition toward food sovereignty implies strengthening countries as agricultural producers. They are to move from food imports toward greater self-sufficiency and eventually become food exporters. In the long term, this approach could create more resilient and stable trading partners capable of competing in the global food market.

Food sovereignty is the next level of food security. This transition must transform population growth into an economic asset, build domestic capacity, improve diets in quality rather than quantity, and create a continent-wide logistics network linking remote areas with major distribution and storage centers. Governments and national actors focused on domestic and regional markets play the key role. Development requires support tools such as subsidies, protective measures, logistics and infrastructure projects, and comprehensive food-system strategies.

Despite its growing popularity among developing countries²For example, the term is increasingly used in the official rhetoric of the African Union. In the Declaration of the 15th Extraordinary African Union Humanitarian Summit and Pledging Conference, one of the objectives set for African countries is “to build a sustainable and resilient agri-food system to ensure food sovereignty.” The concept is also present at the national level. In Rwanda’s current Fifth Strategic Plan for Agriculture Transformation (PSTA 5) 2024–2029, the Ministry of Agriculture states that “national food sovereignty is another aspect of food security to be addressed by the strategy.” In Ethiopia, achieving food sovereignty is also identified as an objective in national programmes, including the Food and Nutrition Policy and the National Wheat Development Initiative., the concept is still in its formative stages. An alternative to food imports must combine measures that localize food production, strengthen African countries within global value chains, and equip governments, companies, and farmers. A future network-centric model could respond more effectively to food crises through food reservation systems, regional cooperation, infrastructure development, and country-specific production specializations.

In the long term, strengthening food sovereignty may gradually reduce imports in certain categories. The pace is expected to remain limited given population growth, rising purchasing power, and accelerating urbanization. The transition may yield mutual benefits as Africa increasingly positions itself as a stable, reliable, and sustainable economic partner.

Demography as a Tool of Food Sovereignty

Food deficits, hunger, and famines appear to be a serious threat to many regions of Africa. According to the FAO classification, the number of undernourished people in Africa increased by more than 100 million between 2005 and 2024, reaching 307 million. In relative terms, however, the share has hovered between 15% and 20% of the population for the past 20 years, while the number of people who are not undernourished also increases every year.

Behind the large figures and the disturbing cases of Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo — together accounting for almost half of the increase — success stories exist. The number of undernourished people decreased in Senegal, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and Ethiopia, both as a share and in absolute terms. Their share also fell in Mali, Rwanda, and Tanzania.

The problem of hunger is often reduced to demography. Many reports begin with the thesis that population growth challenges regional stability and contributes to food crises, outbound migration, and political turmoil. This framing creates a negative image of population growth while ignoring its possible positive impact on food systems.

Africa remains a relatively sparsely populated continent. Even if its population reaches 2.5–3 billion, density in the habitable part of the continent would remain three times lower than India’s today. Analysis by the HSE Center for African Studies shows that, over the long term from 2004 to 2024, the number of undernourished people decreased in many African countries despite population growth.

Population growth can make agriculture more profitable by increasing both consumers and workers. Urbanization can change consumer habits, encourage supermarkets and bulk purchasing, consolidate farms, and increase technical capacity and productivity. In the long run, growth creates conditions for local markets that are less dependent on external food supplies, although the relationship remains sensitive to political and economic conditions.

Hunger-reduction strategies based on controlling birth rates are therefore ineffective. Countries need specific strategies grounded in realistic assessments of population growth and its consequences. Consumption and production growth can be combined with investment in fertilizers, irrigation systems, and resource allocation to produce multiplicative effects.