market was closed, all my knowledge was over,” sighs Brian Kayongo, a spare-parts trader from Kampala, Uganda’s capital. Until the covid-19 lockdown he spent most of his time in the city. He knew about spark plugs, not seeds. But now he is planting maize and beans on a patch of land he has rented in a nearby village. Everybody there is digging, he says. Even the young people who turned up their noses at farming have “surrendered” to the tyranny of the hoe.
Instead, covid-19 is hitting people’s pockets. In African cities the average household allocates half its expenditure to food. That budget has shrunk as economies nosedive and lockdowns close the informal businesses in which most workers hustle. Theestimates that 80m more Africans, mostly in cities, could see their incomes drop below the equivalent of $1.90 a day .
Hastily devised lockdowns are clogging up this system’s capillaries. Queues of lorries have jammed border posts and some local prices have spiked, perhaps because of hoarding. Governments designate food as an essential service, but security forces still beat up street vendors. Nigerian police have put up the bribes they extort from drivers. The Kenyan force has shot market traders. In Zimbabwe they have confiscated and burned produce, apparently to punish farmers for breaking a travel ban.
The strongest link is production itself: farmers can always keep digging. A few commercial operations, such as Ethiopian vegetable growers, are struggling to find workers. But there is no sign of a big labour shortage, as on west African farms when Ebola hit. Input markets are another matter. Narcis Tumushabe, the boss of one of Uganda’s biggest seed companies, says he has sold only a fifth of what he expected this season. “We may be forced to sell the seed as flour for food,” he warns.
where’s the rest of the article, tuh
In Morocco, schools don't even give out meals on regular days..
Their corrupt leaders make sure of that !
Maybe crack down on the corrupt African countries leaders and we can actually give charity money to people who need it.. people have been donating for decades with no societal changes or decrease to poverty.
The UN has Munchausen syndrome by proxy and needs broken children to make itself relevant
Reporting bad about Africa almost all the time.
🌞 🌞
They brought the problem to the whole world now they're focusing on Africa,Africa is never the problem
Not only Africans, most people in this world don't like to cultivate which is a threat. We must know to grow crop and try to less dependent on other countries.
So starving?
Africa show resume its position as a food basket. We should look inwards again for sustainable solutions.
Of course there’s issues with food delivery. If this food was meant for white people things would have been different.
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