Putting Food on the Table: How are Central Africans responding to the food crisis?

This morning in the Central Market of Bangui, many shoppers are sharing their concerns and daily struggles of putting enough food on the table for their families as food prices have increased over the past 12 months.

Food security in the Central African Republic has tipped to the point of emergency. Estimates show that approximately 2.4 million people suffer from food insecurity and nearly 300,000 children under five are estimated to suffer from severe acute malnutrition. Challenges people face every day have worsened due to more than 20% increase in key food prices over the past five years, and almost half of the Central African population is unable to meet its minimum daily food requirements.

Of the 6.1 million people living in Central Africa, more than 4.5 million (75%) depend on agriculture. Greater agricultural yields are, therefore, at the heart of the country’s economic transformation. With the right reforms and investments to promote climate-smart agricultural practices and the development of the fertilizer sector, the country could feed its people. 

“You can do a lot with cassava!”

Bienvenu Victorien Kangando is a cassava farmer in the village of Zere Congot in the Central African Republic, who recently expanded his operation from four workers to fourteen after increasing the area where he could dry his cassava. Kangando’s efforts to bring in more jobs and food are already helping improve nutrition and livelihoods for his community.

"My dream is to intensify cassava production and diversify into food crops such as maize, groundnuts and beans so that we can reduce the unemployment rate a little."

The World Bank is helping farmers like Bienvenu Victorien Kangando to build and rehabilitate critical infrastructure through the provision of matching grants for community-driven projects. 

Projects such as the Agriculture Recovery and Agribusiness Development Support Project are increasing agriculture productivity among small scale farmers, strengthening the capacity of micro, small and medium agribusiness enterprises, and providing immediate and effective responses to emergencies. More than 186,000 people have benefitted from the project - including more than 102,000 women and 15,000 young people - through the provision of drying areas, development of markets, improvement of roads, and delivery of 2200 kilograms of groundnut and maize seed to replenish the country's genetic heritage.

Learning To Cope with Emergency

Nouhou Jolly used to raise cattle’s but when the crisis emerged in CAR, he had to flee insecurity and found sanctuary in Bambari. By that time, he had lost all his livestock and had to transition to agriculture and become a farmer.

Through the IDA financed Emergency Food Security Response project (PRUCAC in French), Nouhou Jolly and 329,000 smallholder farmers have received seeds, farming tools and training in agricultural and post-harvest techniques to help them boost their crop production and become more resilient to climate and conflict risks. As a result, local food production increased by 250%, from 28,000 tons in September 2022 to 73,000 tons in June 2023. 

This was a game changer for Nouhou Jolly and all the farmers that are benefiting from PRUCAC thanks to a successful partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture, the World Food Program (WFP) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), building on the strengths of each partner to deliver results at scale. 

Ensuring a better life for the people of the Central African Republic requires taking a multi-pronged approach to the food crisis, from supporting production and producers to building food system resilience and investing in nutrition, so that everyone has enough food today and tomorrow. The story of change starts with entrepreneurs and farmers like Bienvenu Victorien Kangando, Nouhou Jolly and many others.