Regional Assessment of the Food Security Situation in West Africa with GIS

Abstract

The continent of Africa has tremendous potential in agriculture with more than half of the world’s fertile unused land therein. In the case of West Africa known for its abundance of natural and human resources, farming not only represents approximately over a third of the region’s wealth and more than half of the work force, but the sector is a major catalyst to attaining food security and rapid economic growth. Yet in the past decades, the gloomy performance in food production remains compounded by the dependence on food imports combined with the threats of famine and declining productivity. Even though food security attainment ranks as a major challenge, food production has increased in the recent past but with little success due to unmet goals in the set targets and the socio-economic and physical constraints in the larger agricultural structure. At the same time, there exists limited use of mix scale tools of GIS and descriptive statistics in gauging food security and agricultural activities in West Africa. Without it, managers face the grueling task of making the right decisions in critical areas requiring intervention to ensure food security. For that, this paper will fill that void by analyzing the food security situation in West Africa. Emphasis is on the issues, trends, production activities, factors and efforts. With the results showing changes in farm variables made up of various food types, agricultural land and other essential elements in food production coupled with gradual declines in some nations, GIS mapping points to a gradual spreading of food security indicators with firm concentration across different countries. Just as changes in production associated with food security originate from socio-economic and physical elements, the paper offered various solutions ranging from the need for education and monitoring to the design of regional food information system, efficient policy, storage facilities, precision farming and more use of GIS.