What Africa eats – the basic foods

This chapter examines food production and consumption in Africa in relation to the eight basic foods that we identify as essential for food security on the continent. Two are tubers (cassava and yams), three are cereals (maize, rice and wheat) and three are animal proteins (meat, poultry and fish). Following a comparative overview that situates Africa in relation to world food production, the core sections of the chapter examine temporal and spatial patterns in the production and consumption of the selected basic foods, drawing upon data (FAOSTAT) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The chapter concludes with a discussion of ways in which climate change interacts with the basic foods and emerging adaptation and mitigation measures building upon the model of trade, food security and climate change identified in Chapter 2.