Adapting Africa’s food system to rising temperatures

The Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) of the African Union (AU) has been the blueprint driving agricultural transformation across the continent and is reviewed every 10 years. CAADP sets a bold action agenda with targets to improve food security and nutrition; increase agricultural productivity; reduce post-harvest losses; increase incomes in farming-based economies; increase public investment; improve rural infrastructure; and stimulate investment in agriculture research, innovation and scaling of adoption.

African Heads of State met recently (January 9^th – 11^th) in Kampala, Uganda, to consider the next 10-year period and endorsed the Strategy and Action Plan: 2026-2035, now referred to as the Kampala CAADP Declaration. The latter is themed “Advancing Africa's Inclusive Agrifood Systems Transformation for Sustainable Economic Growth and Shared Prosperity" and puts a spotlight on the imperative for building future proof, resilient agrifood systems in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA).

The Hot Reality

A recent seminal report published by the Centre for Sustainable Cooling (2024) - The Hot Reality: Living in a +50°C World - highlights how rising seasonal temperatures and an increased frequency in the occurrence of prolonged extreme heat events, as well as droughts and changes in precipitation patterns, affect agricultural productivity. The impact of this reality is already visible, with many SSA nations facing food insecurity. According to the FAO State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2023 report, the prevalence of severe food insecurity in the SSA population in 2022 was 26% compared to 20% in 2014, thereby pointing to a reverse in previous gains. Additionally, climate change risks including erratic weather, drought, and floods, are significantly impacting the agri-based livelihoods of rural populations, particularly in the Global South. To address such a stark reality, there is an urgent need to implement suitable adaptation strategies that build more resilient and sustainable food systems and related supply chains.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report notes that the rate of warming in African countries has been approximately 0.2°C to 0.5°C per decade, which is faster than the global average of approximately 0.18°C¹ observed over recent decades. Such warming trends have informed the drive toward rolling out climate smart agriculture initiatives in the region. These are characterized by a basket of solutions, such as breeding for drought tolerance, including short maturing crops that are better adapted to associated stresses, increased temperature, and emergent pests and diseases. The goal is to address the food production challenges in the region that are exacerbated by climate change risks.

Food saved is as important as food produced

Paradoxically, while addressing productivity yields SSA experiences high levels of food loss and waste - typically up to 50%² of food produce in various value chains is lost between the point of production and the consumer, and in some contexts the magnitude is higher. This is further exacerbating the prevalence of food insecurity and malnutrition while simultaneously contributing to climate change risks due to emissions from the loss, and emphasizes the fact that food saved is as important as food produced. However, despite the latter, adaptation efforts have been biased towards the production node of agrifood systems with much less attention given to postharvest management, including loss and waste reduction. Indeed, the AU developed a Postharvest Loss Management Strategy (AU-PHLMS) under CAADP, as the policy framework aimed at reducing the continent's postharvest food losses by 50 percent by 2025³, yet reducing yield gaps and increasing food production remain the primary focus of participating governments. Given that interventions to eliminate food loss and waste have not been prioritized, it is difficult to track progress toward such targets. 

Reducing food loss and waste by applying solutions that will enhance the efficiency of food supply chains and contribute to resilient food systems is recognized as an important strategy to help end hunger and address malnutrition across Africa. Options that can reduce post-production losses, such as cooling and cold-chain systems, are being promoted, but their adoption remains a challenge. The lack of effective cold-chain is notably a key gap and exacerbates this challenge by contributing an estimated loss of 12 per cent of the total food produced globally⁴. Limited access to sustainable cold-chain technologies, especially by smallholder farmers who make up the majority of SSA producers, is particularly glaring.

A systems level approach

The ‘Hot Reality’ report points to several limiting factors that have contributed to the access gaps in smallholder dominated food systems. These relate to capital costs, the relatively high energy (electricity) demand of most of the equipment available in the marketplace, and the use of high global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants, some of which are in the process of being phased out. This makes access to cooling and cold-chain technologies expensive to manage and in some cases contributes to the sustainability challenges. Hence there is a need for innovating low cost and low carbon technology options that are a better fit with the specifics of Africa’s context in enhancing adaptation and mitigation goals.

While there is increasing investment directed at closing the cold-chain access gap for smallholder based food systems, research shows that most of these efforts have resulted in ‘white elephants’. The latter being largely due to a fragment approach in deploying the solutions which focuses mainly on the technology - particularly cold storage - without considering other elements of the chain, connectivity, or the specific needs and usage context. The African Centre of Excellence in Sustainable Cooling and Cold Chain (ACES), which is a component of the Clean Cooling Network, adopts a systems approach to catalyse access to sustainable cold-chain solutions. By taking this approach, ACES aims to develop and fine-tuning scalable and inclusive models for increasing access to resilient, efficient and climate-friendly cooling and cold-chain technology to address food loss and waste, as well as enhance smallholders’ livelihoods. The approach integrates best fit sustainable cold-chain solutions with requisite skills development to make the technology function optimally. Importantly, it also addresses the gender equitable and socially inclusive business models necessary to demonstrate the investment case for such critical, high-cost infrastructure. 

Investing in technology and business models to make sustainable cold-chains work for smallholders farming communities, and thereby help build more resilient food systems in Africa, calls for better coordination in policy development and implementation that cuts across sectors including agriculture, energy, environment, trade, education among others. There is a pressing need to refocus policy attention and improve guidance on how best to inject the requisite investment at the different nodes in the food system, particularly in relation to climate change and the adaptation of food storage, processing, transportation, distribution, and marketing.

Initiatives such as ACES aim to develop the evidence base that can provide policy guidance on how to direct public and private investment for targeting current and emerging food system issues in a warming world. The upcoming All Africa Post Harvest Congress and Exhibition hosted by the African Union Commission, to be held in September 2025, provides a good platform to advance the continental agenda for enabling access of sustainable cold-chains, especially for the millions of smallholder farmers who are the backbone of resilient food systems.