The most critical resource for many of Africa’s poor is food. If everyone in Africa is to have enough to eat, farms need to produce enough food, and there need to be efficient ways to get the food from the farmers to the consumers. The good news is that the arable land in Africa is more than enough to produce enough food to feed everyone with plenty to spare, using modern farming techniques. The bad news is that rural infrastructure is not good enough to get the food from the farmers to the consumers.
The vast majority of African farmers are small-scale producers, and many of them lack the storage, processing and transport facilities (including road infrastructure) that they need to ensure the food they produce reaches the market in a financially viable way. Inadequate transport infrastructure often also means that farmers do not have affordable access to necessary inputs such as good quality seeds and fertiliser.
Poor quality roads mean that transport is very slow, with frequent repairs to trucks required. When the rains come, roads may become impassable. The delays and expenses thus caused may cost significantly more than the value of the food being produced by the farmers. In many parts of Africa, food security problems can easily be solved once roads, water supply, electrification and storage facilities have been built to an adequate standard.