Indeed, the spread of desertification threatening several African regions such as the Sahel and the Horn of Africa , may cause the potential concentration of livestock keeping in certain areas, in the form of more intensified livestock rearing, conceivably increasing land erosion . Furthermore, Africa’s ongoing vertiginous urbanisation at a 3.5% yearly rate is also expected to contribute to the convergence of livestock and people on urban and peri-urban areas in the coming decades . This would provide intensified occasions of contact between humans, domesticated and wild animals, thereby creating augmented opportunities for the emergence and transmission of infectious diseases and zoonoses1 . Altogether, this will require an enhanced surveillance and monitoring of livestock and environmental health, including wildlife movement and fifitness, biodiversity richness, as well as use and management of water, land cover and vegetation.
Although with a certain degree of variability according to countries, overall Africa has so far been hit by a lower number of COVID-19 cases and fatalities compared to other continents of the world . However, the pandemic has still shown to be a major source of hindrance, especially during the first wave of lockdowns in 2020, when the setbacks of international trade caused serious disruptions in food value chains and supplies . Under COVID-19, Africa’s food security has also been further weakened due to income reductions and food price inflation, outcomes of lower availability of agricultural labour and produces, reduced liquidity for traders and interruptions of social protection programmes . In 2020, the number of Africans facing hunger increased by 3%, with approximately 46 million more undernourished people being recorded compared to the previous year . In Nigeria, the biggest African economy by nominal GDP , for instance, 75.5% of the adult population became moderately or severely food insecure and 33.5% severely food insecure .
Urban households were significantly more food insecure, suggesting their higher vulnerability compared to rural areas, following the onset of the pandemic.Against this background, the role of agricultural development will be absolutely crucial for Africa to rebound. Agriculture, including also livestock keeping, is indeed still the largest economic sector in the continent, accounting on average for 15% of Africa’s GDP, ranging from below 3% in Botswana and South Africa to over 50% in Chad . Contributing 10–44% of GDP of African economies, pastoralism displays the unique ability to add value and convert scarce natural resources into animal source food and income, providing approximately 90% of the meat consumed in East Africa and nearly 60% of the meat and milk products consumed in West Africa . The mobile transhumant or nomadic lifestyle, which is the essence of pastoralism, often entailing cross-border movements, frequently exposes pastoralists to social conflicts and violence, insecure land rights and access, vulnerability to climate change and deteriorating natural resources as well as infectious and zoonotic diseases .
As a result, 13.4 million pastoralists in sub-Saharan Africa live in conditions of extreme poverty . Poor livestock keepers are indeed particularly exposed to zoonoses due to their recurrent contacts with livestock, their consumption of often poorly processed animal produces and their limited access to health provision, both for themselves and their animals . Furthermore, the majority of animal food sources and livestock in Africa are traded in traditional and wet markets, which play a key role in Africa’s societies and agricultural landscapes, not only as a source of nourishment and income, but also for social and cultural cohesion . With their number expected to grow to meet the increasing demand of foodstuffs, accrued efforts will be needed to ensure food and livestock markets in Africa will fulfil safety and quality standards in the interest of consumers and global public health . All in all, the ongoing steep demographic growth, coupled with the COVID-19 crisis showing the unsustainability of Africa’s net food importing model, will likely require, as a response, the enhancement of agricultural and livestock keeping activities in the continent . Indeed, investments in smallholder agriculture in Africa can lead to multidimensional benefits such as increasing food production and food security, poverty reduction and employment opportunities for Africa’s burgeoning working age population, allowing the continent to harness its demographic dividend2 . In sub-Saharan Africa only, economic growth from agriculture is indeed estimated to be 11 times more effective at reducing extreme poverty than any other sector .