The purpose of this brief is to highlight the socio-economic, infrastructural and governance challenges faced by ‘territorial’ food marketers and smallholder farmers in public markets and along busy transit routes in Africa. Examples are mainly from Benin, Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. The aim is to pinpoint possible areas of investment that will enhance access to remunerative markets for food that is produced and processed in alignment with agroecological principles.
Key messages
- Smallholder farmers are known to produce most of the world’s food and provide most of the investments in agriculture (Kay 2016; Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) 2017), particularly in Africa. However, the markets in which they commonly operate are consciously and/or unconsciously neglected, sidelined and discriminated against in public policy-making (Civil Society Mechanism 2015).
- In most African countries, farmers, retailers and other marketers operate largely in ‘territorial markets’, with formidable socio-economic, infrastructural, governance, safety, sanitation and other challenges, even though about 70–90% of agricultural products go through these markets (FAO 2015; Action Group on Erosion, Technology and Concentration (ETC Group) 2017, 2022).
- The healthy and diverse products produced by local farmers, mostly through agroecological processes, contribute significantly to food and nutrition security and food sovereignty in rural, peri-urban and urban areas. Furthermore, the methods of production boost biodiversity, enhance climate resilience, and maintain and restore the health of ecosystems (International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems 2024).
- Increasing urbanisation in African countries is worsening the challenges already faced and poses further challenges for the valuable services provided by territorial markets to about 50–80% of the population.
- Philanthropic investments can support research and advocacy. They also deepen the understanding of how territorial markets function so that evidence can be provided to policy-makers to tackle the varied challenges in territorial markets in the different countries.
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