Walk through Kangemi Market in Nairobi, Mile 12 in Lagos, or Makola in Accra on any given morning and the stalls look full. Tomatoes piled high, leafy greens, yams, peppers in every shade. The abundance feels reassuring, even celebratory.
But the picture behind those stalls tells a harder story. Farmers are growing food and still not earning enough to sustain themselves. Traders are losing produce to spoilage before it ever reaches a customer. And at the end of the chain, many families are sitting down to meals that fall short of basic nutrition, not because the food does not exist, but because it is out of reach.
Africa's food problem, it turns out, is not only about what is grown. It is about what happens after the harvest, and who can actually afford to eat well when the market day is done.
Originally published by AllAfrica · info@allafrica.com (allAfrica).