Dynamics of food systems in Sub-Saharan Africa: Implications for consumption patterns and farmers’ position in food supply chains

This paper looks into the dynamics in the food system in SSA countries, describing developments in drivers of the food system, analysing food consumption patterns in selected SSA countries, investigating the pace of change of the regional food retail formats and the impacts it has on how local production is connected to modern food retailers. More specifically, the research objectives are to: Depict the trends in population growth, urbanisation rates, income growth and the food-system environment as drivers of change in dietary patterns; Investigate the trends in food consumption patterns in a range of SSA countries, with attention to differences between urban and rural consumption trends; Illustrate the changing food retail and provisioning system in the SSA region with examples and data from selected countries; Analyse the effects of modernising food systems on small farmers’ position in local and regional supply chains and explore whether dynamics in the SSA food retail structure and consumption patterns have had implications for food import dependency in certain countries in the region.