The continent has vast amounts of arable lands, but depends on imports of grain to feed itself.
Africans produce food, but not for themselves.
A major part of African farmlands is used to grow crops like coffee, cocoa, and cottonseed oil for export. The staple crops of the African diet, wheat, and rice, mainly come from imports from outside of the continent.
African countries’ self-sufficiency could improved by replacing foreign cereal imports with regional crops such as fonio, teff, sorghum, amaranth, and millet.
They could trade these crops between themselves, creating jobs for their youth and income for their farmers. The crops would also be the basis for a healthy diet.