Climate crisis drives SADC food insecurity

Last week, South Africa hosted the G20 Meeting of Agricultural Chief Scientists in Limpopo, ahead of the G20 Leaders' Summit being hosted in Johannesburg later this year. Senior agricultural scientists and policymakers convened to discuss strategies for mitigating disruptions to global agri-food systems and addressing problems in food access and availability.

- Mischka Moosa

The number of people facing severe food insecurity has increased for a sixth consecutive year, according to the latest Global Report on Food Crisis, with an estimated 15 million more people across sub-Saharan Africa that experienced high levels of acute food insecurity in 2024 than in 2023.

Conflict, forcible displacement, extreme weather and economic shocks continued to be the primary drivers of the deteriorating state of food insecurity on the continent. These compounding issues limit opportunities for economic development, worsen environmental degradation and disproportionately affect already vulnerable populations, pushing millions into severe levels of food insecurity.

So far in 2025, ongoing insecurity across the Central Sahel, the Lake Chad Basin and Sudan, alongside high food price inflation continued to drive food insecurity across West and East Africa. In Southern Africa, extreme weather events remained the primary driver of food insecurity in the region with the 2023-24 El Niño being a primary catalyst for high levels of acute food insecurity in parts of Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, while severe drought led to widespread crop failures and poor vegetation conditions for livestock in areas of Namibia and Zambia.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Southern Africa is one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to climate change because of its physical exposure to weather events, low adaptive capacity and high dependence on climate-sensitive livelihoods.

Moreover, climate-related extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and cyclones, rising temperatures, and erratic precipitation levels are becoming more prevalent and adversely affecting agricultural production, livelihoods and regional food security.