Farmers want help in Africa's push to 'feed itself'

STORY: As the cold mists of dawn settle on the fields of western Senegal, Mor Kabe and members of his community are hard at work harvesting eggplants.

Smallholder farmers like him are responsible for an estimated 80% of food production in sub-Saharan Africa.

But despite the crucial role they play, Kabe says smallholders are struggling amid a like of finance and fertilizer.

"Access to finance is not easy at all", he says, "demand exceeds supply. And they lend to those they trust the most."

War between Ukraine and Russia, two major fertilizer producers, has disrupted supply to the continent.

Stop gap measures have not been enough to curb high prices which smallholder farmers can't afford.

Thirty miles from Kabe's five-acre plot, African leaders were meeting this week to discuss such threats to food security.

According to the United Nations, one in five Africans are facing hunger in what is the continent's worst ever food crisis.

At the summit in Diamniadio, Senegal's President Macky Sall had this to say.

"Africa needs to learn to feed itself and to contribute to providing food to the world. We have the potential, we have 1.4 billion people living on more than 30 million square kilometres with over 60 percent of the world's non-exploited arable land."

Kabe is also urging leaders to build infrastructure including roads and storage facilities.

Without cold storage, for example, he says they're obliged to sell their produce immediately so it doesn't perish - even at times when the market is saturated.

At the summit Sall said building storage and processing units, as well as improving access to markets, were key measures that countries aim to put in place.

By doing so, he said, food production can be boosted, reducing the continent's reliance on imports.