ABSTRACT
Even if the current adjustment processes are brought to a satisfactory conclusion, many African countries are considered to have poor growth prospects. It cannot be assumed that high income growth will adequately increase the range of economic options of the majority of the population in the foreseeable future or that the subsistence economy will no longer be needed to ensure the food security of African home economies. The realization that greater food security does not necessarily follow income growth and that the composition and control of income within home economies and the certainty of access to food are equally important for food security at household level emerges in this context as an opportunity to improve food security even at a low rate of growth in per capita income. It is on this that the formulation of future food security policies should be based.
