Conclusions for the Debate on Food Security: Food Insecurity as a Development Problem

In many rural areas of Africa the process of transformation from a subsistence to a market economy is at an early stage. ¹³⁶ At present, African home economies are neither autonomous subsistence producers ¹³⁷ nor farms fully integrated into the market economy. Instead, they operate in two different systems simultaneously: the subsistence and the market economy. In this they are, on the one hand, confronted with underdeveloped markets. Although their participation in these markets can increase their potential income if they specialize in accordance with the principle of comparative advantages, the associated risk of losses of income or purchasing power increases at the same time. On the other hand, as traditional solidarity systems and exchange mechanisms have now deteriorated in many cases, there is no longer any guarantee that the risks typically occurring in the subsistence economy will be offset.