The Need for Agro-Allied Industries to Promote Food Security by Value Addition to Indigenous African Food Crops

Food security is a major concern in developing countries and requires urgent attention and collaborative effort from all stakeholders. As the human population continues to increase, the demand for food becomes far greater than the supply can meet. There is a need to cultivate more indigenous food crops and to diversify into new products by using processing and preservation techniques to ensure that more people have access to good quality, nutritious foods. It is therefore essential that agro-allied industries in African countries receive encouragement to improve the application of technology for processing raw food crops, increasing their shelf life, improving nutritional values and packaging, and maintaining high quality standards. This paper emphasizes the potential benefits for three staple African foods – maize, cassava and sorghum. The application of science to transform the properties of these foods and relevant technologies, such as extrusion cooking, can add value to their use in the immediate future and will help in meeting the Millennium Development Goals.