The protein system
Central Africa's eight states have about 180.5 million people, including 112.8 million in the DRC.[7] Diets rely heavily on roots and tubers. Annual cereal consumption ranges from 35 kg per person in the DRC and 44 kg in the Central African Republic to 104 kg in Gabon and 153 kg in Cameroon.[7] Cassava fills much of the gap: the DRC alone produced 45.2 million tonnes, second-most in the world.[5]
Protein comes from livestock, fisheries, wild meat and imported fish. Recorded livestock output is 1.94 million tonnes, or 10.7 kg per person per year, and varies sharply across the region: Chad produces 969,686 tonnes for 21.0 million people while the DRC produces 253,194 tonnes for 112.8 million, or 2.24 kg each.[6] Fisheries output across the six members with FAO profiles is 717,092 tonnes, overwhelmingly wild inland capture.[12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17] Wild meat supplies an estimated 1.10 million tonnes a year across Central Africa, up from 0.73 million in 2000, and about 20 per cent of the recommended daily protein intake in rural communities.[26] Imported fish covers the rest: those six members bought USD 621.7 million of fish in 2022 against USD 11.9 million of exports, a 52-to-one net import position.[12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17]
The regional cereal-import share is low, but members differ sharply: 6.4 per cent in Chad and 20.8 per cent in the DRC, against 84.7 per cent in Gabon and 100 per cent in Equatorial Guinea, where FAO records no cereal production.[7] The four least cereal-dependent states contain 93.8 per cent of the population; the four most dependent contain 6.2 per cent.[7]
Durable domestic capacity:
Staple balances conceal the region's low protein supply. Cereal production covers 71.4 per cent of use,[7] and cassava is almost entirely domestic.[5] Protein supply is 27.7 g per person per day in the DRC, including only 3.65 g of animal protein; Gabon records 84.8 g.[1, 2] is 31.2 per cent across the region and 38.5 per cent in the DRC.[3]
The base is fragile beyond current violence. Cassava mosaic disease losses across East and Central Africa are valued at USD 1.9 to 2.7 billion a year, and brown streak has spread across more than 62,000 square kilometres and nine previously unaffected Congolese territories.[27] The Lake Chad catch has fallen from about 220,000 tonnes in the 1960s to about 100,000 in 2000 and 50,000 to 60,000 in the most recent published yields, and the DRC's marine option barely exists at 177 kilometres of coast and a 121 square kilometre fishing zone.[12, 39]
Conflict has also cut access to farmland: DRC maize area in 2026 was below the five-year average after prolonged displacement and restricted field access.[8] WFP and FAO reported 7.8 million people displaced in the DRC in May 2026, while FAO's February estimate was about 6.5 million; another 428,000 were displaced in CAR.[8, 10, 19]
Resource headroom:
Central Africa's land and water endowment is large on paper, but farms lack the infrastructure and finance to use it. Renewable internal freshwater averages about 10,500 cubic metres per person a year, while arable land reaches 0.349 hectares per person in the Central African Republic and 0.274 in Chad.[22, 23] Yet only 85,350 hectares were equipped for irrigation in 2024, 0.28 per cent of 30.75 million hectares of arable land.[50] Rainfall is abundant in several members, but little water can be stored or directed to fields during dry periods.
Credit and inputs are similarly scarce. Agriculture, forestry and fishing received 0.57 per cent of all credit in the DRC in 2023.[49] No member produced fertiliser nutrients in 2023; the Central African Republic imported just 79 tonnes for 5.15 million people.[4] The region's low-input mix limits feed and fertiliser competition, but does not create an easy path to higher yields.[2, 12]
Big projects have not brought this land into use. Bukanga Lonzo, launched in the DRC in 2014, absorbed USD 285 million, produced no lasting output, and ended with a former prime minister sentenced in 2025.[51] Meanwhile, cropland expanded from 21.92 million hectares in 2000 to 35.93 million in 2024, but 92.2 per cent of Congolese tree-cover loss from 2000 to 2015 was linked to small-scale shifting cultivation.[50, 52] Cropland per person fell in six of eight members from 2000 to 2023 despite that expansion.[50] The region is clearing more land without consistently increasing land available per person; conflict, weak finance and little irrigation keep much of its land and water unused.
Import exposure:
The regional cereal dependency ratio is 27.0 per cent, while food is 4.8 per cent of DRC merchandise imports.[7, 23] Cassava and plantain underpin the low cereal-import share, though members range from 6.4 per cent dependency in Chad to 100 per cent in Equatorial Guinea.[7]
Two exposures cut against that. The first is the small coastal and island states, importing between 84.7 and 100 per cent of their cereals and, in Gabon's case, about 84,912 tonnes of poultry meat a year against 4,122 tonnes of domestic production.[7, 29] The second is animal protein generally: the region is a net fish importer by roughly USD 610 million, and Congolese fish imports concentrate in a single product, frozen jack and horse mackerel at USD 152.9 million, or 85 per cent of the USD 179.5 million represented by the ten largest import lines, sourced substantially from Namibia, which sent 14.1 per cent of its seafood exports to the DRC in the first quarter of 2024.[12, 33]
Road bottlenecks create a separate supply risk for the landlocked members. Nearly 80 per cent of the Central African Republic's external trade and about 79 per cent of Chad's imports transit a single 1,400 kilometre corridor from Douala, of which 802 kilometres in Cameroon and 308 in the Central African Republic require urgent upgrading.[25, 40] Freight to Bangui and N'Djamena takes two to five weeks at USD 0.35 to 0.40 per tonne-kilometre, more than twice the Southern African average, on a route the World Bank counts among Africa's top twenty priority road segments for food security, moving more than 100 billion kilocalories of food a year.[25] A single corridor failure would expose the 26.5 million people of the two landlocked members, Chad and the Central African Republic.[7] Eastern Congolese supply lines now cross an active front line, and rice and maize prices there have stayed elevated since January 2025 on reduced imports and conflict-inflated transport costs.[8]
Upstream dependence:
Fertiliser use is exceptionally low: 5.60 kg of nutrients per hectare of cropland regionally, against 17 kg across sub-Saharan Africa and 135 kg globally.[4, 23, 35] No member produced fertiliser nutrients in 2023.[4] Cameroon, the region's largest input market, imported 225,334 tonnes in 2024.[31] Livestock depends largely on pasture rather than purchased feed, and cassava, plantain and yams can be replanted from retained material.[24]
Oil production has not delivered reliable local fuel supply. The DRC has no refinery, and Cameroon's SONARA has produced nothing since the May 2019 fire; Cameroon imported nearly 1.8 million tonnes of refined products between January and October 2025 while a rehabilitation project targets reopening in December 2027.[53, 54] Diesel imports power the Douala corridor, Congo river barges and irrigation pumps. Chad and the Central African Republic receive fertiliser and fuel through the same corridor that carries most of their trade.[25]
Domestic substitution is limited. LANAVET in Garoua makes about 25 million veterinary vaccine doses a year and exports seven vaccines to seven African countries.[55] But feed can account for 60 to 70 per cent of Cameroonian poultry costs, including imported soymeal and premixes.[28] Gabon's plan to replace poultry imports with domestic production relies on an Algerian turnkey project and Turkish feed mill.[29, 30] Most modern feed, machinery and veterinary supply chains remain externally dependent.
Access and affordability:
Across seven members, 79.5 per cent of people .[41] Undernourishment is 31.2 per cent across members with data, and is 38.9 per cent across all eight, reaching 44.7 per cent in the DRC.[3, 42] A 2020 survey found child stunting at 14.4 per cent in Gabon.[42]
Prices and physical access make hardship worse. Cameroonian maize was 40 per cent more expensive year on year in January 2026, while a stronger Chadian harvest cut millet prices by up to 15 per cent.[8, 9] The Douala road carries nearly 80 per cent of CAR's external trade, and conflict has cut access to eastern DRC, where 7.8 million people are displaced.[8, 19, 25, 40]
Wild meat and cassava supplement rural diets, particularly in forest zones, but do not reach the urban households most exposed to market prices.[5, 26] The nutritional outcomes remain severe, with high undernourishment and stunting alongside widespread inability to afford a healthy diet.[3, 41, 42]
Transport costs keep most local food markets from tracking world prices closely, while domestic supply shocks still cause large price swings.[57, 58] In Yaounde, red-bean prices rose 50.5 per cent and maize 87.0 per cent between 2021 and 2023, far above the 8 to 9 per cent rise in the CFA-converted global food index.[59, 60] Six members share a CFA franc peg to the euro, while the DRC's currency fell 35.4 per cent between 2021 and 2025.[59, 61] In Yaounde, a kilogram of red beans cost 3.9 hours at the minimum wage; boneless beef in N'Djamena cost 8.2 hours.[59, 60, 62, 63]
Shock endurance:
Food stocks are thin. In 2026, Cameroon, Chad and Gabon accumulated small cereal stocks, while the DRC drew down 122,000 tonnes.[7] was 1.69 months in the DRC and 1.60 months in the Republic of the Congo in their respective reference years.[23] Fiscal capacity varies sharply: poorer members have little ability to outbid on world markets, while Gabon and Equatorial Guinea have more financial capacity but weak inland delivery.[23] Protein supply across members with current data averages only 38.7 grams per person per day, below the 58-gram adult reference.[1, 2]
Humanitarian aid is the main backstop and is underfunded. WFP faced a USD 214 million shortfall in the DRC through October 2026; it assisted 1 million of 2.3 million people in emergency hunger (IPC Phase 4) during 2025, then cut monthly assistance to 600,000 people.[19, 37, 38] Across the region, WFP warned that 55 million people could face crisis-level hunger or worse in the June to August 2026 lean season, with more than 3 million in emergency hunger.[20]
Public finances add little room to manoeuvre. Chad is at high risk of external and overall debt distress.[45] The Republic of the Congo's debt reached 97.2 per cent of GDP at end-2025, with new external arrears through February 2026.[47] Cameroon's flagship safety net reaches 217,500 people, against more than 2.8 million in severe food insecurity.[11, 44, 48] The Republic of the Congo can borrow, but its 2025 eurobonds carried yields around 13 per cent and proceeds were committed to refinancing existing debt.[47]
The region has buffers that conventional stocks miss. Cassava supplies nearly a quarter of the region's protein, and about 55.1 million tonnes of it can stay in the ground until needed; wild meat adds to rural diets.[1, 5, 26] Cameroon's poultry industry rebuilt domestic supply after frozen-poultry restrictions began in 2005, reaching 25.5 per cent of national meat output.[6, 28] Chad's above-average 2025 harvest also brought cereal prices down.[9]
Trajectory
Peace in eastern Congo would change the regional picture more than a farm programme. The DRC holds 63 per cent of the population but only 40 per cent of protein consumption, with supply of 27.7 grams per person per day; conflict also displaces millions and restricts field access.[1, 8, 19]
Reliable transport is the next priority. Upgrading 295 kilometres on the Douala-Bangui road targets the weakest links in the corridor carrying most CAR and Chad trade.[25] Faster transit would improve access to imported food and farm inputs for both landlocked members.
Domestic production can grow where distribution and inputs improve. Gabon's poultry project and Cameroon's poultry expansion show that import substitution is possible, though both depend on imported feed, genetics and equipment.[28, 29, 30] Irrigation and agricultural credit remain scarce: only 85,350 hectares are equipped across the region, while agriculture's share of DRC credit was 0.57 per cent.[49, 50]
Country notes
Democratic Republic of the Congo. The DRC has 112.8 million people and low protein supply: 27.7 g per person per day, including 3.65 g animal protein; undernourishment is 38.5 per cent.[1, 2, 3] Cassava production of 45.2 million tonnes keeps cereal import dependence at 20.8 per cent, but fertiliser use is only 2.30 kg per hectare.[4, 5, 7] Conflict has displaced millions, and reserves cover 1.69 months of imports.[8, 19, 23]
Cameroon. Protein supply is 71.3 g per person per day, with 14 g from animal foods; fisheries produce 241,562 tonnes.[1, 2, 13] Cameroon rebuilt poultry production after restricting frozen poultry imports in 2005, but it remains the gateway for Chad and CAR.[6, 25, 28] More than 2.8 million people faced severe food insecurity in the June to August 2026 lean season.[3, 11]
Chad. The region's highest livestock output per person and cereal dependence of 6.4 per cent support local food supply.[6, 7] Freshwater availability is only 813 cubic metres per person; most imports cross Douala, and the country is hosting about 1.5 million Sudanese refugees.[9, 22, 40]
Central African Republic. Income is the region's lowest, at USD 556 per person, with just 0.03 kg fertiliser use per hectare and 855 km of paved road.[4, 23, 25] Nearly 2 million people faced acute food insecurity in 2026; nearly 80 per cent of external trade crosses the Douala corridor.[10, 25]
Republic of the Congo. The oil-producing country imports 91.6 per cent of its cereals and most animal protein; fish imports were USD 129 million against exports of USD 5.4 million.[2, 7, 14] Despite abundant freshwater, only 2,000 hectares are equipped for irrigation. Import cover was 1.60 months in 2021.[4, 22, 23, 50]
Gabon. Gabon has the region's highest recorded supply at 84.8 g per person per day, including 41.34 g animal protein and 27 kg of fish.[1, 2, 15] Yet it imports 84.7 per cent of cereals and about 84,900 tonnes of poultry a year against 4,122 tonnes of domestic output.[6, 7, 29] Undernourishment rose to 25.3 per cent in 2023 despite GDP per person of USD 8,263.[3, 23] A 2027 broiler-import ban is backed by USD 1.38 billion in agreements.[29, 30]
Equatorial Guinea. FAO records no domestic cereal production, leaving cereal import dependence at 100 per cent; annual cereal consumption is only 32 kg per person.[7] Fisheries produce 7,227 tonnes despite the region's largest exclusive economic zone.[17]
Sao Tome and Principe. The smallest member, with 240,000 people, imports 96 per cent of cereals.[7, 23] Arable land is only 0.017 hectares per person.[23]