By Jean Baptiste Ndabananiye
Africa constitutes the world’s region which abounds with resources including land, water and minerals, among others. This continent possesses the largest share of cultivable land on the planet. But, there persist very big agricultural challenges-across this region- which have prompted us to raise the above question.
Imagine a region of the world where credible global estimates consistently place at no less than 60 percent of the planet’s remaining arable land—vast, fertile, and largely untapped. Reflect upon a land richly endowed with water systems, favorable climates, and a workforce deeply rooted in agriculture. Now imagine that same region standing at the epicenter of a deepening food crisis, where hundreds of millions are facing hunger despite this extraordinary abundance. This does not constitute a paradox of nature—but a paradox of systems, policies, and priorities. “Commitments are made – but never realised,” highlights Oxfam.
However, a chapter- titled “The Role of Agriculture in China’s Development: Past Failures; Present Successes and Future Challenges” published by Columbus University highlights “In contrast, during the last century nations that grew fast and entered the ranks of developed nations—for example, Japan and Korea—frequently found that heavy investment in agriculture was an integral part of their development strategy.”
Africa’s dichotomy: Africa’s plight despite plentiful resources
The African Union [AU], with a 6 May 2024 story headlined “Unlocking the potential of Africa’s soils for a food secure continent”, explains “Africa is the only continent endowed with natural ingredients that can easily be used to greatly expand agricultural production. Africa has 60 percent of the world’s available arable land, the largest share globally, and suitable for agricultural production expansion, and abundant untapped water resources. Agriculture is the source of livelihood for 70 percent of the population on the continent.” Other different organizations say that the percentage exceeds 60% of the land which is uncultivated in Africa.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), in its 1 September 2025 story entitled “Confronting alarming food insecurity trends in Africa: An expert’s view”, reveals “Africa faces its most severe hunger crisis in decades.
As of July 2025, over 282 million people, more than one in five, are affected, with entire regions pushed to the brink by climate shocks, economic instability, and conflict. From drought-stricken Southern Africa to famine-threatened communities in the East, the challenge is vast, but not insurmountable.”
The World Health Organization [WHO] has recently reported that Africa is one of regions where hunger is intensifying instead of being reduced. In its 28 July 2025 story titled “Global hunger declines, but rises in Africa and western Asia: UN report” discloses that the proportion of population facing hunger in Africa surpassed 20 percent in 2024, affecting 307 million people. “It is projected that 512 million people [globally] could be chronically undernourished by 2030. Almost 60 percent of those will be in Africa. This highlights the immense challenge of achieving SDG [Sustainable Development Goal] 2 (Zero Hunger).”
Nevertheless, more than two decades ago Africa set herself an ambition which- if realized- could have eradicated the problem. The AU says “ The African Union Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program (CAADP) adopted in 2003, is Africa’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, wealth creation, food security and nutrition, economic growth and prosperity for all. CAADP advocates for member states to place emphasis on African ownership and African leadership to set the agricultural agenda and the stage for agricultural change.”
“Africa is the world’s richest continent in natural resources, yet it remains the poorest,” Maryam Bello has said, speaking at TEDxKatagum, according to Business Insider Afica’s post on Facebook. In a video credited to @tedx_official, Bello clarifies the paradox, pointing to Africa’s vast mineral wealth, including its dominance in global cobalt deposits, and asking why this abundance has failed to translate into prosperity.
According to Africa Renewal, Bello is a young Nigerian leader who says that she is pursuing a mission to solve problems others talk about. She has co-created Parker’s Mobile Clinic that delivers healthcare using telemedicine and artificial intelligence, chiefly during climate disasters. Africa Renewal additionally reports that she also spearheads ITIS 4 Development where she works on climate tools and digital solutions empowering underserved communities. “In all her endeavors, her motivation is simple: create systems that meet people where they are and help them build better lives.”
Africa Renewal constitutes the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA)’s website, providing information and insights about Africa’s development, opportunities, and challenges.
A paper entitled “Africa: A Land of Wealth and a Land of Poverty: Why the Richest Resource Continent Suffers from Poverty” with more details available at this link reads “The African continent is no doubt the most resource-abundant continent. Resources such as gold, diamond, oil, natural gas, copper, uranium, among others are mined in different parts of the continent. Almost every country in Africa has a deposit of natural resources, Africa is also the poorest continent in the world. Per capita income in African countries is among the lowest in the world. This is evidenced by the failure to meet the Millenium Development Goals.”
“The continent is endowed with about 97% of the world’s chromium, 90% of the world’s cobalt, 85% of the word’s platinum, 70% of the world’s cocoa, and 60% of the world’s coffee. Despite the abundance of resources, Africa is also the poorest continent in the world.”
The paper adds that despite such abundance in natural resources, Africa also lags in international trade. “The continent controls only about 3% of international trade. This is despite the huge natural resource exports out of Africa. The paradox of plenty, otherwise called a resource curse as become more apparent in Africa. For decades, it has generally been observed that countries that are rich in resources such as oil, diamonds, gold, and other minerals have not necessarily witnessed significant gains in economic growth and poverty reduction. This presents the biggest paradox of all; the richest resource continent has the poorest countries on the earth.”
Oxfam, in its 11 July 2022 article “Africa is so rich in farmland – so why is it still hungry?”, provides a more shocking detail. “ Africa imports a third of the cereals it consumes, and 64% of the wheat, according to our analysis based on the data from the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). By comparison, Ukraine which has just 14% of Africa’s arable land was, before the current conflict, able to feed the continent.”
“Farmers who can’t afford fertiliser or pesticides will never feed themselves – or our continent,” say Anthony Kamande and Dailes Judge who have authored the 11 July 2022 Oxfam article. “That means, alongside action on climate change, conflict and market reforms, leaders and policymakers at this week’s African Union meeting must address massive under-investment in agriculture.” Kamande works as the Inequality Policy and Research Advisor at Oxfam International while Judge serves as the Deputy Director at Oxfam in Africa.
Oxfam emphasizes “Farming inputs especially fertilisers are pricier in Africa. Most small-scale farmers simply do not use them as they are priced beyond reach. Even those who do use them often use the wrong ones as there is no soil testing. Africa uses 24kg of fertiliser per hectare of cropland, five times less than the global average.”
Reasons behind the paradox
“Clearly drought and climate change are part of the explanation and are big factors driving the immediate emergency. Of course, climate change and conflict are also key players in hunger in Africa. Our continent contributes less than 4% to climate change but is increasingly experiencing extreme weather conditions that influence productivity.
But the problems with food insecurity go deeper than that: in fact, the main decades-long structural driver of our hunger and poverty is low agricultural productivity rooted in policy failures by our African governments and international organisations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, and equally in failures to invest in human capital such as education and social protection,” explain Kamande and Judge.
“A long history of underinvestment and the wrong policies”
Oxfam underlines that agriculture represents a crucial sector for Africa as “most rural communities depend on it for food and income and it employs roughly 53% of the labour force. Yet despite its enormous social and economic potential, the sector has become a poverty trap. A big cause of that is African governments massively underinvesting in agriculture.”
Yet, the AU states “African governments are expected to increased investment level in agriculture by allocating at least 10% of national budgets to agriculture and rural development, and to achieve agricultural growth rates of at least 6% per annum.”
However, in response to such statements, Oxfam says “Commitments are made – but never realised. African Union member states committed to spend at least 10% of the government’s budget on agriculture: yet In 2021, the average spending on agriculture in Africa was just 4.1%. And whether any of this low spending even reached small-scale farmers is another question.
And the World Bank and IMF have not helped, insisting through conditions on their lending that agricultural markets be fully liberalised, promoting export crops and cash crops over food crops. African governments have been denied policy tools that are regularly used by richer nations to support their farmers, such as subsidies or public interventions to guarantee prices.”
“Fully liberalizing agricultural markets” in this context means diminishing government control over agricultural markets, so they operate more freely under market forces like supply and demand. Institutions such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund promote this by encouraging policies like removing subsidies, eliminating price controls, and unlocking markets to global trade. As a result, farming often shifts toward export-oriented cash crops rather than locally consumed food crops.
In the same context, the word “fully” intensifies the idea of liberalization by implying that almost all or all forms of government control are abolished, not just a few. It suggests a complete or near-complete shift to a free-market system where prices, production, and trade are determined by market forces rather than state intervention.
The AU indicates that bold visions or ambitious plans have long been adopted, though their implementation is questioned by sources such as Oxfam. The AU explains “Over the years, African leaders have committed to prioritize food security, a commitment reinforced through the development of Africa’s Common Position on Food Systems, to help deliver on targets of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 which seeks to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.”
China among the richer nations that have assisted their farmers
China has funded the revolution of its agricultural sector by moving from taxing farmers to heavily subsidizing, investing in, and modernizing agriculture; leading to a sector valued at over USD 1 trillion. This transformation is driven by public and private funding focused on technology, high-yield seeds, and mechanization, aiming to feed 20% of the world’s population with only 7% of its arable land.
“China is the world’s largest agricultural producer, with the country’s total agricultural output amounting to RMB 9.33 trillion (US$1.29 trillion), accounting for 6.7 percent of GDP [gross domestic product],” explains China Briefing, with its 21 January 2026 story titled “China’s Flourishing Agritech Sector – Opportunities for Foreign Investors.” Statista in its 17 December 2025 report entitled “Agriculture in China – statistics & facts” highlights “China is a country with very limited arable land for its size, but needs to feed the largest population on earth. Therefore, the Chinese government attaches great importance to agriculture.”
An August 2013 paper- entitled “The subsidization of farming households in China’s agriculture” published by Science Direct-reads “Concerned about national food self-sufficiency and rural household incomes, in 2004 China decided to reverse its longstanding policy of taxing farm households and instead began to provide them with subsidies.”
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute [MDPI] released a study titled “How Does China’s Agricultural Subsidy Policy Drive More Commercially Productive Small Farmers? The Role of Farmland Scale, Labor Supply, and Cropping Structural Change” on 3o November 2024.
The study highlights “The findings reveal that farmers receiving agricultural subsidies have improved crop sales’ share of total output value. Mechanism analysis reveals that agricultural subsidies have driven up farmland scale and increased agricultural labor supply in production, incentivizing the motive for profit maximization among farmers.
Meanwhile, agricultural subsidies also encourage farmers to cultivate more grain crops. Policymakers should continue deepening the reform of agricultural subsidies and promoting farmer specialization and commercial production.”
Frontiers published a study entitled “Assessing the impact of China’s agricultural subsidy reform on fertilizer management: a county-level empirical analysis based on difference-in-difference model” on 10 January 2024. It highlights “Agricultural subsidies are widely acknowledged to be a crucial cause in food security and environmental protection, with a substantial impact on fertilizer consumption. The Chinese government has gradually established an agricultural subsidy system to ensure food supply and increase farmers’ income since the abolition of agricultural taxes in 2006.
The study further states that from 2004 to 2015, this system comprised four main parts. The latter ones included subsidies for improved crop strains and seeds, direct subsidies for grain growers, comprehensive subsidies for agricultural materials, and subsidies for agricultural machinery purchases. “With the support of these subsidies, the planting area of grain increased from 101.61 million ha in 2004 to 117.46 million ha in 2014, and the grain output of China increased from 469.47 million tons in 2004 to 649.65 million tons in 2014.Meanwhile, the consumption of chemical fertilizers (effective weight) rose from 46.37 million tons to 59.96 million tons from 2004 to 2014.”
In effort to instill certain practices deep in Chinese farmers, China introduced a subsidy policy reform which assisted to transform the country’s farming sector. “To facilitate moderate-scale operations and incentivize farmers to voluntarily adopt a range of conservation measures, such as incorporating straw back into the fields, implementing deep tillage practices, and reducing the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to enhance soil fertility, the Chinese government initiated an agricultural subsidy policy reform.
Specifically, the main reform is to combine the subsidy for improved crop strains and seeds, the direct subsidy for grain growers, and the comprehensive subsidy for agricultural materials into the subsidy for agricultural support and protection, which is known as the ‘three subsidies reform’ (ASR [agricultural subsidies reform),” explains the study before adding “In 2015, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs selected parts of counties in Anhui, Shandong, Hunan, Sichuan, and Zhejiang provinces of China as a pilot to carry out ASR.
In 2016, the ASR was widely implemented in the remaining counties throughout China. The ASR has gone on for almost 8 years, and we have witnessed the growth of China’s grain production.”
China Briefing states “Food security is one of China’s core policy priorities. Beyond ensuring adequate supply for the country’s 1.4 billion people, this increasingly means safeguarding the stability, resilience, and control of the agricultural system.”
Agriculture plays a central role in nations’ development
A January 2007 chapter- titled “The Role of Agriculture in China’s Development: Past Failures; Present Successes and Future Challenges” published by Columbus University- reads “The view toward agricultural and rural development in the modern world has changed dramatically in the past several decades. Traditionally, agriculture was thought of an inferior partner in development. Since the size of the sector falls during development, it was logically considered that it could be ignored.
Why is that leaders would ever want to invest in a sector shrinking? Some academics urged policy makers to treat agriculture like a black box from which resources could be costlessly extracted (Lewis, 1954). All investment was supposed to be targeted at the industry and the cities. As a low productivity sector, it did not deserve investment.”
This chapter notwithstanding underlines that nations which disregarded agriculture encountered colossal development difficulties. “Unfortunately, countries that took this path seriously soon found out that while such a strategy may work in the initial years of development, in the longer run it slowed development and often ended up in failure (Timmer, 1998). Neglect of agriculture meant that a large part of the population was left out of the development process.
If those in the low productive part of the economy were not invested in, they found it difficult to shift to the developing parts of the economy. Dual economies grew apart. It was found that in many cases, production in agriculture fell and food prices rose. Many households fell into isolated subsistence. When this happened, of course, the stability that is required for growth disappears and development stagnates and can even go into reverse.”
The chapter additionally explains “There are many examples of countries that encountered these difficulties, such as, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria and even to some extent the Former Soviet Union. In contrast, during the last century nations that grew fast and entered the ranks of developed nations—for example, Japan and Korea—frequently found that heavy investment in agriculture was an integral part of their development strategy.
Today, modern development economists mostly agree that the role of agriculture and rural development is absolutely an integral part to process of nation building and healthy development (Johnston and Mellor, 1961; Johnston, 1970).” For more on this theme of the mammoth importance of agriculture, open this article.
Africa is however expected to nourish the world in less than 3 decades
African Food Security [AFS], in its 26 August 2025 story headlined “Africa Will Feed the World: The Next Green Revolution Starts Here”, shares “Picture Africa’s farmlands: from the lush fields of Nigeria to the highlands of Ethiopia, the continent’s agricultural tapestry is as varied as its people. Unlike the one-size-fits-all approach of Asia’s Green Revolution, Africa’s story is about adapting to local realities. Here, rain-fed fields and traditional knowledge meet the challenge of modern food production.
A staggering 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land lies within Africa’s borders. This isn’t just a statistic—it’s a call to action. As the world’s population races toward 10 billion, the question of how to keep everyone fed looms larger than ever. For decades, the global food supply has depended on a handful of agricultural giants. But a quiet transformation is underway—one that could see Africa not just feeding itself, but nourishing the entire planet.”
AFS was instituted in 2024. It describes itself as one of several foreign-led agribusinesses and ventures looking to invest in Africa’s underutilized arable land. It is pursuing the mission to promote sustainable farming practices while improving food production capacity in regions vulnerable to import dependency and climate shocks.
Different institutions had also earlier indicated that Africa holds the potential to become a key player in feeding the world.
The African Development Bank [AfDB] had in its 17 November 2023 story headlined “Time Is Running Out To Help Africa Feed Itself” points out “With 65 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa has the potential to achieve internal food security and play a greater role in feeding the world. More productive land could create a food and agribusiness economy worth $1 trillion by 2030 and turn Africa from a net importer of food into a net exporter.”
In its 11 January 2023 piece of writing entitled “How Africa can help feed the world. What’s needed for true food security”, the World Economic Forum [WEF] states “Food security – amid climate change – is a massive challenge for our fast-growing global population. Africa has the potential to be a major player in global food networks and relieve a lot of stress on global food security. Protecting its soil – through technology, fertilizer and other methods – will have knock-on effects for yields, biodiversity, hunger and more.”
“Presently, African farmers use, on average, just 20 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare, a fraction of the global average. To maximize yields per acre, it is estimated that local farmers will need to increase their fertilizer application by around tenfold. Doing this in a sustainable way – without longer-term environmental damage – will be crucial. Not just for the continent, but the globe as well: with 60% of the world’s remaining arable land, Africa’s vast, fertile soils represent humanity’s best hope for future food security.”
The African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD), with a 19 July 2016 story headlined “African farmers say they can feed the world, and we might soon need them to”, said “With 60-65% of the world’s uncultivated arable land and 10% of renewable freshwater resources, Africa’s immense agricultural potential has long been a keen point of discussion among agronomists and global decision-makers.
After a 160% increase in African agricultural output over the past 30 years, many elements of the continent’s food production process look to be on an upward trajectory. As the global population continues to soar—it’s expected to approach 10 billion by 2050—there’s plenty more to be done.”
AUDA-NEPAD quoted Raajeev Bopiah, the General Manager of the East Usambara Tea company which produces over 4 million kilograms of tea a year on its 5 000 acres of land in Tanzania, as saying “We can and would be happy to feed the world. We just need the knowledge and the funding.”
China is the major producer of food products in the world, but these days she is forced to import large quantities of food; which suggests that even the world’s largest agricultural producers can face persistent domestic demand gaps and structural constraints in food self-sufficiency. This reality highlights that if Africa realizes its potential to feed the world, it will certainly become a major opportunity for both the continent and the world.
China Briefing explains “Although China is the world’s largest agricultural producer, China currently does not produce enough food to meet the needs of the 1.4 billion people living in the country. The country, therefore, still relies on imports to fill in the gap. In 2025, China imported US$207.4 billion worth of agricultural goods.
This included 131 million metric tons of staple food crops (including 103.4 million tons of soybeans), 5.7 million tons of cooking oil, 5.7 million tons of meat, and 8.8 million tons of aquatic products. China also has a limited amount of arable land – reaching around 129 million hectares at the end of 2024, although total harvested area reached 173 million hectares – as well as limited water resources, which means increasing crop yields will be crucial to strengthening agricultural self-sufficiency.”
Statista echoes “China is a country with very limited arable land for its size, but needs to feed the largest population on earth. Therefore, the Chinese government attaches great importance to agriculture. Although considerable amounts of agricultural land get lost to new infrastructure, industries, and urban settlements every year, the total output of agricultural products still sees slight increases. Notwithstanding, food imports grew dramatically over the last decade and today China is the largest importer of agricultural products in the world.”
Any strategies to achieve that: feeding the entire planet?
Bello shows that the primary foundation for the Africans to reverse the situation is twofold. First, the Africans must first be self-convinced that the true progress of their continent essentially lies within their hands. Finally, they have to turn the self-conviction into concrete actions to revolutionize the continent. “Bello argued that the challenge isn’t scarcity, but ownership – urging Africans to recognize their shared future, reclaim their value, and pursue homegrown solutions to transform the continent’s unrealized potential into lasting growth,” says Business Insider Africa.
Gilbert Phiri is senior coordinator for the Africa region Zero Hunger Initiative at IFRC. He doesn’t differ with Bello. He explains that ending hunger in Africa will require durable, community-led solutions designed to withstand future crises and empower people to feed themselves for generations to come. “Durable solutions are those that are sustainable, systemic, and capable of withstanding future shocks induced by either conflict, climate change, or economic instability.
Durable solutions require coordination, innovation, and inclusivity when addressing the root causes of hunger. They also build individual, community and agency resilience to food insecurity. Durable solutions must be: [1] Sustainable and systemic – able to withstand future climate, conflict, and economic shocks. [2] Locally led and scalable – driven by communities, designed for replication. [3] Integrated – combining agriculture, social protection, and market access. [4] Focused on livelihoods – diversifying income and building resilience.”
Phiri underscores that durable solutions are those which are devised to uproot the problem at its structural roots. “Durable solutions tackle root causes, empower communities, and build systems that last. They combine health, education, agriculture, and economic development so that people can feed themselves year after year. An example of a project we’ve successfully replicated is the Village Model. In this project, households work together with support from the IFRC to improve food security, livelihoods, and resilience through shared resources, skills, and mutual support.
By combining sustainable agriculture, savings groups, and social cohesion, it creates self-reliant villages capable of withstanding future shocks. Community ownership and involvement are absolutely central to making zero hunger solutions both durable and scalable. When people design, manage, and adapt solutions themselves, they last longer and spread faster.”
Phiri, providing some instances, emphasizes that community-spearheaded mechanisms are they that will significantly assist Africa to liberate herself from the crisis of hunger. “In Rwanda, community-managed livestock schemes flourished because members reinvested in each other. In Nigeria, men began supporting mothers’ clubs after seeing tangible benefits for their households.
Community-led approaches naturally foster replication and scale because they build confidence, local skills, and social structures that can extend successful models to new groups or regions. Strong community buy-in ensures that innovations are embraced, adapted, and promoted by local champions, creating a multiplier effect.”
What Phiri recommends corresponds to China’s approach. He says “There is a significant financing gap—estimates indicate an additional $21–77 billion per year from public sources and much more from private sector investment is needed for food systems transformation in Africa. Current financial flows are insufficient to bridge this gap and reach all communities in need. Community-led models need multi-year, stable funding—not just short-term, crisis-driven aid—to allow them to take root, expand, and demonstrate impact over time.”
He adds “Other than that, we need enabling regulations, stronger government–community coordination, and expanded social protection programs, as well as training in climate-smart agriculture, organizational strengthening, and access to innovation and technology.”
If Phiri were furnished with an opportunity to transmit one message to donors and partners, he underlines that the message would be “Sustainable, community-led solutions—not short-term fixes—are the only way to end hunger, and they require long-term, flexible investment and enabling policies to thrive. Too often, hunger responses rely on crisis-driven, one-off aid. While essential in emergencies, these don’t dismantle the root causes—poverty, fragile food systems, inequitable access to resources, and climate shocks.
Durable, locally rooted approaches have already proven they can work, but they remain under-resourced and constrained by rigid funding cycles or policy barriers. The shift in thinking we hope to inspire all partners and stakeholders should move from asking: ‘How can we feed people today?’ to asking: ‘How can we ensure people can feed themselves next year—and every year thereafter?’”
As China has acted, Oxfam suggests the same system, to solve Africa’s crisis. This organization recommends to start with massive investment and market support. “Generally, small-scale farmers in Africa are net food buyers and among the poorest people. Usage of inputs is dismal, infrastructure is lacking, extension support is minimal, financing options are inadequate and market linkages are too weak to support improved productivity.”
In these “extraordinary times”, to stop food insecurity, and decrease poverty and inequality, Oxfam suggests starting by addressing five crucial policy areas.
The first area entails transforming the agricultural and food systems through increased quantity and quality of investments, with an emphasis placed upon building the resilience of smallholder farmers. “Governments should progressively increase spending on agriculture from the current low of 4.1% of national budgets to at least 10% in every country. Climate and nutritionally sensitive local food systems can significantly contribute to healthy food diets.”
The second one is that “government should be allowed” to implement policies that reduce risk for farmers and consumers, subsidizing credit and inputs, guaranteeing prices, ensuring strategic reserves of food and providing appropriate agricultural extension support. “A wholesale reliance on export crops and market liberalisation should be abandoned.”
The third aspect includes investing in education, training and social protection. “A report by the FAO indicates that strengthening farmers’ skills and agency through training, positive role modelling and mentorships and using approaches such as farmer field schools for learning and knowledge sharing, is central to tapping the potential of the sector. Strong social protection systems too could end food insecurity and build a strong and resilient Africa that can withstand shocks.”
The fourth one involves raising revenue fairly and equitably through progressive taxation which “would raise much-needed funds to invest in agriculture and enabling sectors. To free up government resources to invest in agriculture and end hunger, Africa also needs debt cancellation and restructuring from all lenders.”
Finally, “Wealthier countries, the major contributors to climate change, should make available climate financing to African countries to help the continent mitigate and adapt to climate change. It is also everyone’s business to support an end to incessant conflict, political instability and polarisation in the region and elsewhere.”
In light of all that, what will truly rescue Africa’s farming sector?
Africa’s agricultural crisis does not form a failure of nature—it represents a failure of choice. The continent’s vast endowment of land, water, and human capital has never been doubted. What has lacked, consistently and decisively, is the alignment of political will, policy direction, and sufficient sustained investment with that immense potential. The evidence is overwhelming: nations that have risen to prosperity did not bypass agriculture—they built upon it. Africa must accomplish the same, but with urgency and conviction.
What will truly save Africa’s farming sector does not amount to a single intervention, but a fundamental shift—a transformation rooted in serious investment, strategic protection, and empowered local ownership. Governments must move beyond rhetoric and finally honor long-standing commitments by investing at least 10% of national budgets into agriculture, ensuring that the necessary resources are provided for smallholder farmers-who form the backbone of the sector. This must be accompanied by the ability to support farmers through subsidies, price guarantees, extension services, and infrastructure—tools which successful agricultural nations have consistently employed.
Equally critical is the transition from externally driven, short-term fixes to durable, community-led solutions. When farmers are armed with knowledge, skills, financing, technology, and organizational capacity—and when they actively design and own the systems that support them—agriculture ceases to be a poverty trap and becomes a pathway to resilience and prosperity. The goal must change from merely feeding populations today to assuring that they can sustainably feed themselves for generations.
Africa must also confront the deeper structural void at the heart of its paradox: a gap between commitment and execution, potential and performance, ownership and dependency. Closing this gap necessitates a new mindset—one which, as emphasized in the article, starts with Africans recognizing that the continent’s transformation lies in their own hands, and then translating that belief into decisive, coordinated action.
If these elements converge—robust investment, policy reform, local empowerment, and unwavering political will—Africa will not only attain food security but will redefine its place in the global food system. In a world where even leading agricultural powers increasingly rely on imports, Africa’s rise as a considerably great food producer is not just an opportunity; it constitutes an inevitability waiting to be realized.
The answer, therefore, stands clear: Africa’s farming sector will be rescued when agriculture is no longer treated as a residual sector, but as the central pillar of development— strongly funded, protected, and driven by its own people.
Meanwhile, post-harvest handling systems figure among key strategic areas which will assist Africa to address the issue of crisis. Indepth Research Institute (IRES) describes itself as “a leading provider of data-driven insights, innovative solutions, and transformative training, empowering organizations” across the world.
IRES’ recommendation to deal successfully with post-harvest handling systems in Africa will only be successfully implemented, if the answer elucidated in this article is heeded. IRES, in its 9 July 2025 story entitled “Post Harvest Losses in Africa: Challenges, Solutions & the Future of Food Security”, points out that post-harvest management demands a multi sectoral approach and that success in solving the challenge will generate several benefits and considerably develop the agriculture sector on the continent. “Governments, private sector actors, NGOs, and farmer cooperatives must collaborate to build resilient value chains.
Innovations such as solar-powered cold rooms, IoT based monitoring systems, and AI-driven supply chain analytics will be central. Additionally, with Africa’s food demand projected to triple by 2050, tackling post harvest losses is not optional it is essential for achieving food security, reducing poverty, and ensuring sustainable agribusiness growth.”
IRES emphasizes “Post harvest losses in Africa represent both a challenge and an opportunity. By addressing key bottlenecks in storage, transport, processing, and training, stakeholders can unlock billions in value, empower smallholder farmers, and strengthen food systems across the continent.”