AGRA Raises Alarm Over Slow Pace of Africa’s Agricultural Transformation
By Fride Amiani
Africa’s agricultural sector has made significant progress over the past two decades, but millions of farmers are yet to reap meaningful financial benefits from increased production, a new report by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has warned.
The organisation says gains in productivity, seed development and food production have not translated into the level of farmer prosperity required to drive Africa’s agricultural transformation.
AGRA’s 20-year Impact, Learning and Foresight Report, launched in Nairobi on Monday, shows that farmer incomes have doubled, cereal yields have increased by about 40 per cent and agricultural output has roughly doubled in real terms since 2005.
Despite the gains, AGRA says farmers continue to face low incomes, weak markets, limited access to finance and persistent productivity challenges.
AGRA President Alice Ruhweza said the success of Africa’s agricultural transformation should ultimately be measured by whether farmers are becoming more prosperous.
“When farmers prosper, Africa prospers,” Ruhweza said.
She said higher agricultural production alone was not enough to improve farmers’ livelihoods, warning that gains could be lost when farmers lack reliable markets and infrastructure.
“If productivity increases but value is lost, farmers remain poor,” she said.
Ruhweza said farmers need access to finance, knowledge, infrastructure, healthy soils and functioning markets, alongside policies that are effectively implemented.
The report comes as AGRA marks 20 years of supporting Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda.
Ruhweza said the continent had come a long way from the 1980s and 1990s, when frequent crop failures, food shortages, weak extension services and limited investment constrained smallholder agriculture.
She cited the 2003 Maputo Declaration as a major turning point, saying it established a continental commitment to transforming agriculture.
Since then, African countries have expanded seed industries, agro-dealer networks and extension services, while governments and private-sector players have increased their capacity to support farmers.
AGRA says it has worked with partners to support 118 seed companies and more than 650 improved seed varieties.
The organisation has also supported more than 25,000 agro-dealers, 33,000 community extension workers and trained five million farmers in soil health and climate-smart agricultural practices.
Nearly 800 scientists have also been supported, while about $691 million has been leveraged for national agricultural investment plans.
However, AGRA says these interventions have not yet produced transformation at the scale needed to meet Africa’s agricultural ambitions.
The report identifies three major challenges facing the continent’s food systems: the productivity trap, the value trap and the capability trap.
The productivity trap refers to farmers’ inability to consistently increase production while dealing with climate change, declining soil health and pressure on land and water resources.
The value trap occurs when farmers increase production but fail to earn enough because of weak markets, limited processing capacity, poor infrastructure and inadequate access to profitable markets.
The capability trap, meanwhile, is linked to weaknesses in institutions, financing, data, coordination and accountability.
Andrew Cox, AGRA’s Director of Strategy, Monitoring and Evaluation and Learning, said climate change and growing pressure on natural resources were making the situation increasingly urgent.
He said Africa needed to move beyond focusing mainly on providing farmers with inputs and research and instead strengthen links between farmers and consumers.
Farmers, Cox said, must be connected to local markets, supermarkets, expanding cities and export markets if increased production is to result in higher incomes.
AGRA is also pushing for greater private-sector investment in agriculture, arguing that Africa’s rapidly growing population and expanding urban food markets present major economic opportunities.
Jonathan Said, AGRA’s Vice President for Technical Expertise, said the organisation would increasingly focus on helping countries identify the specific obstacles preventing agricultural transformation.
He said governments and local institutions must remain in charge of the process, with AGRA playing a catalytic role.
“The ecosystem of support is growing,” Said said, pointing to the increasing involvement of private companies, technology firms, processors, non-governmental organisations and other players in Africa’s food systems.
Said said AGRA would focus on identifying binding constraints, coordinating stakeholders, strengthening local institutions and ensuring that evidence and data inform government policies and investment decisions.
The organisation also acknowledged that although agricultural policies have improved in many African countries, implementation remains a major challenge.
Said said governments had developed policies capable of supporting agricultural transformation but had struggled to implement them effectively.
Ruhweza said AGRA would consequently place greater emphasis on evidence, transparency and accountability.
She said the organisation would no longer measure success simply by the number of farmers reached or programmes implemented.
Instead, success would be assessed by whether farmers experience improved incomes, resilience, dignity and economic opportunities.
AGRA Board Chair H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn said increased production must be accompanied by stronger value retention and sustainable institutions for agricultural transformation to take place.
“Progress becomes transformation only when productivity is restored, value is retained and capability is sustained,” Dessalegn said.
The report warns that Africa’s current agricultural trajectory will not deliver the targets set under the Kampala Declaration and the third Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP 3.0) by 2035.
AGRA says the continent must adopt a more integrated approach involving governments, farmers, businesses, financiers, researchers, development partners and civil society.
The organisation said agriculture could no longer be treated as the responsibility of agriculture ministries alone.
According to AGRA, decisions on finance, trade, infrastructure, energy, water, climate, health, education, science and industry all have a direct bearing on whether farmers prosper.
Ruhweza also challenged the media to change its approach to reporting agriculture, saying the sector should be viewed as a major economic opportunity rather than an issue associated only with rural livelihoods.
She said agriculture has the potential to create jobs, strengthen food security, support manufacturing, improve climate resilience and reduce Africa’s dependence on imported food.
AGRA said its 20-year review was intended to provide an honest assessment of both its achievements and shortcomings.
The organisation said the next decade should focus less on isolated projects and more on building agricultural systems capable of turning increased productivity into sustained farmer prosperity.
The findings will be discussed at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, where governments and other stakeholders are expected to explore ways of accelerating Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda.
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