Africa’s agrifood systems are facing intensifying pressure from global shocks. Trade disruptions have raised the cost of fertilisers, fuel, and freight, while climate variability and conflict continue to displace farmers and reduce harvests. Despite these challenges, the most critical decisions about the continent’s agrifood future are made locally, through national budgets, regulatory frameworks, and investment strategies controlled by African governments.
The 34th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Conference for Africa, held in Nouakchott, Mauritania, from 13 to 17 April 2026, brought together ministers of agriculture and related portfolios to translate political commitments into operational priorities. The key challenge remains whether such decisions will be implemented with sufficient speed and coordination to meet the continent’s urgent food security needs.
Current data highlights the severity of the situation. In 2024, approximately 307 million people in Africa were undernourished, more than one in five of the population, reversing a decade of progress. The average cost of a healthy diet has risen to USD 4.41 per person per day, putting adequate nutrition out of reach for most households. These figures reflect structural weaknesses, including underinvestment in rural infrastructure, fragmented markets, weak extension services, and vulnerability to external shocks, disproportionately affecting smallholders, pastoralists, women, and young people.
Africa possesses significant agricultural assets, including roughly 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land, a young population, and centuries of local knowledge. The challenge lies in aligning institutions and investment priorities to fully utilise these resources. While government spending on agriculture reached USD 16 billion in 2022 and has been increasing, agricultural credit remains only about 2 percent of total bank lending, highlighting a persistent financing gap for small- and medium-sized agrifood enterprises.
Innovation and technology can enhance productivity and reduce losses, but they often fail to reach smallholders. Digital advisory services, improved seed varieties, smart farming practices, and market information systems must be tailored to the realities of small-scale farmers, particularly women and youth, who remain underserved by extension, credit, and technology.
Resilience is critical. Investments in irrigation, storage, market infrastructure, and value chains must account for climate projections and economic volatility. This requires diversified production, sustainable land management, and strong rural institutions that can absorb shocks without collapsing.
The FAO Regional Conference serves as a platform for African governments to align national agricultural investment plans with agrifood outcomes, design financing mechanisms that reach smallholders, and move partnerships from agreements to measurable results. Success in this sector is demonstrated through tangible improvements in productivity, market access, and nutrition, which in turn attract more development finance.
There are encouraging signs of progress. Several countries are strengthening value chains, expanding digital services for farmers, and mobilising new financing mechanisms. Scaling these approaches requires applying core principles rather than replicating models exactly.
Africa’s agrifood systems will continue to face external pressures, but solutions must be locally led, science- and innovation-informed, and politically driven. Hunger and malnutrition are not inevitable; they result from choices about budgets, policies, and priorities, and they can be reversed with deliberate action.
