Taking action for Africa’s agrifood systems amid global uncertainty: Ahead of the 34th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC34), a call for practical, collective leadership on food security and nutrition
Taking action for Africa’s agrifood systems amid global uncertainty: Ahead of the 34th Session of the FAO Regional Conference for Africa (ARC34), a call for practical, collective leadership on food security and nutrition
By Abebe Haile-Gabriel
Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
31 March 2026, Accra –Ghana
Global shocks keep tightening their grip on Africa’s agrifood systems. Trade disruptions raise the cost of fertilizer, fuel and freight. Climate variability wipes out harvests. Conflict displaces farmers from their land. These are real, and they are intensifying. But the most consequential decisions about Africa's agrifood future are still made on the continent itself: in national budgets, regulatory frameworks and investment plans that African governments control.
The 34th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Conference for Africa, hosted by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in Nouakchott from 13 to17 April 2026, brings together ministers of agriculture and related portfolios from across the continent. It is a forum where political commitments are expected to translate into operational priorities. Whether that translation happens, with sufficient speed and coordination, is the central question.
The numbers leave little room for ambiguity. According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report, approximately 307 million people in Africa were undernourished in 2024, more than one in five of the continent’s population. Since 2010, the prevalence of undernourishment has risen by nearly five percentage points, reversing a decade of progress. Meanwhile, the cost of a healthy diet has climbed to an average of USD 4.41 per person per day, in purchasing-power-parity terms, putting adequate nutrition out of reach for a majority of African households.
These are not transient disruptions. They reflect structural failures: chronic underinvestment in rural infrastructure, fragmented markets, weak extension services and agrifood systems that remain highly vulnerable to external shocks. Conflict, climate variability and economic slowdowns continue to compound one another, and the populations they hit hardest (smallholders, pastoralists, women, young people) are precisely those on whom the continent's food production depends.
Africa is not short on assets. The continent holds roughly 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land.
Its population is the youngest of any region. It’s agricultural heritage and local knowledge systems, built over centuries, are adapted to conditions that imported models often fail to address. The question has never been whether Africa has the resources to feed itself. The question is whether its institutions and investment priorities are organized to make that happen.
Starting with financing, government expenditure on agriculture across Africa reached approximately USD 16 billion in 2022, continuing a positive trend. But this remains a fraction of what the sector requires.
Meanwhile, credit to agriculture accounts for roughly 2 percent of total bank lending, a figure that has barely moved in a decade, even as the sector employs nearly half the labour force. Closing this gap demands
more than aspirational targets. It requires stronger policy frameworks for risk-sharing, more effective use of blended finance, and public investment deliberately structured to crowd in private capital, particularly for the small and medium agrifood enterprises that anchor local agrifood systems and create jobs.
Innovation matters, but only when it reaches the people who need it. Digital advisory services, improved seed varieties, smart farming practices, and better market information systems can all raise productivity and reduce losses. Too often, however, these tools remain confined to pilot projects or accessible only to commercial-scale operations. The next wave of agricultural innovation in Africa must be designed around realities of smallholders, particularly women and young people who produce a substantial share of the continent’s food but remain underserved by extension, credit and technology alike.
Resilience cannot be an afterthought. Climate variability and economic volatility are permanent features of landscape, not temporary disruptions to plan around. Every investment in Africa’s agrifood systems, whether in irrigation, storage, market infrastructure, or value chains, should be stress-tested against climate projections and designed for durability. This means prioritizing diversified production, sustainable land management and stronger rural institutions that can absorb shocks without collapsing.
The Regional Conference is where the Food and Agriculture Organization's Members in Africa set regional
priorities and share the support they need. For ministers of agriculture and related sectors, the task is concrete. National agricultural investment plans need to be aligned more tightly with agrifood systems outcomes. Financing mechanisms must be designed to reach the smallholders and agribusinesses that current systems bypass. And partnerships across government, the private sector and development partners need to move from memoranda of understanding to measurable delivery.
Credibility in this space is built on results, not declarations. In a context where fiscal space is shrinking and development finance is increasingly competitive, governments that can demonstrate returns on agricultural investment, in productivity, in market access, in nutritional outcomes, will attract more of both. Those that cannot will fall further behind.
There are grounds for confidence. Across the continent, countries are strengthening value chains, expanding digital services for farmers and mobilizing new forms of financing. These are not theoretical possibilities; they are operational realities in a number of countries. The challenge is to take what works in one context and apply the underlying principles, not necessarily the same model, at scale.
Africa’s agrifood systems will continue to operate under external pressure. Input costs will fluctuate, trade flows will shift, and climate events will intensify. But the response must be rooted in African institutions, informed by science and innovation, and driven by political will. Hunger and malnutrition are not forces of nature. They are consequences of choices, about budgets, about policies, about priorities; and they can be reversed by making different ones.
