‘Agric transformation key to economic security’

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) has said Africa’s agricultural sector is not a regional development issue, but a central pillar of global food security, climate resilience, and economic stability.

New data and policy signals suggested that failure to transform African agriculture could amplify hunger, environmental degradation, and geopolitical instability far beyond the continent.

According to the organisation, agriculture remains the backbone of livelihoods across Africa, employing more than half of the population and underpinning rural economies. Yet the sector is under growing strain from climate shocks, land degradation, and underinvestment.

The organisation said land degradation and fragmented landscapes are undermining ecosystem services such as water regulation and soil fertility, directly affecting agricultural productivity and rural incomes. AGRA cited the latest UN food security assessments, which estimated that 673 million people faced hunger globally in 2024. Africa, according to it accounts for a disproportionate share of this burden, with hunger prevalence exceeding 20 per cent and affecting more than 307 million people.

The trends, it noted, placed the continent off track to meet Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger, even as Africa’s population is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050.

AGRA President Alice Ruhweza warned that treating hunger as a downstream humanitarian outcome rather than a strategic risk leads to delayed responses and higher long-term costs. Weak food systems, she noted, undermine health systems, erode human capital, and slow economic growth, creating a chain reaction that affects national and global stability.

According to her, as the African Development Bank (AfDB) projects that  the country’s food and agriculture market could reach $1 trillion by 2030, the fear is  whether this growth exacerbates inequality and environmental degradation or instead regenerates ecosystems and strengthens rural economies.

As global leaders gather at the World Economic Forum in Davos, she called for hunger and malnutrition to be formally recognised as systemic global risks.

She urged governments, development banks, insurers, philanthropies, and agrifood companies to accelerate investment in climate adaptation for smallholders, including stress-tolerant seeds, climate information services, insurance and locally grounded extension systems.