Africa’s food and agribusiness industry set to hit US$1 trillion mark by 2030

Despite being home to 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, Africa still imports most of its food

Kampala, Uganda | RONALD MUSOKE | Africa’s food and agribusiness industry is set to reach US$1 trillion mark by 2030, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, the President of the African Development Bank (AfDB) told delegates at the World Food Prize Foundation’s Norman E. Borlaug dialogue in Des Moines in the U.S state of Iowa on Oct. 27.

The annual event in America’s agricultural heartland, revolved around this year’s theme of “harnessing change,” with delegates and panelists exploring innovative ideas to shore up innovation, adaptation, and diversification, and mechanisms for improving resilience, recovery from shocks, and sustainable systems to feed the world.

The African Development Bank, which is leading the charge to feed Africa, played an active part in the Borlaug Dialogue. At a session titled “From Dakar 2 to Des Moines” on Oct.27, Adesina highlighted the achievements of the Dakar 2 summit, which the Bank organised in conjunction with the Senegalese government and the African Union.

Adesina who was the World Food Prize laureate in 2017 and is recognised for his exceptional and innovative work in the African food system, including eliminating corruption in the fertilizer industry in Nigeria, leveraging resources for smallholder farmers, and increasing for crop and production efficiency, during his previous tenure as agriculture minister in Nigeria said 34 African leaders have so far endorsed country food and agriculture delivery compacts that produced action- and outcome-driven plans to ensure food security and unlock the continent’s full agricultural potential within five years.

This, Adesina explained, is in line with the core of the Bank’s Feed Africa strategy, which it launched in 2016. Since then, he added, the strategy has supported more than 250 million people, who have benefitted from improved agriculture technologies.

The AfDB has already committed US$853 million to public-sector initiated SAPZs and successfully mobilized financing of US$661 million alongside its co-financing partners. Collectively, the partners are investing more than US$1.5 billion to establish 25 agro-industrial zones and supporting ecosystems in 13 countries.

Adesina invited investors and other stakeholders to invest confidently in the African food and agribusiness sector. He said political will was strong and that results on the ground showed tremendous promise.

According to Adesina, partners had committed over US$70 billion to support the food compacts. The Bank is expected to provide US$10 billion over the next five years. The Bank head said Dakar 2 reflected the collective resolve of African leaders to ensure the continent feeds itself.

Several world leaders are actively bolstering food production and food security in Africa. This includes coming together for a landmark global Feed Africa summit in Dakar (the Dakar 2 Summit) last January.

The continent, which is home to 65% of the world’s remaining uncultivated arable land, ironically imports most of its food. African leaders are intent in ensuring that their countries are self-sufficient in food and become food exporters. There is a realization that by 2050, the global population will reach nine billion, creating a pressing need for Africa to increase agricultural productivity to meet rising demands for food.

In attendance at the Borlaug Dialogue in Des Moines was President Sahle-Work Zewde of Ethiopia. She noted that African leaders are committed to self-sufficiency in food production. Using her own country as an example, President Zewde said for the first time in Ethiopia’s history, the country had become “self-sufficient in wheat production and is a wheat exporter to its neighbours.”

President Zewde said Ethiopia’s groundbreaking achievement had been helped by the AfDB’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) initiative. The initiative has distributed more than 100,000 tons of certified seeds of heat-tolerant wheat varieties, increasing Ethiopia’s wheat production by 1.6 million metric tons in 2023.

At the same dialogue, Kashim Shettima, the Vice President of Nigeria spoke about the importance of leadership, which he said was essential to feed Africa and develop the continent. “A nation falls or rises dependent on the quality of its leadership,” he said.

The African Development Bank’s initiatives to feed Africa drew strong commendation from Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn, President Emeritus of the World Food Prize Foundation, and the Foundation’s President, Ambassador Terry Branstad.

In January this year, the AfDB was at the forefront of convening the ‘Feed Africa Summit’ in Dakar, Senegal. Several heads of state across the continent convened in Dakar to mobilize and align government resources, development partners and private sector financing to unleash Africa’s food production potential.

With the removal of barriers to agricultural development aided by new investments, it is estimated that Africa’s agricultural output could grow almost five times from its current US$280bn by 2030.

End shame of Africa not feeding itself

Experts in agriculture development say investing in raising agricultural productivity, supporting infrastructure, climate smart agricultural systems, with private sector investments all along the food value chain can help turn Africa into a breadbasket for the world.

In September, during the Africa Food Systems Summit held in Dar es Salam, Tanzania, more calls to African leaders to build better food systems and promote food sovereignty, with youth and women at the centre were made.

On the sidelines of Africa’s annual agriculture summit, the African Development Bank Group hosted a food sovereignty and resilience event. The session brought together ministers of agriculture from several African countries including Tanzania, Sierra Leone, the Gambia and Guinea Bissau, development partners and private sector operatives. They discussed the implementation, progress and outcomes of the Dakar 2 Summit in their respective countries.

The Gambia and Sierra Leone also highlighted systemic and structural development in rice, cassava and livestock value chains. Private sector and development partners from the CGIAR, the World Bank and IFAD emphasized the critical roles of the private sector, science, integrated public policies and political will, to deliver on Africa’s food security and resilience.

Speaking on the sidelines of the food summit forum, Dr. Martin Fregene, the AfDB’s Director of Agriculture and Agro-industrialisation said, “The 2023 Africa Food Systems Forum is a defining moment for highlighting and unlocking innovation.”

“It allows us to take stock of the political, policy and financial commitments African countries have made to achieve productive, nutritious, inclusive, resilient and sustainable food systems in the continent,” said Fregene.

“Africa has to wash away the shame of not being able to feed itself. For Tanzania, food self-sufficiency is critically important,” said Hussein Mohamed Bashe, Tanzania’s Minister of Agriculture.

DRC’s continental food basket prospects

Last month, during the DRC Agribusiness Forum that was convened in Kinshasa in DR Congo, Congolese officials said Congo is poised to invest over the next 10 years over US$ 6.6bn in its agriculture transformation programme to fulfill its commitment of becoming the continent’s food basket.

The Forum, held at the initiative of the DRC Government with the support of the African Development Bank and the International Finance Corporation, aimed to stimulate private sector investment in agricultural value chains and boost agribusiness in the agricultural-resource-rich Central African country. The opening ceremony was chaired by Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde.

More than 700 people from 28 countries took part, including government officials, representatives of technical and financial partners, heads of public and private companies, investors and actors in the agricultural sectors. At the event, the Democratic Republic of Congo presented its National Food and Agriculture Pact, made at the Food Sovereignty and Resilience Summit held in January 2023 in Dakar.

The DR Congo Government noted its commitment to making agricultural transformation a key driver of development in the country, particularly through the necessary reforms and the establishment of a taskforce bringing together a number of ministerial departments and stakeholders to monitor implementation of the Forum’s recommendations.

The investment is evidence of the commitment of Congolese President Félix Antoine Tshisekedi to develop the country’s agricultural potential and ease the economy’s dependence on the extractive sector, the officials said.

Serge N’Guessan, the AfDB’s Director-General for Central Africa, said at the request of Democratic Republic of Congo, the Bank will devote all of the country’s available allocations during the 2023-2025 African Development Fund (ADF)-16 cycle to operations in support of the Agriculture Transformation Programme, which is the backbone of the Bank’s Country Strategy Paper for DRC over the next five years.

Solomane Kone, the Deputy Director General of the AfDB for Central Africa and Country Manager for DRC agrees. He told the forum in Kinshasa that the country’s 80 million hectares of cultivable land, its four million hectares of irrigable land, its varied climate allowing year-round agriculture, its having 7 to 8% of the world’s exploitable fresh water, and its approximately 125 million hectares of grazing land, sufficient for 40 million head of livestock, coupled with the size of its population, especially young and female makes it incontestably “ the epicentre of continent’s agricultural industry and an incubator of prosperity.”