The future of Africa’s agriculture lies in a mix of innovation and transformation, experts agree. But how this is achieved will differ from country to country where a one size fits all approach is bound to fail as the countries face different challenges.

While some countries are bearing the brunt of climate change through unusually high rainfall, others are feeling the pinch of long droughts, creating headaches for both governments and development agencies. At the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFS Forum) held in Kigali, Rwanda, in September, almost 5 000 delegates met under the theme Innovate, accelerate, and scale: delivering food systems transformation in a digital and climate era.

The forum was a showcase of local solutions to the continent-wide challenges Africa faces to feed itself. It was one of many such fora held this year that formed the highlights of Africa’s push for the escalation of agriculture and food production and seeks ways to realise those goals.

This comes as many African countries continue making appeals for food assistance despite numerous investments in the agriculture sector which however have been been upended by climate uncertainty.

The Africa Food Systems Forum discussions ranged from policy mechanisms, financing initiatives, research, business models, and modern technologies needed for successful delivery of a well-functioning food system across Africa.

An important area that attracted attention was youth and agriculture and how young people can be encouraged to be part of the continent’s food production revolution. The Kigali Youth Declaration was signed and is a clarion call to “amplify the voice of young people address the pressing issues of climate change and youth employment in Africa and explore strategies to accelerate youth access to work opportunities in the agricultural and food system sector.”
The call is pertinent in that various agencies have pointed to young people as the future of the continent’s food security, especially against the background of challenges brought by climate change.

Concerns remain that young people have generally stayed away from agriculture despite the employment potential of the sector. The youth demographic is the most affected by high unemployment levels in Africa. From what emerged from the Kigali conference, youths could benefit from a windfall of agriculture finance from developed countries who took part in the Kigali conference and committed to support Africa’s food production efforts.

For example, Norway put on the table USD35 million towards small-to-medium agri-food enterprises, this at a time a growing corps of youth-driven initiatives in the continent have been held back by lack of government support.
African governments have been discouraged by international lenders from subsidising the agriculture sector, favouring private investments that have been slow in coming.

The UK’s Foreign Office pledged GDP25 million which will go towards investment in agriculture businesses, a move expected to open opportunities that include export markets for African farmers. The hosting of the Africa Food Systems Forum in Rwanda came against the background of the country’s agriculture growth where the sector contributes 27 percent to the Gross Domestic Product.

According to the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, Rwanda is the top performing country in the implementation of the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP). The country leads in “creating an enabling environment for youth employment, expanding avocado, chili, and potato production through public-private partnerships, and enhancing the livestock sector, particularly beef and poultry,” according to AGRA.

Other highlights of the year included the Zimbabwe Irrigation Investment Conference held in July at a time of heightened fears regarding how African countries will achieve their ambitions against low rainfall. The conference was held under the theme Public-private partnership for sustainable and structured irrigation financing to deliver food security, everywhere everyday.

The conference was designed to encourage investment in irrigation as a direct response to climate change.
It was fitting that the conference was held in Zimbabwe where the country is touting irrigation as the answer to improved food production after years of poor grain harvests.

According to the country’s President Emerson Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe has a potential to put 2 million hectares under irrigation. Another important regional agriculture meet was held in Zimbabwe in July, again highlighting the urgency of food security in the continent.

The Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) Summit agroecology was held under the theme Recovering from El Niño-induced drought through agroecological tailoring and resilience building. The summit emphasised the need for regional governments hard hit by the El Niño-induced drought to counter such climate change challenges by building resilience, which means escalating investment in the agriculture sector.