Can AgTechs make Africa’s farmers more bankable?

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About 80% of the food consumed in Africa is bought, with the continent’s food import bill reaching $65 billion in 2025. Households spend half of their income on food – more than in any other region, partly because of higher food prices.

The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) puts this down to incomplete foundations for productive and resilient farming, including water, quality inputs, advice, infrastructure and risk management.

In value chains where the foundation exists, fragmentation and a lack of coordination present barriers.

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Economic shocks – from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which fertilisers are transported, to extreme weather events such as the 2026 super El Niño and disruptions in the Red Sea, a key route for food commodities – serve as signals for Africa to recalibrate.

The Agra Impact, Learning and Foresight report has found that agrifood systems – all interconnected activities and actors involved in getting food from field to fork – on the continent account for some two-thirds of all employment, with about a third of GDP flowing through the sector.

However, underinvestment in agriculture plagues growth.

The sector receives some 4% of commercial lending.

At a policy level, many governments are also at risk of falling short of their Malabo commitments to “transforming Africa’s agriculture for shared prosperity and improved livelihoods through harnessing opportunities for inclusive growth and sustainable development”.

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Agro-processing – the conversion of raw agricultural, fishery and forestry products into-value added goods for trade, consumption or industrial use – accounts for 12-15% of the continent’s agricultural GDP, far from the 60% recorded in other regions.

Average cereal yields – such as wheat, rice, maize, barley, millet and oats – remain low, meaning farmers are less productive and thus less competitive.

Lower yields make it harder for countries to feed their populations, while smaller harvests translate into lower incomes for farmers. They also threaten biodiversity, as more farmland is needed to meet food demand, putting pressure on natural habitats.

How did we get here?

As Agra puts it: “Africa’s present constraints do not stem from an absence of ingenuity or agricultural capacity.”

In one of West Africa’s earliest cities, Djenné-Djeno – a market centre and an important link in the trans-Saharan gold trade at the time – rice, sorghum and fish sustained regional commerce beyond Niger. Cattle and grain were pillars of the stone city of Great Zimbabwe. In Nubia, farmers used animal-driven waterwheels to expand the Nile’s reach to feed its cities on two harvests a year.

Farmers on the continent domesticated sorghum, pearl millet, yams and various species of rice. The crops were chosen for variable drylands, wetlands and highlands across diverse landscapes.

Across the Sahel, farmers grow crops beneath a tree that sheds its leaves at the start of rains, returning nitrogen without competing for sunlight: Faidherbia albida.

The 21st Century is an important period for the continent, and it entered it with the legacy of policy eras that left food production afflicted by insufficient research, infrastructure, investment and institutional support.

Investments focused on export crops such as cocoa, coffee, cotton and tea. Systems were by and large extractive, while development thinking focused on food aid.

The early 2000s marked a turn in the tide for the continent as it placed agriculture firmly on the development agenda as expressed through Nepad’s Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme and the Malabo declaration of 2014, among others.

Moving the needle

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The continent has moved the needle somewhat where its agricultural food systems are concerned, though much more can be done to realise system-wide impact needed to bring about broad-based prosperity and self-reinforcing growth.

Progress varies from country to country and from one region to the next.

Kenya’s horticulture sector, supplied by mostly smallholder contract farmers, now earns over $1 billion a year in exports. Côte d’Ivoire produces some 40% of world cashew supply and has expanded processing capacity fivefold, resulting in 18 000 jobs created.

Since 2017, under a state-led push that brought nearly one million hectares under irrigated wheat, Ethiopia raised wheat output by about a quarter to 6.2 million tonnes by 2024.

Rwanda doubled cassava output and tripled maize production over 15 years of consistent backing for its national plan.

Zambia has become a leading regional producer of soybean output, which rose from under 10 000 tonnes in the early 2000s to some 760 000 tonnes in 2023.

Notwithstanding a set of pressures, South Africa is one of the most agriculturally diverse countries, producing citrus, wine grapes, rooibos tea, maize and wheat.

In this episode of The Business of Africa Podcast, we explore the role of agricultural technology companies in strengthening Africa’s food systems through the lens of the International Finance Corporation’s AgriConnect platform.

The initiative supports AgTechs in using technology to expand access to agricultural finance for small-scale farmers.

Aloui Maiga, the International Finance Corporation’s Financial Institutions Director for Africa, argues that technology has improved productivity and efficiency across sectors where it has been adopted – from finance to manufacturing and now agriculture.

Tune in to find out how the IFC is making agriculture financeable through capacity building.

For previous episodes of The Business of Africa podcast, click here. 

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