By Ify Mgbemena
Africa stands at a crossroads in its agricultural journey. Despite its vast potential, the continent continues to struggle with inefficiencies that hinder food security, economic growth, and regional trade.
Poor investment strategies, weak infrastructure, and outdated policies have left millions of smallholder farmers grappling with post-harvest losses, market inaccessibility, and inadequate support.
If Africa is to achieve sustainable agricultural transformation, there must be a deliberate shift in governance, funding, and trade policies to ensure that farmers are at the heart of decision-making.
For too long, Africa’s agricultural commitments have failed to yield tangible results due to the lack of accountability and strategic investment.
While governments and institutions make ambitious promises, the absence of effective monitoring systems allows funds to be mismanaged or concentrated in urban areas.
However, post-harvest losses remain a critical issue, with poor storage facilities and inefficient value chains causing significant food waste. At the same time, intra-African trade remains stifled by border restrictions, bureaucratic bottlenecks, and inadequate transport infrastructure. Without addressing these fundamental challenges, Africa will struggle to unlock the full potential of its agricultural sector.
Speaking during an interview with AgroNigeria, the president, Pan-African Farmers’ Organization (PAFO), Ibrahima Coulibaly emphasized that the biggest obstacle to implementing agricultural strategies is the lack of operational monitoring and accountability.
He stressed that without a transparent system to track progress and ensure commitments are upheld, African agriculture will continue to suffer setbacks.
According to him, agricultural transformation must be built on governance structures that guarantee funds reach rural farmers and are utilized effectively. This, he noted, would require a shift from centralized decision-making to a more inclusive approach where local authorities and farming communities play an active role in resource allocation and policy execution.
On intra-African trade, Coulibaly highlighted the urgent need to remove trade barriers and improve transport infrastructure.
He lamented the bureaucratic restrictions that make cross-border trade difficult for African farmers, citing visa limitations, excessive taxation, and corruption at checkpoints as major hindrances. He argued that for Africa to triple its intra-continental agricultural trade by 2035, governments must open borders, invest in road and rail networks, and eliminate racketeering along trade routes. “It is unacceptable that in 2025, only three African countries—Rwanda, Kenya, and Ghana—offer visas on arrival for Africans. The continent must prioritize trade facilitation if we are serious about economic integration,” he stated.
On the issue of post-harvest losses, Coulibaly called for an urgent restructuring of Africa’s agricultural value chains.
He pointed out that while many policymakers focus on large-scale farming, smallholder farmers can thrive if given access to efficient aggregation, processing, and marketing structures.
Citing Côte d’Ivoire’s cocoa industry as an example, he explained that small-scale farmers can succeed when supported with well-organized cooperatives, storage facilities, and access to finance.
He urged African governments to rethink agricultural funding models and ensure that farmers receive tailored credit facilities to improve production and reduce losses.
Coulibaly concluded by stressing that Africa’s agricultural future depends on bold policy shifts and strategic investments.
He called for a new era of accountability, infrastructure development, and farmer-driven policies to transform the sector. “Africa cannot afford to keep making empty promises. The time for action is now,” he asserted.