Africa’s Agriculture Central to Global Food Security, Economic Stability- AGRA

President of the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Alice Ruhweza has decried the continued treatment of hunger and agricultural decline in Africa as peripheral concerns, warning that the sector sits at the heart of global food security, economic stability and climate resilience.

She said Africa’s food systems are deeply interconnected with global outcomes, noting that failure to reform agriculture on the continent could worsen hunger, environmental damage and political instability well beyond Africa’s borders. 

In her view, hunger should no longer be seen as a humanitarian after effect but as a strategic global risk that demands early and decisive action.

Ruhweza explained that agriculture remains the main source of livelihoods for more than half of Africa’s population and continues to anchor rural economies. 

However, she observed that the sector is under mounting pressure from climate variability, degraded land and years of limited investment, all of which are weakening productivity and incomes.

AGRA pointed to widespread land degradation and fragmented landscapes as major threats to ecosystem services such as soil fertility and water regulation. 

These challenges, the organisation said, are directly reducing farm output and worsening poverty in rural communities.

Citing recent United Nations food security assessments, AGRA noted that about 673 million people experienced hunger worldwide in 2024. Africa carries a heavy share of this burden, with hunger levels above 20 per cent and more than 307 million people affected. 

The organisation warned that these figures leave the continent far from achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on Zero Hunger, even as Africa’s population is expected to rise to 2.5 billion by 2050.

Ruhweza cautioned that weak food systems have ripple effects that extend beyond farms and households. 

She said they strain health systems, reduce human capital and slow economic growth, ultimately threatening both national and global stability.

She also referenced projections by the African Development Bank that Africa’s food and agriculture market could reach one trillion dollars by 2030. 

According to her, the critical question is whether this growth will deepen inequality and environmental harm or instead restore ecosystems and create stronger rural economies.

As global leaders meet at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Ruhweza called for hunger and malnutrition to be formally acknowledged as systemic global risks. 

She urged governments, development finance institutions, insurers, philanthropic bodies and agrifood companies to speed up investment in climate adaptation for smallholder farmers. 

Such support, she said, should include stress tolerant seeds, climate information services, insurance products and extension systems that are firmly rooted in local realities.