The Food and Agriculture Organization is raising concerns about effects of global shocks on African economies including trade disruptions and its rising impact on the cost of fertilizer, fuel and freight.
According to the Organization, conflict displaces farmers from their land causing real and intensifying problems while the most consequential decisions about Africa’s agrifood future are still made on the continent itself, in national budgets, regulatory frameworks and investment plans that African governments control.
The 34th Session of the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Regional Conference for Africa, which will be hosted by the Government of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania in Nouakchott from 13 to17 April 2026, will bring together ministers of agriculture and related portfolios from across the continent.
According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World Report, approximately 307 million people in Africa were undernourished in 2024, more than one in five of the continent’s population.
The report also indicates that, since 2010, the prevalence of undernourishment has risen by nearly five percentage points, reversing a decade of progress. Meanwhile, the cost of a healthy diet has climbed to an average of USD 4.41 per person per day, in purchasing-power-parity terms, putting adequate nutrition out of reach for a majority of African households.
The Food and Agriculture Organization believes, these challenges are not transient disruptions. They reflect structural failures: chronic underinvestment in rural infrastructure, fragmented markets, weak extension services and agrifood systems that remain highly vulnerable to external shocks.
The Organisation also indicates that, conflict, climate variability and economic slowdowns continue to compound one another, and the populations they hit hardest (smallholders, pastoralists, women, young people) are precisely those on whom the continent’s food production depends.
FAO believes government expenditure on agriculture across Africa reached approximately USD 16 billion in 2022, continuing a positive trend. But this remains a fraction of what the sector requires. Meanwhile, credit to agriculture accounts for roughly 2 percent of total bank lending, a figure that has barely moved in a decade, even as the sector employs nearly half the labour force.
Closing this gap demands more than aspirational targets. It requires stronger policy frameworks for risk-sharing, more effective use of blended finance, and public investment deliberately structured to crowd in private capital, particularly for the small and medium agrifood enterprises that anchor local agrifood systems and create jobs.
According to the Organisation, the next wave of agricultural innovation in Africa must be designed around realities of smallholders, particularly women and young people who produce a substantial share of the continent’s food but remain underserved by extension, credit and technology alike.
The Regional Conference is where the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Members in Africa set regional priorities and share the support they need. For ministers of agriculture and related sectors, the task is concrete. National agricultural investment plans need to be aligned more tightly with agrifood systems outcomes.
Financing mechanisms must be designed to reach the smallholders and agribusinesses that current systems bypass. And partnerships across government, the private sector and development partners need to move from memoranda of understanding to measurable delivery.
The Food and Agriculture Organization says Africa’s agrifood systems will continue to operate under external pressure. Input costs will fluctuate, trade flows will shift, and climate events will intensify. But the response must be rooted in African institutions, informed by science and innovation, and driven by political will.
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