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AGRA calls for new deal to deliver farmer prosperity – EnviroNews
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Africa must forge a new alliance across governments, farmers, businesses, financiers and researchers to turn agricultural gains into lasting farmer prosperity, according to a new assessment by the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA).
The AGRA Impact, Learning and Foresight Report 2026, released on Monday, September 1, 2026, at the start of the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda, says Africa has doubled farmer incomes, increased cereal yields by about 40% and nearly doubled real farm output since 2005.
However, the report warns that these gains have not yet amounted to a transformation of Africa’s food systems and that the continent will not meet the Kampala Declaration and Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) 3.0 targets for 2035 without a broader alliance involving governments, farmers, businesses, finance, researchers and development partners.
AGRA Board Chair, Hailemariam Dessalegn, said the next phase of agricultural development must focus not only on increasing production but also on ensuring farmers benefit economically from the food systems they support.
“Progress becomes transformation only when productivity is restored, value is retained and capability is sustained,” Dessalegn said.
He said the key question for the coming decade is whether the systems surrounding farmers will allow them to prosper.
AGRA President, Alice Ruhweza, said Africa needs renewed collaboration anchored in farmer prosperity, science, local knowledge and agriculture as an investable sector.
“Twenty years of evidence show that Africa’s agrifood sector can move when the conditions are right,” Ruhweza said. “The task now is to turn that progress into income, resilience, dignity and opportunity for farmers.”
The report describes itself as an assessment of two decades of AGRA’s work and its wider partnerships, highlighting areas where progress has been made as well as areas where gains remain limited or fragile.
It stresses that AGRA is one contributor to a broader agricultural transformation involving governments, farmers, researchers, businesses, financiers and development partners.
Progress but significant gaps remain
The report says agriculture’s contribution to economic growth, measured through gross value added, has increased from about 2.3% to almost 4%.
It also highlights the development of local agricultural support systems, including more than 25,000 agro-dealers and 33,000 community extensionists connecting farmers with inputs, knowledge and advisory services.
Despite these gains, AGRA says yields remain below the levels Africa needs, farmer incomes remain lower than global averages and hunger has increased.
Many farmers are also unable to consistently convert increased production into dependable incomes, while institutions supporting agricultural value chains remain weaker than required.
The report warns that Africa is unlikely to deliver the Kampala Declaration and CAADP 3.0 targets for 2035 if it continues along its current trajectory.
It argues that simply doing more of the same at a larger scale will not close the gap and calls instead for an integrated agenda backed by sustained implementation.
Three traps holding back transformation
AGRA identifies three interconnected constraints to agricultural transformation: a productivity trap, a value trap and a capability trap.
The productivity trap limits reliable and resilient agricultural production, while the value trap prevents increased production from consistently translating into income, jobs, processing and trade.
The capability trap, meanwhile, reflects weaknesses in institutions, finance, data and accountability needed to sustain agricultural transformation.
AGRA says these challenges must be addressed simultaneously through reliable and resilient production, stronger connections between production and markets, processing, trade and jobs, as well as lasting institutional capacity backed by adequate financing and data.
From production to prosperity
The report places Africa’s current agricultural agenda within the continent’s longer development history.
It says the famines and crop failures of the 1980s exposed weaknesses in Africa’s food systems, while the 2003 Maputo Declaration and the first CAADP established an African Union-led framework for agricultural transformation.
AGRA has worked alongside governments and other partners since 2006 to support that continental agenda.
The organisation now argues that agricultural transformation must extend beyond increasing production to ensuring farmers capture greater value from what they produce.
The report says farmer outcomes are influenced by decisions across finance, trade, water, energy, infrastructure, health, education, climate, science and industry.
As a result, responsibility for food systems transformation should not rest solely with agriculture institutions.
AGRA is calling on governments, investors, researchers, businesses, financiers, civil society, media and development partners to move beyond isolated projects and invest in integrated agricultural systems.
It warns that when farmers cannot produce reliably, food prices rise, import bills increase and young people lose confidence in rural economies.
Conversely, the report says, farmer prosperity can contribute to stronger markets, healthier communities and more inclusive economic growth.
AGRA’s contribution
Within the wider continental effort, AGRA and its partners say they have supported 118 seed companies and more than 650 improved seed varieties.
They have also built networks of more than 25,000 agro-dealers and 33,000 community extensionists, trained about 5 million farmers in soil health and climate-smart practices and worked alongside nearly 800 scientists.
AGRA says its interventions have also helped leverage approximately $691 million for national agricultural investment plans.
The organisation, however, stresses that these achievements should be viewed as contributions to a wider agricultural transformation rather than as sole credit for Africa’s progress.
Focus turns to Kigali
The 2026 assessment was commissioned as part of AGRA@20 and draws on independent evaluations, outcome assessments, published research, consultations with governments, funders, researchers and private-sector actors, as well as AGRA’s own monitoring data.
The findings will inform discussions at the Africa Food Systems Forum, which will be held in Kigali from Sept. 2-5.
AGRA says the central challenge facing Africa is now to connect productivity, value creation and institutional capability around one measure of success — whether farmers are able to achieve greater incomes, resilience, dignity and opportunity.
By Aggie Konde, AfricaBrief
