African Countries Adopt New 10-Year Agriculture Strategy

African Countries Adopt New 10-Year Agriculture Strategy

African heads of state have adopted a new 10-year commitment to enhance food and nutrition security on the continent while transforming food systems to be more sustainable and supporting more equitable economic growth.

The Kampala Declaration and its associated action plan commit to increasing the continent’s agricultural output by 45% by 2035, by adopting sustainable agricultural practices that will meet the needs of a rapidly growing population.

The declaration was adopted during an African Union summit held in Kampala, Uganda, late last week.

Bridget Mugambe, program coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty Africa comments:

“The Kampala Declaration, adopted at the January 2025 AU summit, marks a critical shift in Africa’s agricultural policy by focusing on sustainable and inclusive agrifood systems. The strategy commits to increasing agricultural output by 45%, halving post-harvest losses, and tripling intra-African trade in agrifood products, while prioritizing climate resilience and reducing the gender yield gap by 50%.  “We recognize there are a few positive areas in the strategy for us as agroecology practitioners,  for example issues around farmer-managed seed systems,” said Bridget Mugambe, program coordinator at the Alliance for Food Sovereignty Africa, an organization that champions the use of agroecological and indigenous practices in farming. “But of course, the challenge is that they are mentioned but they are not elaborated on how this will be implemented.” Mugambe raised concerns about the strategy’s reliance on vague terms and concepts, such as “precision farming” and “climate-smart agriculture,” which she argues could be interpreted to promote industrial farming practices. She cautioned that these approaches often leave room for the adoption of controversial technologies such as genetically modified organisms. While GMOs have the potential to improve yields and resilience, critics highlight their risks, including dependence on multinational corporations, reduced biodiversity, and potential environmental and ethical challenges. Mugambe emphasized the need to prioritize alternative approaches such as agroecology, which focus on sustainability and local farming systems.”

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