AGRA President Alice Ruhweza is calling for increased investments in smallholder farmers to help build resilience in global food systems.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, she said, “When smallholder farmers earn viable incomes, adoption sticks, markets stabilise, and food systems become investable.”

“If smallholder farmers were a country, they would be the world’s largest underperforming economy, and its biggest opportunity,” Ms Ruhweza added.

Africa’s food system is projected to be worth $1 trillion by 2030, driven by rising demand, value-chain opportunities, exports and technology.

Ms Ruhweza says food systems are at the heart of issues around agriculture, energy, health, climate, and nature, among others.

“Getting it (food systems) right for Africa’s farmers will lift people out of poverty, get children to school, put more nutritious meals on the table, and improve opportunities for women and youth,” she said during a meeting with global agricultural leaders at the end of the forum.

AGRA says its research shows that when farmers cross an annual income threshold of roughly USD 1,200, behaviour changes.

Farmers reinvest, productivity improves, and agriculture begins to function as a business rather than a safety net.

However, farmers operating below break-even cannot sustain new practices or technologies in agricultural production.

AGRA’s work in Africa
The AGRA team was in Davos to, among others, launch a year-long reflection on 20 years of operations in Africa’s agri-food sector.

Ghanaian diplomat and former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was the first board chairman of AGRA.

After decades of working alongside governments, farmers and markets across Africa to improve Africa’s agriculture, AGRA is using its 20th anniversary year to sharpen the case for scale, translating evidence into investable pathways that can raise farmer incomes, strengthen food systems and unlock shared prosperity across the continent.

Over the past two decades, AGRA and its partners have helped governments and markets improve access to quality seeds, soil health solutions, extension services and policy reforms across Africa.

Since its founding, AGRA has supported the release of more than 700 improved crop varieties, many bred to withstand drought, pests and disease, while working with governments and regional bodies to advance seed and fertiliser policy reforms that lower costs and expand access to inputs.

Evaluations conducted by Mathematica, drawing on farmer surveys and secondary data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation and other sources, show increased adoption of improved seed, productivity gains and income growth in AGRA focus countries.

AGRA is calling on governments, investors and partners to align capital, policy and delivery around one organising principle: “farmer income is the metric that makes food systems resilient, investable and sustainable.”

Ms Ruhweza is also challenging African governments to invest more in the sector. “I would like to see African governments contribute that 10% that they have been promising to agriculture… But also take the sector more seriously,” she said.

“This sector is the engine of Africa’s economic growth. It is Africa’s biggest employer. It feeds us. It feeds the world,” she added.