Category: Blogs

When the System Is Tested

Posted on by KIHINGU

“It would be criminal if in 2032 we find ourselves in the same situation and say: six years before, in 2026, we had another shock, and we did nothing substantial.” H.E. Lionel Zinsou said those words in a room in Nairobi on the margins of the Africa Forward Summit. It was a remarkable reflection on whether this moment becomes another crisis we survived, or the point at which we chose to build differently.

Twenty years ago, AGRA was founded on a belief that Africa’s food systems would only succeed if African farmers and institutions were at the centre of the solution. Two decades on, that belief has been tested repeatedly, by drought, by a global pandemic, by supply chain disruptions that no one in 2006 could have mapped. Each time, the question has been the same: does the system hold? And each time, the honest answer has required us to look at what we have built alongside governments, farmers and partners, and ask what still needs to change.

That question has never felt more urgent than now.

Disruptions to global shipping through the Strait of Hormuz have removed a significant portion of fertiliser supply from accessible markets, contributing to a nearly 50 percent rise in global urea prices. For many African households, where food already represents half of daily expenditure, the consequences are immediate: higher fertiliser costs push up food prices, and the burden is carried first by the same smallholder farmers that AGRA has worked alongside for twenty years.

This is the nature of structural vulnerability. It does not announce itself only in times of crisis. It is present in every season where farmers cannot afford the inputs their soils need, every harvest where the price they receive for their produce does not cover what it cost them to grow it, and every government budget that cuts agricultural development spending when an external shock hits. Resilience, as AGRA has learned over two decades, is not the absence of shock. It is the capacity of farmers, communities and systems to absorb pressure and continue to deliver.

On 11 May, on the margins of the Africa Forward Summit in Nairobi, AGRA joined the ONE Campaign and Climate Action Platform Africa to convene a high-level roundtable on exactly this question. The conversation brought together voices from development finance, government, the private sector and entrepreneurship, and produced five points of convergence that we believe can anchor a shared agenda. The structural diagnosis is no longer in dispute: Africa’s food systems remain too exposed to external shocks, even as many of the technologies and locally produced solutions that can reduce import dependence already exist on the continent. The challenge now is to make farming more profitable, to design financing with African institutions from the outset, and to back the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) as the continent’s policy framework for agricultural transformation, food security, nutrition and inclusive growth. Properly resourced, and held to account, CAADP remains the north star.

What the roundtable also surfaced, and what twenty years of AGRA’s work confirms, is that resilience is not built in response to crisis. It is built before one arrives. In the communities where AGRA has worked, resilience looks like a farmer who can access improved seed, locally relevant advice and a functioning market before the next season begins. It looks like village-based advisors (VBAs), who are trusted farmers in their communities and help other farmers improve how they grow, access inputs, understand their soils, and increase their yields and incomes. It also shows itself as a consortia model, which brings together government, private sector actors, off-takers, agro-dealers, financial institutions and community-based extension networks so that support does not reach farmers as isolated projects, but as part of a functioning local system. It looks like a women-led agribusiness in Malawi with access to credit through VALUE4HER that does not disappear when global commodity prices move.

The food corridors that AGRA has been championing carry this logic further. By creating the commercial architecture that connects African surplus to African demand, by reducing dependence on supply chains that African governments do not control, and by building the market predictability that locally produced inputs need in order to scale, food corridors are infrastructure for resilience. Not in the abstract, but in the practical sense of what it means for a farmer to have a buyer, a fair price, advisory support within reach, and a system that does not collapse when the world does.

As AGRA marks twenty years this August, resilience is the right theme for this moment. What we are marking is the accumulation of capacity, knowledge, partnerships and institutional presence that means Africa is better placed today than it was in 2006 to respond to the next shock, and to build systems that require less response every time. The goal is not to be in the same room in 2032 saying the same things. The goal is to ensure that by then, the system holds.

The Resilience Builders: How Young Africans Are Transforming Food Systems from Within

Posted on by KIHINGU

The YEFFA Learning Event 2026 in Mozambique, hosted by AGRA in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, brought together partners, practitioners, policymakers, and young people from across Africa to explore how young people are driving more resilient and inclusive agri‑food systems. Through a mix of knowledge exchange and field visits in Nampula Province, the convening offered a first‑hand look at how investment in youth is translating into real opportunities on the ground.

One of those stories is Laura Cardoso’s.

Laura Cardoso was nineteen when she decided that farming could be something more than survival. Growing up in northern Mozambique, she had watched agriculture demand everything from the people around her and return so little in kind. Long seasons, uncertain harvests, markets that felt out of reach. For many, especially young women, the path forward was narrow. But Laura saw something others had stopped looking for: the possibility that things could be different.

That belief, it turns out, is exactly what resilience looks like when it is young.

Across Africa, a generation is redefining resilience, not as endurance alone, but as the ability to confront challenges with ingenuity and build new pathways forward. Young people are launching agribusinesses, adopting climate‑smart practices, and reshaping local food economies from within.

They are not a future promise, but a present force.

Through the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) initiative, implemented alongside local partner Miruku, Laura strengthened her skills in farming, business organisation, and market engagement. The training invested in her potential. What she did with it was entirely her own.

She built a peer‑led training model rooted in shared experience, returning to her community and bringing others forward with her. To date, she has trained more than 300 young farmers, most of them women, strengthening their productivity, confidence, and access to markets. By organising farmers into collectives and linking them to reliable buyers, she has facilitated the sale of over 30 metric tonnes of maize, transforming subsistence farming into sustainable income.

One young woman decided things could be different. Three hundred farmers are now living that difference.

This is the resilience AGRA is working to build, not as a response to crisis, but as a foundation for lasting change in the continent. Through YEFFA, implemented in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, AGRA is connecting young people to the skills, finance, and networks that enable them to lead.

Because the most durable food systems are not built on aid. They are built on people. On young people, in particular, who carry both the urgency of the present and the imagination to shape what comes next.

Laura’s story is not an exception. It is a signal of what becomes possible when youth resilience is recognised, invested in, and given room to grow.

 

Ethiopia’s Transformation: Built Through Systems and Partnership

Posted on by KIHINGU

The AGRA@20 Ethiopia High-Level Convening, held in Addis Ababa in April 2026, marked more than a milestone celebration. It reflected Ethiopia’s broader story of resilience, systems transformation, and enduring partnerships that have shaped the country’s agricultural progress over the past two decades, while highlighting AGRA’s contribution to strengthening agricultural systems across Africa.

A major highlight of the engagements was the strategic field visit by the AGRA Board and Management to the Sidama Elto Farmers’ Cooperative Union on 16 April 2026, conducted alongside senior Sidama Region officials and AGRA Board Chair, H.E. Hailemariam Dessalegn. The visit provided firsthand insight into Ethiopia’s integrated approach to agricultural transformation, demonstrating how farmer-led enterprises are advancing local resilience, food systems development, and economic growth.

At Sidama Elto, the delegation observed an integrated operational model combining feed processing, mechanisation services, and strengthened market linkages. The cooperative illustrates how coordinated investments across production, aggregation, markets, and community systems can drive scalable, inclusive transformation anchored in local ownership and institutional collaboration.

The engagements reinforced a broader message emerging throughout AGRA@20: Ethiopia’s agricultural progress has not been shaped by isolated interventions, but by sustained systems-building. During AGRA’s first decade, 17 PhDs and 51 MScs were trained in crop breeding and soil science, while more than 2.7 million farmers gained access to improved seed. By 2017, the focus shifted towards strengthening policy, markets, institutional coordination, and digitally enabled service delivery, including the eVoucher platform now supporting more than 900,000 farmers.

Today, AGRA Ethiopia’s Strategy 3.0 is deepening this integrated approach through a USD 25.75 million investment portfolio supporting policy reform, digital agriculture, seed systems, youth employment, and climate-smart agriculture, with support from the Gates Foundation, Green Climate Fund, and the Mastercard Foundation.

For farmers like Meryema Aba Sura, a 45-year-old widow and mother of four in Jimma Zone, resilience now means more than managing uncertainty. Improved access to inputs, information, markets, and digital advisory services has strengthened not only productivity, but also confidence and opportunity.

As AGRA marks 20 years across Africa, the Ethiopia convening and Hawassa–Sidama Elto field engagements highlight a critical lesson: resilience is not an attribute of institutions alone. It is built within communities, systems, and partnerships. In Ethiopia, long-term investment in farmer-centred systems continues to strengthen the foundations for sustainable agricultural transformation and inclusive growth at scale.

 

Reflections on the Foundations of Africa’s Food Systems Transformation

Posted on by KIHINGU

AGRA was founded in 2006 because Africa was struggling to transform the livelihoods of its farmers and rural communities, and to ignite wider socio-economic transformation. There was a need for an African institution to channel mostly philanthropic resources to address lingering gaps to build capabilities in critical parts of the food system, spanning communities, markets, research and government and therefore empower smallholder farmers. The goal was to increase farm productivity and double farm household incomes.

In the initial ten years up to 2016, there were four complementary programmatic areas. These were identified on an assessment of the biggest binding constraints African agriculture transformation faced in the 2000s.

The first was the Program for Africa’s Seed Systems (PASS) that supported the development of Africa’s seed sector almost from scratch. Up until the 1980s the seed sector was government dominanted. The government produced most seeds available for farmers. After liberalization in the 1990s some large global multinational firms entered the market, largely importing seed. The African seed industry was almost non-existent and public functions were not meeting the needs of farmers and not geared toward research and market-friendlyconditions. AGRA’s seed program therefore built a scientific backbone by training 500 MSc and PhD graduates and 152 technicians in plant breeding and crop improvement disciplines. It supported fledgling African agricultural research institutes to develop and release 700 improved crop varieties across 18 crops. And it set out to significantly accelerate the private sector backbone of the sector by supporting 110 nascent African seed companies in 13 countries through catalytic funding, trainings and technical and business support, as well as 25,000 agro-dealers to strengthen the then weak agro-input distribution system. By 2016, commercial improved seed production by these African seed companies increased from 3,000 metric tonnes of seed in 2006 to 240,000 metric tonnes annually.

A second program was on soil health to deepen the African cadre of soil scientists and agronomists, to start to embed integrated soil fertility management practices, to improve fertilizer use efficiency, and to deepen last-mile extension services connected to the agro-dealer network.

A third program was on strengthening post-harvest management and market linkages. Efforts focused on establishing and strengthening aggregation systems for smallholder farmers, improving post-harvest handling practices, developing storage facilities and market infrastructure, exploring warehouse receipt systems and starting to link smallholder farmers to structured commercial markets and buyers.

The fourth area was a Policy and Inclusive Finance Program that set out to to improve the enabling environment by training various agricultural economists at MSc and PhD levels, supporting the evidence-based formulation of policies in line with a liberalized approach (following the government dominated approach that was dominant until the 1980s), and supporting the deepening of inclusive agricultural finance and investment frameworks.

While these programs had some benefits, they did not move the needle toward doubling farmer incomes and ensure farmers and rural communities prosper. A green revolution and food systems transformation, including through environmental sustainability, did not and has not happened yet as the programs were scattered in the various countries making it difficult to measure impact. In the 10 years after 2016, AGRA sought to continually learn from why these gaps remain through a constant refining of its strategy.  Between 2017 and 2022 it introduced the consortia model whereby consortia of actors with different services and goods at sub-national level or at enabler sector level (e.g. seed sector) were brought together under one programmatic framework to provide a bundled solution. AGRA also started to work more with partners funded through other sources and with capabilities AGRA did not have.

After 2023, a further level of integration started to take place, with a stronger focus on market systems approaches and government capability approaches.

On the market systems side, the bigger focus has been on:

  1. Placing market-shaping private sector much more at the centre of the programmatic design;
  2. Distinguishing pioneering inclusive firms (anchor firms) – whose business model is one that provides a vested interest to empower smallholder farmers – from speculative, rent-capturing firms;
  3. focusing on end-to-end value chain development with a recognition that binding and major constraints may sit outside of AGRA’s area of specialization and partners are key for this;
  4. accelerating soil health, water management, nutrition, gender intentionality and youth intentionality solutions;
  5. value chain diversification to understand which value chains have biggest scope to transform the economy at a national level.

On the government capability side, there has been a bigger focus on

  1. political economy dynamics
  2. intra-ministerial coordination around the needs of smallholder farmers, anchor firms and priority transformative value chains
  3. an integrated government approach to ensure all our government interventions are synchronized
  4. a stronger approach to institutional capacity strengthening

This effort is ongoing and as AGRA heads to its 20 year anniversary this August, as a learning organization it is undertaking a further learning review to inform what AGRA’s role should be in the next 10 years in order to build on these lessons and to play the role it was set up to play, thereby accelerating Africa’s trajectory toward food systems transformation.

By Jonathan Said– Vice President, Centre of Technical Expertise , AGRA, and Rufaro Madakadze, Lead – Capacity Building & Technical Support- CESSA.

Seventeen years later: How AGRA changed the way I see impact

Posted on by KIHINGU

When I joined AGRA in 2008, I’ll admit I was skeptical. Coming from the academic world, where impact is often measured over long periods, I questioned whether this was just another development “wave” that might pass. What convinced me to take the leap was the possibility of scale, taking the work I had been doing across two universities in 13 countries and expanding it further.

In the end, that work reached 15 countries and brought together trainees from 18 countries, which has been both humbling and energising.

In the early years under Strategy 1.0, I had the opportunity to lead a large program of about USD 50 million focused on building human and institutional capacity. We trained scientists, supported seed companies, and strengthened research technicians. At the same time, AGRA invested heavily in institutions, public sector systems like research, extension, and policy, as well as private sector actors such as seed companies, agro-dealers, and market players. Looking back, while the work was impactful, it often felt fragmented. Different programs were operating in parallel across seeds, soil health, markets, and policy, sometimes in different geographies, and I couldn’t help but feel that we were spreading ourselves too thin to see big, lasting change in specific communities.

The shift to Strategy 2.0 felt like a turning point for me. There was a deliberate move toward building systems that directly reached farmers at scale, and I found myself drawn into the work on extension systems. Supporting the development of Village/Community-Based Advisors (C/VBAs) was particularly meaningful. These were people rooted in their communities, working directly with farmers to improve practices, access inputs, and connect to markets.

For the first time, I could see how different pieces of the system came together at the farmer level. The consortia approach, combined with engagement at the state and district levels, created a sense of coherence that had been missing before. It was also deeply satisfying to see tangible results, farmers adopting technologies, improving yields, increasing incomes, and to finally have the data to tell that story clearly. Now, in Strategy 3.0, I see AGRA building on those foundations with a stronger emphasis on sustainability and resilience.

Climate change and economic shocks are no longer abstract concerns; they are real and immediate for the farmers we serve. I’ve appreciated the growing focus on sustainable farming practices and the intentional effort to create employment opportunities in agriculture, especially for young people.

The alignment with government priorities and the strengthening of partnerships, both continental and with the private sector, give me a sense that this work is becoming more embedded and scalable than ever before.

The author is the Lead – Capacity Building & Technical Support- CESSA.

From Feed to Fortune: How 25-Year-Old Mutini Cheta is Rewriting the Poultry Playbook in Zambia

Posted on by KIHINGU

When the Zambia National Youth in Poultry Webinar convened farmers, policymakers, and agribusiness players, it did more than share information, it ignited possibilities. Among the voices that stood out was that of Mutini Cheta, a 25-year-old entrepreneur and Co-Managing Director already commanding attention through his company, Wattles and Combs Poultry Ltd.

Speaking with clarity and conviction, Cheta captured the attention of participants when he remarked:
“Feed is not just a cost, it’s the difference between survival and profitability in poultry. Once farmers understand that, they begin to take control of their business.”

His words reflected lived experience. At Wattles and Combs, where production reaches 80,000 birds annually, feed accounts for nearly 70% of total costs, a reality that has shaped his entrepreneurial journey. Instead of being constrained by this challenge, Cheta turned it into an opportunity, positioning his company not only as a poultry producer but as a feed solutions provider for other farmers. Throughout the webinar, Cheta’s contribution went beyond sharing numbers; he told a story of building from the ground up, navigating volatile input markets and innovating within constraints. He explained how his team supports farmers with practical feed formulation strategies, helping them adjust to fluctuating soybean availability while minimising dependence on costly premixes such as lysine and methionine.

“We cannot wait for perfect conditions. We innovate with what we have- local soybean, local knowledge, and that’s how we stay competitive,” he emphasised.

What resonated most strongly was his commitment to lifting others as he grows. Through structured training programs, Wattles and Combs has already trained over 2,000 farmers, equipping youth and women across provinces with the technical and business skills needed to thrive in poultry production. His approach is hands-on, grounded in real farm economics, and focused on profitability rather than theory.

A major turning point in scaling this impact came through strategic partnerships. Cheta revealed that his company is currently working with iDE, an organisation specialising in last-mile distribution. Their collaboration began after connecting at a poultry forum organised by AGRA the previous year. Through this partnership, Wattles and Combs have been linked to 59 agro-dealers, each serving networks of approximately 200 farmers. This has dramatically expanded their reach, creating a powerful distribution channel that connects smallholder farmers to affordable feed solutions, knowledge, and markets. What started as a single enterprise is now evolving into a scalable ecosystem supporting thousands of farmers.

The webinar also highlighted tangible results already emerging from such efforts. With improved local soybean production, feed prices have dropped significantly, from around 800 ZMW to approximately 500 ZMW per 50kg bag, easing pressure on smallholder farmers. At the same time, awareness of the Simplified Trade Regime (STR) is opening new doors, enabling youth-led enterprises to think beyond local markets and position themselves within regional value chains.

Cheta underscored this opportunity with a forward-looking perspective:

“The future of poultry is not just production, it’s market access. If young farmers can produce efficiently and connect to regional markets, then poultry becomes a serious business, not just a side activity.”

His leadership is already influencing broader sector dynamics. By fostering collaboration between poultry producers and crop farmers, particularly those producing maize and soybeans—he is contributing to a more stable and integrated value chain. At the same time, his insights are feeding into ongoing advocacy efforts to reduce the cost of key inputs and strengthen the competitiveness of the poultry sector.

In many ways, Mutini Cheta embodies the very outcome the webinar sought to achieve: a young, forward-thinking agripreneur who is not only building a successful enterprise but also shaping an ecosystem where others can succeed. His journey is a reminder that with the right knowledge, networks, and determination, youth can move from the margins of agriculture to the centre of transformation, and, in doing so, carry thousands along with them.

Why Africa’s agrifood future depends on youth and how YEFFA is delivering

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Africa’s agrifood systems hold one of the greatest opportunities for large-scale job creation on the continent. The challenge has always been how to translate that potential into real economic opportunities for young people. The Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) partnership between AGRA and the Mastercard Foundation is beginning to demonstrate what that transition can look like in practice.

Since its inception in 2023, YEFFA has reached over 1.7 million young people across participating countries, with more than 162,000 youth enabled to work in 2025 alone. This progress reflects a deliberate commitment to inclusion in the agrifood system: 59% of the youth reached are young women, and 60% of those enabled in work are women. Early efforts to expand opportunities for youth with disabilities are also gaining traction in several countries.

What stands out in AGRA’s approach to implementing YEFFA is our focus on building functioning systems rather than isolated projects. The program works across value chains, enterprise ecosystems, and market infrastructure to unlock employment pathways for youth. Across countries, this system’s approach is translating into tangible results. In Mozambique, youth-led Village-Based Advisors are creating service businesses that improve productivity and expand access to extension services for farmers. In Rwanda, structured export value chains are opening higher-value markets for youth enterprises. And in Tanzania, mechanisation financing models are helping young entrepreneurs build service enterprises that support agricultural productivity while generating jobs.

At the same time, the past year has highlighted areas that require continued attention. Access to finance remains one of the most binding constraints to enterprise growth, particularly for young women. Digital adoption across youth-led agribusinesses also remains uneven, suggesting that stronger digital ecosystems will be essential to unlock productivity and market access at scale. These early results reinforce a critical insight that youth employment in agriculture will emerge from training and when markets, finance, technology, and enterprise support systems move together.

Looking ahead, YEFFA represents a central pillar of AGRA’s 3.0 strategy to build more inclusive and productive agrifood systems. By strengthening markets, enabling youth-led enterprises, and expanding pathways for young women and men into dignified and fulfilling work, the program is helping position Africa’s food systems as a source of food security and as one of the continent’s most powerful engines for job creation and economic transformation.

By Nana Amoah – Director, Gender, Youth & Inclusiveness, AGRA

How Access to Knowledge Turned Farming into a Force for Change

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In the dry, wind‑swept plains of Dodoma, Tanzania, farming has long been viewed as a test of endurance, an unpredictable balance of effort, weather and hope. For many, it is a last resort. But for Edwina Aloyce Rubondo, it has become something entirely different: a pathway to leadership, enterprise and transformation.

What makes her story compelling is not where she started, but what she started without.

Edwina has never held formal employment. No office. No salary. No structured career path. Yet today, she is a respected horticultural farmer, cultivating hot peppers, sweet peppers and tomatoes with precision and consistency. More than that, she has become a reference point for over 500 farmers in her community, who are learning from her practices and working towards achieving similar results.

Her journey has not been built on luck or inherited advantage. It has been built on something far more powerful: access to the right knowledge at the right time.

Before encountering the Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture (YEFFA) programme, Edwina’s experience mirrored that of many young farmers across Tanzania, hard work without structure. She farmed without a clear understanding of the science or systems required to improve productivity. Decisions were based on guesswork, tradition and trial and error, resulting in inconsistent outcomes.

Everything changed when she was introduced to the structured pathways offered by YEFFA.

Through training and mentorship, Edwina began to understand agriculture not merely as an activity, but as a system. She learned how to analyse weather patterns
and align planting seasons accordingly. Soil health shifted from an abstract concept to a measurable factor that determines yield. She gained practical knowledge on
selecting appropriate seed varieties, spacing crops for optimal growth, and applying fertiliser in precise quantities rather than relying on approximation.

Irrigation, once a limitation, became an advantage. By adopting drip irrigation, she moved from irregular watering to controlled and efficient water use, ensuring each plant received exactly what it needed. Pest management, often a major source of losses, became a structured process she could manage with confidence.

Even the layout of her farm reflects strategic thinking. In a region known for strong winds, Edwina planted banana trees not only for fruit, but as natural windbreaks to protect crops such as sweet peppers. It is a clear example of how knowledge, when applied correctly, can solve practical challenges.

Through this process, Edwina came to realise that farming itself is not inherently difficult; the real challenge lies in practising agriculture without the right knowledge. This marked a turning point in her journey.

Knowledge stopped being merely supportive and became foundational. It replaced uncertainty with clarity and directed her efforts towards measurable outcomes. In
many ways, it became her most important form of capital.

As her confidence grew, so did her ambition.

Today, Edwina does more than manage a productive farm, she actively creates opportunities for others. She employs 10 young people on a permanent basis,
providing stable and reliable income in a sector where such opportunities are often limited. During peak planting and harvesting periods, her farm becomes a centre of activity, engaging more than 300 casual workers.

This impact is intentional. Edwina understands the value of dignified work and is deliberate about ensuring the people she employs are fairly compensated. Her
approach reflects a shift from survival to responsibility, from working for oneself to building something that sustains many.

Through YEFFA, Edwina’s transformation extended beyond production. She was also connected to reliable markets, a critical yet often‑missing link that determines whether farming remains subsistence‑based or develops into a viable business.

Today, she supplies produce to established buyers including DABAGA and Hussein Gonga, an aggregator who exports to international markets. These connections have redefined her operations. She now produces with purpose, aligning her output to market demand, quality standards and timing. Knowledge is visible not only in how she farms, but also in how she positions herself within the agricultural value chain.

Her financial results reflect this shift. On just half an acre of tomatoes, Edwina invested approximately TZS 7 million and generated around TZS 21 million in revenue. Even after accounting for input costs, labour and operational expenses, the profit margin remains significant.

What stands out most is her understanding of the role knowledge plays in financial success. She recognises that capital alone is insufficient without the skills and insight to manage it effectively, while knowledge has the power to multiply value and safeguard investment.

For Edwina, agriculture has gone far beyond income generation; it has reshaped her life.

Together with her husband, she has invested in rental shops to create additional income streams beyond farming. They have acquired vehicles to support their
agricultural operations, improving efficiency and mobility. Her farm is no longer just a site of production – it is the foundation of a broader and growing enterprise.

Most importantly, it is a place of influence.

Farmers visit to learn. Young people come seeking opportunity. Edwina’s work now extends far beyond her own success, contributing to the growth and resilience of her community. Her story challenges long‑held perceptions that agriculture is inherently difficult, unprofitable or limiting. Instead, it demonstrates that the real constraint often lies not in the sector itself, but in access to the right knowledge and pathways.

When farmers lack this access, agriculture becomes unpredictable. When clear pathways are absent, effort becomes scattered. Edwina’s journey shows what becomes possible when knowledge and opportunity come together – and how one individual’s transformation can enable the progress of hundreds of others.

 

Why Africa’s Central Banks must rethink agriSME finance

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By Andrews Ahiaku

Across Africa, agriculture employs almost one in every two Africans and is the continent’s most powerful driver of poverty reduction, yet it receives a fraction of the finance it deserves. In SubSaharan Africa, a sector contributing up to 40% of GDP attracts less than 10% of bank lending, while three out of four agriSMEs remain locked out of formal finance, fuelling an annual financing gap of USD 65–140 billion.

Financial stability alone will not deliver agricultural transformation unless it is paired with enabling regulation that allows capital to flow to productive sectors.

Central banks across Africa have a critical mandate to safeguard financial systems, protect depositors, and maintain macroeconomic stability. However, well-intended prudential frameworks such as capital adequacy rules, collateral requirements, loan-loss provisioning, and accounting standards, including International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS 9), often have unintended consequences for productive
sectors like agriculture. These frameworks tend to treat agriculture like any other sector, overlooking its seasonality, biological risks, and long gestation periods. This, in turn, results in banks retreating from agriSME lending or pricing it far beyond reach.

A persistent structural challenge lies in policy fragmentation. In many countries, responsibility for agricultural finance is dispersed across ministries of finance, agriculture, trade, and central banks, with no single entity accountable for results. This lack of coherence weakens reform efforts and delays the implementation of solutions. Where progress has been made, it has often been driven by clearer policy
ownership and closer coordination between regulators, governments, and the private sector.

It is also important to move beyond the assumption that lowering interest rates alone will unlock agricultural finance. While affordability matters, interest rates are only part of the equation. What matters just as much is whether regulations recognise agriculture’s development impact and accommodate its unique risk profile. Tailored collateral frameworks, appropriate treatment of credit guarantees, flexible loan classification aligned to production cycles, and incentives that encourage banks to serve agriSMEs can dramatically shift lending behaviour.

From AGRA’s perspective, this is not about weakening prudential standards, but about smart regulation rooted in evidence. Experience from Tanzania’s COVID-era agricultural lending measures, Uganda’s blended central bank-supported facilities, and market-based incentive mechanisms piloted with commercial banks across East Africa demonstrates that private capital can be mobilised at scale when risk is shared, and rules are fit for purpose. These approaches show that it is possible to strengthen bank balance sheets while expanding credit to agriculture, particularly when public policy is used strategically to crowd in private finance rather than substitute for it.

At AGRA, we have seen firsthand how access to appropriate finance accelerates food systems transformation, enabling farmers and agriSMEs to adopt improved seed, invest in climatesmart practices, expand processing, and create jobs for youth and women. But finance cannot scale without a supportive regulatory environment.

If Africa is serious about transforming agriculture, then access to finance must move from the margins to the mainstream of policy. Seeds may drive productivity, but without the right financial and regulatory soil, they will never fully take root.

The author is the Head of Inclusive Finance at AGRA

How digital tools helped a young agripreneur turn agriculture into a thriving business

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In Chekereni, a quiet village in Moshi District, Kilimanjaro, Zainabu Juma’s phone rarely rests. Orders come in. Farmers ask questions. New customers appear, most of who she has never met before. What she could consider normal at the moment was not a while ago.

Zainabu Juma is a young agripreneur and a Village-Based Advisor (VBA) who runs a small agro-input shop. Her journey into agriculture was not smooth. She had tried farming herself, but like many young people, she struggled due limited information, uncertain markets, and low returns. Even when she shifted into selling agricultural inputs, growth was slow, and her shop remained quiet.

“I was already in agriculture, but I didn’t have direction,” she says. “Even when I opened my agrovet shop, I couldn’t grow it. I reached a point where I almost gave up.”

Her turning point came when she was introduced to the YEFFA program (Youth Entrepreneurship for the Future of Food and Agriculture) through the Tanzania Horticultural Association (TAHA). What she found was more than training. It was a shift in mindset, a new way of seeing agriculture not as survival, but as a business. Through YEFFA, Zainabu was connected to a digital ecosystem developed by BizyTech. Using the Kilimo BaNDO platform, she began operating differently, smarter, faster, and more connected than ever before.

Today, much of her work happens through her mobile phone. She advises farmers on seeds and crop protection products, connects with customers across regions, and receives orders digitally.

“I now work with farmers I don’t even know,” she explains. “Through the system, I guide them on seeds and pesticides, and we do business.” “What changed was not just access to tools, but access to networks. Through the platform, she became visible beyond her village. Farmers from regions like Iringa and Morogoro now place orders through her, expanding her reach far beyond what her small shop could have allowed. Within a short period, her sales increased by 25%.

“After joining the system, my sales went up very fast,” she says. “I started receiving orders from outside my region. That’s when I knew this is real business.”

Zainabu’s story reflects a deeper transformation taking place across Tanzania. Agriculture is no longer confined to the farm; it is becoming a connected, and data-driven ecosystem where information, markets, and finance are accessible through digital platforms.

Through tools like Kilimo BaNDO, farmers receive real-time advisory services, access financial products such as savings and loans, insure their crops against climate risks, and connect directly to markets without relying heavily on intermediaries.

For young people, this shift is redefining what agriculture means. A sector once seen as outdated and physically demanding is now increasingly digital, efficient, and full of opportunities. By meeting youth where they already are, on their phones, technology is pulling agriculture into the modern economy.

“This is what changed everything for me,” Zainabu reflects. “Everything I need is in my phone. I can learn, connect, and sell without leaving my shop.”

As a VBA, she is now more than a shop owner. She is a connector linking farmers to inputs, knowledge, and markets. Her business supports not only her own income but also the productivity of farmers around her. In this role, she represents a new generation of agripreneurs who are building businesses across the agricultural value chain. Through programs like YEFFA, supported by digital innovation from BizyTech, young people like Zainabu are moving beyond participation in agriculture to ownership and leadership within it. They are not waiting for opportunities they are creating them.

And in villages like Chekereni, what once looked like a struggling agrovet shop has now morphed into something bigger, a digital hub, powered by technology, driven by youth, and connected to a future where agriculture is not just viable, but transformative.