Africa Aims to Mobilize Youth and Innovation to Feed the World
The Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) held its Arica Food Systems Forum 2025 (#AFSF2025) at the International Convention Center Abdou Diouf in Diamniadio in Senegal from 31 August to 5 September 2025. This year’s edition focused on the empowerment of youth to bring about agricultural transformation and to enhance #FoodSecurity. More than 6,000 delegates from 80 countries were in attendance, including 2,000 youths which were specially invited.
At the opening ceremony on 2 September 2025, Senegal President Bassirou Faye highlighted his country’s Community Agricultural Cooperative as a successful model for youth-led innovation in agriculture. He pointed out that Africa is the only continent that has sufficient arable land to feed the whole world and welcomed the whole to invest into Africa to ensure global #FoodSecurity.
A Youth Town Hall was on the agenda whereby five young agripreneurs had the chance to engage directly with Presidents Faye and Kagame. The youth underscored certain challenges such market access and technology adoption in order to scale production and foster agroprocessing.
At the Forum, the Africa Food Systems Report 2025 was officially unveiled. Up to 20% of the overall GDP of Africa is derived from agriculture and the sector employs nearly half of the total workforce on the continent. Since 2000, agricultural output in Africa has grown at an annual percentage rate of 4.3%.
Nevertheless, much remains to be done. It is estimated that 282 million Africans are still undernourished as food prices remain out of reach. The prevalence of undernourishment has risen from 15% in 2015 to 19% in 2022 due to the combination of factors such as climate, conflicts, and crises.
In terms of the logistics of food and the supply chain, delegates noted with concern that up to 40% of food in sub-Saharan Africa is wasted due to poor storage, inadequate processing, and bad roads.
The leaders adopted the Kampala Declaration for a Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (#CAADP) and a new strategic plan 2026-2025 that sets the course for ‘The Decade of Agrifood Transformation’ with fresh targets on finance, trade, productivity and inclusion of youth and women. For instance, the report recommends that African government at least 10% of their GDP to develop agribusiness when several countries only spend barely 2%.
In 2024, UK announced a GBP 25 million to support African SME in the agribusiness sector to scale up. This year, the UK Minister for Africa, Lord Collins of Highbury, announced another injection of GBP 5 million to strengthen African food systems.
With nearly 60% of Africans under the age of 25, AGRA President Alice Ruhweza called for bold collective action that harness the youthful talent and energy in order to feed Africa and the world.