Who pays for Africa’s food future?

In March 2025, more than 100 participants, including farmers, activists, researchers, and policymakers, gathered at the Manzoni Lodge in Nairobi for a three-day forum hosted by the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA). They came from across the continent to share experiences and build strategies for a fairer food system that prioritizes equity, environmental sustainability, and economic viability throughout the entire food supply chain.

The clear message was that corporations and foreign banks must not dictate the future of Africa’s food system. As Anne Maina of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya (BIBA Kenya) put it, “Africa’s future is agroecological, and we will not allow destructive industrial agriculture to dictate our destiny.”

Africa’s current agricultural crisis didn’t happen overnight. It’s rooted in colonial farming systems that prioritized crops—mainly, cotton, coffee, tobacco, and tea—for export rather than feeding local people. After independence, many African countries faced pressure from international lenders such as the World Bank and the IMF to adopt new economic policies. Structural Adjustment Programs forced governments to privatize land, remove support for small farmers, and open their markets to foreign goods. As a result, local food systems collapsed under the weight of imported agricultural products and large-scale industrial monoculture farming. As the regional director for World Neighbors East Africa, Chris Macoloo put it, there is a loss of autonomy in African agricultural policymaking:

One is the fact that the food policy and agricultural policy in Africa is formulated in Washington DC, in London, and in Paris. And once they formulate these policies, then they provide funds to implement the policies, and therefore they dictate the kind of agriculture that the countries in Africa can actually produce.

This extractive system didn’t just continue; it evolved. Today, large financial institutions like the African Development Bank (AfDB) and private investors are promoting a new version of industrial farming that benefits big corporations. For example, the AfDB’s massive $61billion agricultural plan seeks to transform more than 25 million hectares of land into export-oriented agribusiness zones across 40 African countries that outline pathways to improving food security and productivity. If realized, this will displace more than 11 million smallholder farmers.

At the same time, agroecology, a holistic, fairer, and more sustainable approach rooted in African traditions and biodiversity, has been dismissed as irrelevant or “too small.” A good example is when agroecology was sidelined in the Post-Malabo and Kampala Declaration process of shaping the next 10 years of the CADAAP strategy. However, it has unquestionable support from African governments.

Philanthropic actors such as AGRA and the Gates Foundation continue to support industrial models promoting genetically modified seeds and highly polluting synthetic chemicals in the name of development. African activists are now asking the Gates Foundation for reparations for the damage caused. As Macoloo highlighted: “Agribusiness is basically just agriculture as a business… exploiting our fertile soils to grow things… not for our economy, not for our own benefit but to benefit their own people… almost like slavery.”

The problems created by industrial agriculture are growing fast. Soils are losing nutrients, water sources are polluted, and biodiversity is shrinking. In Kenya alone, the Route to Food Report shows that 76% of pesticides used are classified as highly hazardous, with many banned in Europe. These chemicals don’t just affect nature; they poison communities and contribute to rising cases of cancer and other non-communicable diseases.

Land grabbing is another primary concern. More than 30 million hectares of land have already been taken by private agribusinesses and foreign investors, forcing out local farmers and pastoralists in countries such as Senegal and Tanzania. The phenomenon is driven by direct foreign investment, government incentives, and global food and biofuel demands. These land deals, often shrouded in opaque contracts and executed without meaningful consultation with local communities, routinely violate customary land rights. Large-scale sugarcane and rice projects in Tanzania have displaced pastoralist Maasai communities and smallholder farmers. At the same time, the Senegal River Valley has become a leasing hotspot, triggering water shortages and local conflict. Notable examples include the controversial 20,000-hectare Senhuile-Sénéthanol lease in Senegal, which displaced 37 villages, and the sugarcane-driven evictions in Tanzania’s Kilombero Valley, where land deemed “idle” by the government was transferred to foreign investors, often without adequate consultation or compensation for local communities who had settled and cultivated these lands.

These processes have severely disrupted subsistence farming, particularly harming pastoralists and women, who often lose access to communal lands first. GRAIN and Land Matrix report that more than 40% of all documented global land grabs occur in Africa. Many are framed as developmental but primarily serve export-oriented agribusiness rather than food security, with the 30 million hectare figure reflecting confirmed rather than speculative acquisitions.

Trade agreements such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) have the potential to reshape African agriculture, but they also raise serious concerns about exacerbating existing inequalities in food systems. Critics argue that AfCFTA could enable multinational corporations to patent seeds, undermining traditional seed systems, which millions of African smallholders rely on.

Under expanded intellectual property protections aligned with international agreements like UPOV 1991, seed varieties, often bred and passed down through generations, can be claimed by companies, limiting farmers’ rights to save, share, or reuse seeds. Without legal safeguards to protect community rights, the AfCFTA framework risks turning African agriculture into a corporate-driven model that marginalizes smallholders and erodes traditional ecological knowledge. Experts and organizations such as GRAIN, Oxfam, and bilaterals.org warn that seed diversity and local food systems could be severely compromised unless trade integration efforts include robust protections for farmers’ rights.

Despite being sidelined, agroecology empowers communities to take control of their food systems. It’s proving to be a powerful and practical solution based on local knowledge that works harmoniously with nature. For example, in Kenya’s Muranga County, the new agroecology policy supports agroecology by subsidizing organic inputs and building local markets. The Seed Savers Network has set up over 100 community seed banks in Kenya to protect disappearing indigenous seed varieties.

Agroecology isn’t just about farming. It improves the health of people and ecosystems, supports local economies, strengthens communities, and helps African countries adapt to climate change. Yet it still receives only a tiny fraction of funding. Between 2016 and 2018, just 2.7% of EU support to agriculture in Africa went toward agroecological approaches, according to the CIDSE Finance for Agroecology Report.

As Michel Pimbert from Coventry University said during the Manzoni gathering, “The money is there, what’s needed is political will.”Agroecology has proven its worth. It’s time the funding matched its potential. Money is at the heart of this food systems issue. Agricultural funding supports industrial agriculture. One speaker in the gathering said, “We have realized that organizations and donors and even governments tend to fund industrial agriculture at the expense of agroecology.” Development Finance Institutions, such as the AfDB and British International Investment, channel billions into private equity funds that back supermarket chains and agribusiness companies. These investments rarely reach small farmers and often work against their interests. It is not about missing opportunities; it’s about injustice.

Oxfam International reports that in 2022, 722 major global corporations earned more than $1 trillion in windfall profits. If just a portion of this wealth were taxed and redirected, it could often fund sustainable agriculture across Africa.

Participants at the Manzoni AFSA forum didn’t just complain, they called for action. They demanded debt cancellation, taxes on speculative financial trading and billionaire wealth, and reparations for slavery and colonization. They also proposed the creation of African-led financial institutions; public banks, community savings groups, an agroecology Fund for Africa, and participatory budgets that serve people rather than profit.

As AFSA’s General Coordinator, Million Belay Ali warned, “Our policies are being shaped by those who control the money.” Changing that means shifting who holds the power.

The Nairobi forum didn’t end with talk. It launched a bold continent-wide campaign. Participants devised a straightforward strategy to challenge harmful funding systems and build a financial foundation for agroecology. Their plan includes advocating for defunding industrial agriculture by calling for cutting support to Development Finance Institutions (DFIs), banning dangerous pesticides, and redirecting subsidies toward agroecological practices. It also calls for creating new African-led systems, community banks, participatory finance models, and grassroots-led advocacy efforts. Youth, women, and smallholder farmers are central to this movement. Social media, education, litigation, and strategic storytelling are all part of the campaign’s tools.

A symbolic moment from the gathering captured the stakes: participants imagined industrial agriculture as a multiheaded monster, a hydra of land grabs and a serpent of financial control. Their message was simple but powerful: only collective resistance can bring the monster down.

The fight ahead is challenging, but the momentum is real. AFSA and its allies are building a campaign to shift funding, reshape policies, and reclaim the continent’s food future. They are publishing new research, organizing national dialogues, and mobilizing youth and women to lead the way.

One speaker said, “The fight is brutal, but the vision is clear. When we unite, even giants fall”. As the mock headlines from the event declared, “Africa Declares Agroecology the Future” and “AGRA Defeated,” the message is loud and clear: the time to reclaim financial power is now.

This article originally appeared on AfricaIsACountry.com on October 1, 2025.