President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, challenged African governments to make sustained investments in science, research, and innovation as the continent’s most potent weapons against food insecurity, climate shocks, and poor agricultural productivity.
Tinubu’s appeal came as a report by AKADEMIYA2063 declared that the continent’s record $122.9 billion agricultural import bill laid bare Africa’s inability to transform its vast agricultural potential into food security and economic prosperity.
Speaking at the opening of the 9th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) and the 10th General Assembly of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in Abuja, Tinubu said Africa’s agricultural future would be determined less by the abundance of its natural resources than by the quality of its scientific institutions and its commitment to knowledge-driven development.
Represented by Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, the president stressed that every nation that attained prosperity first succeeded in feeding its people through deliberate investments in agricultural research and innovation.
Tinubu said, “Before countries became prosperous, they first learned how to feed their people; and before they transformed agriculture, they invested in science.”
He said although Africa possessed vast arable land, rich biodiversity, and one of the world’s youngest populations, those natural advantages would remain underutilised unless translated into innovation, enterprise and economic opportunities.
He described the Africa Agriculture Science Week as more than a scientific conference, adding that it is the continent’s foremost platform for shaping agricultural policies, strengthening partnerships, and advancing scientific solutions capable of transforming Africa’s agrifood systems.
Tinubu said every discussion at the conference had the potential to redefine research priorities, accelerate innovation, and contribute to building a more food-secure, resilient, and prosperous Africa.
He stressed that his administration had placed agriculture at the centre of its Renewed Hope Agenda because food security remained inseparable from national security, economic prosperity, and social stability.
According to him, Nigeria’s agricultural transformation agenda goes beyond increasing food production to building a modern, competitive, climate-resilient and market-oriented agrifood system anchored on science, technology, innovation, and private sector investment.
Tinubu said government was implementing wide-ranging reforms across the agricultural value chain, including expansion of irrigation and all-season farming, increased mechanisation, improved access to quality seeds and fertilisers, expanded agricultural finance, digital agriculture, and agro-industrial development.
He also underscored government’s commitment to strengthening national agricultural research institutes, universities, extension systems, and strategic partnerships, insisting that sustainable agricultural transformation can only be achieved when public policies are backed by sound scientific evidence.
He said, “The encouraging progress already being recorded across several priority value chains reinforces our confidence that consistent investment, effective implementation and strong institutions will continue to improve productivity, create jobs, strengthen rural livelihoods and enhance national food security.”
The president stated that science remained the invisible force behind every successful agricultural revolution, stressing that improved crop varieties, climate-smart farming practices, irrigation technologies, and evidence-based agricultural policies are all products of years of scientific research.
He explained that research did not merely generate knowledge but also reduced uncertainty, strengthened investor confidence, informed policymaking and equipped farmers with technologies needed to thrive in an increasingly unpredictable environment.
Tinubu pointed to emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence, satellite applications, biotechnology, digital platforms and data science as game changers capable of transforming African agriculture.
Rather than depending solely on imported innovations, the president urged African countries to become global leaders in developing agricultural technologies tailored to the continent’s unique ecological conditions and production systems.
Tinubu called for sustained investments in national agricultural research systems, universities, innovation hubs, digital infrastructure, and scientific talent, while urging stronger collaboration among governments, researchers, development partners, private investors and farmers.
He emphasised that knowledge had become agriculture’s most valuable resource in the 21st century, adding that research must ultimately improve productivity, create jobs, restore degraded lands, strengthen climate resilience, improve nutrition and stimulate economic growth rather than merely ending in academic publications.
He also stressed that no African country could independently overcome mounting challenges posed by climate change, emerging pests and diseases, land degradation, food insecurity and market volatility.
According to him, the continent requires coordinated scientific responses, shared investments and stronger continental partnerships to address the growing threats confronting agriculture.
He urged participants to ensure that ideas generated during the conference translated into practical technologies, better government policies, profitable enterprises for young people and improved incomes for farmers.
Tinubu reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to working with African countries and international partners to build an agricultural sector that is productive, competitive, inclusive, resilient and innovation-driven.
He challenged the continent to evolve from being merely a consumer of agricultural technologies to becoming a globally respected centre for agricultural knowledge, scientific excellence and innovation.
Meanwhile, in his keynote speech to the 10th General Assembly of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Public Policy, Innovation, and Strategy Specialist/Managing Director of AKADEMIYA2063, Dr. DebisiAraba, said Africa’s growing dependence on imported food, despite possessing nearly two-thirds of the world’s uncultivated arable land, reflected deep structural weaknesses that continued to undermine agricultural productivity, regional trade, and economic resilience.
AKADEMIYA2063 is a pan-African, non-profit research and policy institution that supports African governments with data, research, and evidence-based policy solutions to help achieve the African Union’s Agenda 2063 development goals.
According to Araba, the continent’s food import bill surged to $122.9 billion in 2022 following disruptions caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, exposing Africa’s vulnerability to external shocks.
Although intra-African agricultural trade had tripled over the past two decades and remained resilient during both the 2008 global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, Araba stated that trade within the continent still accounted for less than 20 per cent of total agricultural trade, compared with more than 50 per cent in Asia.
He blamed much of the weak regional trade on restrictive sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) regulations and other non-tariff barriers, adding they have an impact equivalent to imposing a 49 per cent tariff on agricultural products traded across African borders.
Araba said fully implementing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) and removing these barriers could increase intra-African agricultural trade by 29 per cent, creating stronger regional value chains, improving food availability and reducing dependence on imports.
The agricultural economist warned that the continent’s worsening food insecurity and rising unemployment were closely linked, insisting that Africa cannot tackle one without addressing the other.
According to him, 845 million Africans, representing 58 per cent of the continent’s population, are currently moderately or severely food insecure, while 62 per cent of preschool-aged children suffer deficiencies in iron, zinc or vitamin A, highlighting the scale of the continent’s nutrition crisis.
Despite these challenges, agriculture remains Africa’s single largest employer, accounting for 63 per cent of total employment, even as 72 million young Africans are neither in employment, education nor training.
Araba said, “Hunger and jobs are the same agenda.”
He stressed that transforming agriculture offered Africa its biggest opportunity to simultaneously reduce poverty, create employment, and improve food security.
He also stated that unlocking the potential of the sector would require governments to invest in innovation rather than continue with business-as-usual approaches.
One example, he said, was black soldier fly farming, which converts organic waste into high-value animal feed and fertiliser.
According to Araba, Africa produces 99 million tonnes of suitable municipal bio-waste every year, enough to support an industry capable of contributing $211 billion annually to the continent’s GDP—equivalent to roughly a quarter of Africa’s economic output.
He added that the emerging industry could create 17 million full-time jobs annually, lift 22 million people out of poverty each year, and replace 76 per cent of Africa’s soybean feed supply, significantly reducing import dependence.
“That is what a frontier looks like when the institutions behind it work,” he said.
Beyond emerging innovations, Araba warned that Africa continued to underinvest in the foundations of agricultural transformation.
He disclosed that 41 of 46 African countries still spent below the African Union (AU) benchmark of one per cent of agricultural GDP on agricultural research and development, while the continent’s agricultural growth continued to come largely from expanding farmland rather than increasing productivity.
He stated that cereal yield gaps remained between 40 and 60 per cent, not because technologies were unavailable, but because farmers faced poor access to markets, weak extension services, and inadequate enabling environments.
He said the adoption gap was equally stark, with Africa attracting just 1.6 per cent of global agri-tech investment, despite evidence showing that digital technologies significantly improved farming outcomes.
He said studies indicated that 76 per cent of digital agriculture initiatives increased farmers’ adoption of improved practices, while 68 per cent led to higher crop yields.
Araba urged African governments to shift investments towards research, innovation, institutional capacity, and regional integration if they hoped to achieve the CAADP Kampala Declaration targets of increasing agricultural output by 45 per cent, tripling intra-African agrifood trade, halving post-harvest losses, and ending hunger by 2035.
He maintained that Africa’s agricultural future would ultimately depend not on importing more equipment but on building the knowledge, institutions, and capabilities needed to make innovation work at scale.
Araba stated, “A tractor imported is not mechanisation mastered. A cold room purchased is not a cold chain built. A digital platform launched is not adoption achieved.”
James Emejo and Deborah Adekoya
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