In Africa, policy failure is pervasive. It is a failure of vision, leadership and execution. While the continent’s population continues to grow rapidly, food production has failed to keep pace. Hunger is no longer a looming threat; it is an everyday reality. Yet governments display little urgency or seriousness in confronting it.
The United Nations projects that 35 million Nigerians, representing about 15 per cent of the population, will face food insecurity and acute hunger in 2026.
Climate-related shocks, especially prolonged droughts and devastating floods that destroy farmlands, have combined with worsening insecurity and violent conflicts to deepen the crisis across the continent. In many parts of Nigeria, farmers can no longer access their fields because of armed attacks, while millions have been forced into Internally Displaced Persons camps.
The crisis is compounded by Africa’s selfish, clueless and sit-tight political elite, who devote more energy to preserving power and enriching themselves than to advancing the welfare of their citizens. For too many leaders, public office has become an avenue for personal enrichment rather than national development.
Little effort is devoted to rebuilding economies, modernising agriculture or investing in critical infrastructure. Unsurprisingly, productivity has declined sharply. A hungry continent cannot be a productive one.
It is painful to admit that Africa is hungry, but that is the stark reality. Across much of the continent, there is no coherent strategy to lift millions out of poverty and hunger. Governments make only token efforts to encourage large-scale commercial farming despite the abundance of land and human resources. Africa’s problem is not a shortage of resources but a chronic inability to harness them effectively.
Consequently, Africa has, for the first time, overtaken Asia as the region with the highest number of hungry people in the world.
According to a joint report released by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and four other United Nations agencies in July 2026, about 309 million Africans or 20 per cent of the continent’s population, experienced hunger in 2025, compared with 292 million people, or 6.0 per cent of Asia’s population.
An estimated 66.6 per cent of Africans cannot afford a healthy and balanced diet, more than twice the rate in Asia. The UN’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World warns that by 2030, nearly 60 per cent of the world’s chronically undernourished people could be living in Africa.
This is a tragic irony. Africa arguably possesses some of the world’s richest agricultural land and one of its youngest populations. Nigeria alone has between 34 million and 37 million hectares of arable land, according to Trading Economics. Yet crop yields average just 1.5 to 2.2 tonnes per hectare, far below what is needed to feed the population. Brazil, by comparison, records average yields of 4.31 tonnes per hectare, according to World-Grain.com.
Had Nigeria embraced modern ranching decades ago, many of today’s deadly farmer-herder conflicts would have been avoided. The country also produces thousands of agriculture graduates every year, yet many roam the streets unemployed. The government knows what needs to be done. What it lacks is the political will to do it.
Even more regrettably, those in power appear detached from reality. They have failed to grasp the depth of the hunger crisis confronting ordinary Nigerians. In a recent interview with Arise Television, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, claimed he did not see the level of hunger many Nigerians complain about.
He argued that complaints were exaggerated and inconsistent with realities across the country, citing infrastructure projects, the student loan scheme and low-interest credit facilities as evidence that government policies were benefiting citizens. That amounts to hiding behind one finger while millions struggle to put food on the table.
The passivity of Nigerians also helps perpetuate this state of affairs. Citizens must hold leaders accountable when they fail to deliver. Without competent leadership, Nigeria cannot effectively tackle insecurity, poverty and hunger.
China and India have demonstrated that hunger can be defeated through sustained commitment and sound policy. According to David Laborde, Director of the Agrifood Economics Division at the FAO, Asia’s remarkable progress was largely driven by consistent efforts in these two countries.
They deployed high-yield farming technologies, guaranteed price support for farmers and targeted food distribution systems to improve food security.
India embraced high-yield varieties of wheat and rice, expanded irrigation and increased the use of fertilisers to raise domestic production.
It also guaranteed minimum prices for major crops to encourage production while establishing subsidised food distribution networks that bought grains from farmers and sold them cheaply to low-income households.
India was once regarded as the poverty capital of the world. Yet a 2018 Brookings Institution report, using World Poverty Clock data, showed that Nigeria had overtaken it, with about 87 million Nigerians living in extreme poverty. That number has since risen.
China’s success rested on sweeping agricultural reforms that gave farmers greater control and incentives, massive investment in rural infrastructure, irrigation, agricultural credit and strong social safety nets.
The Netherlands offers another lesson. Despite being densely populated, about 66 per cent of its land is devoted to agriculture. Its strategy centres on producing more food with fewer resources.
It relies on circular agriculture, where waste from one farming process becomes the raw material for another, and on precision farming technologies, including greenhouse cultivation that maximises output from limited land.
Israel has achieved similar success despite severe resource constraints. It has mastered precision agriculture and resource efficiency to minimise waste and maximise production.
The country meets domestic water needs through seawater desalination and recycles about 90 per cent of its urban wastewater for agricultural irrigation. Its advanced agricultural technology has made farming both profitable and sustainable.
Africa’s hunger crisis is not inevitable. It is the product of poor leadership. Nigeria witnessed what competent leadership could achieve under Akinwunmi Adesina as Minister of Agriculture between 2011 and 2015.
He reportedly dismantled four decades of corruption in fertiliser distribution, transformed agriculture into a viable business, attracted $5.6 billion in private-sector investment and embraced technology-driven reforms.
Under his watch, national food production reportedly increased by 21 million metric tonnes while thousands of young graduates were trained to see agriculture as a profitable enterprise.
African leaders must recognise that agriculture is a sophisticated, integrated business requiring science, technology, investment and sound management. There is no room for incoherent or politically driven agricultural policies.
Agriculture contributes between 21 and 25 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP and employs up to 70 per cent of the labour force. Yet hunger remains widespread. That contradiction should shame policymakers.
Perhaps that informed President Bola Tinubu’s decision to procure and commission 2,000 tractors and related implements for mechanised farming in June 2025. The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, said the programme would cultivate more than 550,000 hectares of farmland, produce over two million metric tonnes of staple food, create more than 16,000 jobs and directly benefit over 550,000 farming households.
The distribution of the tractors began in February 2026. However, it remains unclear whether full deployment has been achieved or whether the programme has begun producing measurable results.
Therefore, Nigeria’s leaders must abandon rhetoric and embrace serious thinking. They must treat agriculture as a business and allow competent professionals to drive the sector.
State governors should assume greater responsibility by empowering citizens to embrace commercial agriculture, not merely subsistence farming for family survival.
Agriculture must be intentional, strategic and results-driven. Communities should be encouraged to achieve seed independence by saving, storing and replanting seeds instead of relying perpetually on expensive imports from multinational seed and chemical companies.
Africa must modernise its agriculture. The continent cannot hope to prosper while it continues importing wheat, rice, palm oil, maize, chicken feed and many other agricultural products that it has the capacity to produce competitively.
Tinubu has spoken of transforming Nigeria into “a global agricultural powerhouse” capable of feeding its people while supplying quality produce to international markets. That vision is laudable. But visions do not feed nations. Bold policies, competent leadership and relentless execution do. The time to turn those promises into reality is now.
