The US shifted its approach to African agriculture from foreign assistance focused on increasing productivity and food security to promoting bilateral trade and investment defined largely by the value of US agricultural commodities exported. The US-Africa agricultural partnership should be more ambitious. It should expand beyond commodity exports to collaborate with American universities, technology companies, and capital providers while also improving the lives of hundreds of millions of Africans who depend on farming. That is a partnership that delivers benefits for both the US and Africa.
The Farm Journal Foundation’s excellent new publication, Building the Next Generation of US Agricultural Export Markets, highlights how profound demographic shifts are changing future agricultural markets. Africa will lead the world in agricultural demand, accounting for 38 percent of all growth between 2025–2034. With an average age of 19 and an additional billion people expected to live in Africa by 2050, this trend will only continue to accelerate.
The US must take a long-term view on increasing Africa's agricultural productivity and incomes through partnerships that leverage America's greatest agricultural capabilities. Early investments in agricultural cooperation pay dividends later for US agriculture. Agricultural cooperation played a key role in the early growth of many developed countries that are now large markets for US agricultural exporters.
Our US agriculture innovation ecosystem includes world-class universities, seed companies, precision agriculture technologies, animal genetics, veterinary science, food processing expertise and equipment, and innovative agricultural financing. The US has the deepest pool of institutional capital that can invest alongside Africa’s fast-growing domestic pension and sovereign wealth funds in Africa’s agricultural sector.
Unlike many agricultural trading relationships, the US and Africa are not competitors. Our trade is balanced and complementary.
Two-thirds of African agricultural exports to the US are cocoa and coffee not produced in the US and that directly support millions of African farmers and thousands of jobs in the confectionery industry in places like Hershey, Pennsylvania. Even with products like fresh grapes, the harvesting season in the US runs from August to November, while the South Africa harvest is January to April, offering a complementary supply for US customers.
American exports to Africa remain concentrated in wheat, poultry, corn, rice, and prepared foods. These products help Africa to meet growing consumer demand and offer premium alternatives for middle-class consumers rather than displacing African production.
US agricultural exports to Africa have shown little growth over the past decade, despite Africa’s rapid population growth, urbanization, and rising food demand.
Several low and lower-middle-income countries have emerged as fast-growing markets for US agricultural products. Countries along the Lobito Corridor, notably Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, have increased imports from the US, as have West and North African countries, including Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire.
Meanwhile, US agricultural exports to the largest economies, including Nigeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, and South Africa, have remained stagnant or declined.
These trends suggest that future growth for American agriculture exports may come not from yesterday’s biggest markets but from building new markets across a more diverse set of smaller, faster-growing African countries.
Public land-grant universities connected research to farmers through extension services. Public and private investment accelerated breakthroughs in plant genetics, animal breeding, veterinary science, irrigation, mechanization, and food processing. Private companies transformed scientific discoveries into innovative technologies, while deep and innovative capital markets and US government programs for agricultural insurance and land financing helped scale technology adoption and growth.
Africa's agricultural transformation depends on increasing agricultural productivity. Yields for staple crops remain far below global averages, post-harvest losses remain far too high, and access to fertilizers, improved seeds, animal genetics, irrigation, tractors, and digital agriculture remains limited. American companies have technologies that directly address those challenges.
US-Africa agricultural engagement should focus on building future markets. Continuing investments in partnerships between American land-grant universities and African universities can expand research collaboration, strengthen extension systems, train the next generation of agricultural scientists, and accelerate technology adoption that benefits US companies.
The US government should take a broader view of where it invests limited agricultural assistance and staff, rather than defaulting to the largest English-speaking countries within each region. The approach must combine the expertise and tools of USG agencies with mandates extending beyond supporting US agricultural commodity exports through the US Department of Agriculture to include the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the US International Development Finance Corporation.
US commercial diplomacy should integrate agricultural investment into its work on the Lobito Corridor and other strategic corridors. Beyond financing US agricultural exports, the US should provide financial tools to the many small- and medium-sized American-owned companies and companies in which Americans have invested that operate on the continent and are innovating new, scaled models to provide capital and insurance products and introduce and scale access agricultural technology to African farmers.
Smart, targeted foreign assistance and concessional financing can help African farmers finance and test US commercial technologies and expand US financing tools that provide agricultural insurance, working capital, and access to mechanization. When structured well, assistance can accelerate trade and investment.
The success of US-Africa agricultural engagement cannot be judged year-to-year solely by whether the US exports more wheat or Africa exports more cocoa. Large swings in total export values can just as often result from a temporary, completely unrelated weather event in a third country, such as Brazil. Success must be measured over the longer term by whether the partnership builds more productive and profitable farms and farmers, more resilient food systems, stronger agricultural universities, and more innovative agribusinesses across both continents.
Investing in African agriculture can and should put more money in farmers’ pockets on both sides of the Atlantic.
If you believe in Africa’s economic future, as we do, you may also be frustrated that opportunities for US retail investors to participate are scarce. Investors seek growth, and the numbers on Africa...
