The Nairobi Declaration, adopted at the Africa Forward Summit, places agriculture, industrial growth and investment at the centre of Africa’s economic future, with a focus on productivity, regional investment and more resilient food systems and agricultural markets.
For agriculture, however, implementation remains the real challenge once summit declarations are made. Governments, financial institutions and development partners must now ensure these commitments translate into systems that work for smallholder farmers and rural enterprises.
Smallholder farmers in Kenya and across East Africa still operate under conditions that limit productivity and market participation. High production costs, unpredictable weather, weak market linkages and limited access to mechanisation continue to constrain growth.
Financing adds another layer of pressure, with many farmers paying far higher borrowing costs than their counterparts in wealthier economies while still struggling to access formal credit.
These challenges matter because agriculture still employs more than half of Africa’s workforce and remains one of the continent’s biggest economic opportunities.
Yet much of the sector continues to operate with low productivity, weak infrastructure and fragmented markets. If Africa is serious about long-term economic growth, agriculture must move beyond survival-driven production.
The mechanisation gap illustrates this challenge clearly. Sub-Saharan Africa remains the least mechanised farming region in the world, with estimates showing about 28 tractors per 1,000 hectares compared with roughly 241 in other regions. Around 65 percent of farm power in the region still comes from human labour.
The problem is often less about tractor ownership than about affordable access to machinery during land preparation, planting, harvesting and transport.
Young entrepreneurs across Africa are already responding to these gaps.
Some are building digital platforms connecting farmers to machinery, irrigation systems, weather information and markets. Others are developing cold-chain systems, post-harvest technologies, soil-health services and precision agriculture tools tailored to African conditions.
These businesses are helping farmers reduce post-harvest losses, improve productivity and adapt more effectively to climate and market pressures. Scaling them up remains difficult, however, because many agribusinesses still struggle to access long-term financing.
The African Development Bank estimates Africa’s agri-food SMEs face an annual financing gap of about $180 billion, underlining how difficult it remains for growing agribusinesses to secure capital.
Agricultural innovation frequently collides with financing systems that remain cautious about the sector, especially early-stage enterprises. Many promising businesses struggle not because their ideas are weak, but because the ecosystem around them remains underdeveloped. Access to patient capital, market linkages and long-term partnerships is still limited.
The Nairobi Declaration also highlights youth and technology as central to Africa’s future. The next step will be ensuring investment reaches innovators already solving practical problems across agricultural value chains.
Financing agriculture remains difficult for many lenders, particularly where climate risks and smallholder lending models are involved.
Many farmers and cooperatives cannot meet collateral requirements for formal credit, while repayment schedules often fail to align with planting and harvest cycles. Droughts, floods and price volatility further increase uncertainty, making agricultural financing harder to sustain.
Some financing models are beginning to address these gaps. Farmers are accessing machinery through leasing arrangements instead of outright ownership, while cooperatives are connecting members to value-chain financing, digital credit and climate-linked insurance products. In some markets, these approaches are helping farmers and agri-enterprises secure financing more affordably and reliably.
Scaling such models will require closer collaboration between financial institutions, agribusinesses and development organisations. Platforms such as the forthcoming Financing Agri-food Systems Sustainably (FINAS) 2026 Summit could help align investment partnerships, financing models and policy discussions around systems that work for smallholder farmers and agri-enterprises.
Farmer cooperatives also need to be treated as market institutions rather than simply beneficiaries of development programmes.
The long-term impact of the Nairobi Declaration will depend on whether these commitments translate into better conditions for farmers, cooperatives and rural enterprises already driving agricultural production across the continent.