African ministers of agriculture and livestock have called for increased investment in livestock innovations, regional trade and value-chain development as part of efforts to reduce the continent’s dependence on food imports and unlock its growing agribusiness market.
The ministers and their representatives from eight African countries made the commitment at a livestock ministerial roundtable held during the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, Rwanda.
The discussions focused on how to mobilise financing, strengthen livestock productivity, expand markets and trade, and create conditions for private-sector investment across the continent’s livestock value chains.
The push comes as Africa spends an estimated $70 billion to $100 billion annually on food imports, despite its significant agricultural resources and livestock population.
Africa accounts for about one-fifth of the world’s cattle but produces only about five per cent of global milk output, highlighting what stakeholders described as a major productivity and investment gap.
At the same time, demand for animal-source foods is projected to increase by 280 per cent by 2050, creating a potentially huge market for African producers, processors and investors.
Director-General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Appolinaire Djikeng, said bridging the gap between what Africa produces and imports could help unlock the continent’s estimated $1 trillion annual agribusiness potential.
He said the priority was to move beyond proven innovations to the investment and regional trade arrangements required to deploy them at continental scale.
The private sector also stressed the importance of creating commercially sustainable livestock systems.
‘Clearly Africa doesn’t lack solutions for its livestock sector. What it lacks is scale and productivity,’ Djikeng said.
Group Chief Executive Officer of CKL Africa, Mucai Kunyiha, said attracting private investment would require governments, producers, manufacturers, veterinarians and regional institutions to work together, particularly in areas such as animal health.
Using livestock vaccination as an example, Kunyiha said the challenge was no longer simply producing vaccines but establishing sustainable systems capable of delivering them consistently.
‘Vaccination is a system, not an event,’ he said, arguing that such systems would help create the conditions necessary for sustained private-sector investment.
The ministers identified livestock-specific financing as one of five priorities for accelerating transformation, with calls for patient capital and financing terms that reflect the biological production cycles of livestock.
Other priorities include opening borders to livestock and animal products through harmonised standards and certification, improving animal identification and traceability, strengthening livestock representation within government and regional trade frameworks, and expanding peer learning between African countries.
Ethiopia’s dairy sector was cited as an example of what targeted investment and policy intervention could achieve.
The country’s milk production reportedly increased from 7.1 billion litres in 2022 to 15.7 billion litres in 2025/26, representing a 122 per cent increase.
The growth was attributed to the government’s Yelemat Tirufat initiative, which supported more than 36,000 new dairy villages and 5,000 dairy clusters, alongside new cross-border trade agreements.
However, Ethiopia’s representative identified feed production as a major constraint to further expansion, despite feed production more than doubling during the period.
Chair of Council at Zimbabwe National University of Science and Technology and Co-Chair of the Food Planet Prize, Professor Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, said Africa’s challenge was no longer a lack of livestock resources, farmers, scientific knowledge or demand, but the inability to connect these assets and deliver solutions at scale.
‘Africa’s livestock priority is no longer recognition. It is delivery,’ she said.
The meeting also highlighted the need to link livestock production with regional trade and governance rather than treating them as separate policy issues.
The Integrated Regional Livestock Value Chain (IRLVC) programme, led by the African Union Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR), is already supporting more than 30 regional projects, including dairy and poultry health initiatives, with backing from institutions including the European Union, IFAD and the World Bank.
Director of AU-IBAR, Dr. Huyam Salih, said harmonised policies and cross-border trade would be critical to scaling successful livestock interventions.
The participants recommended institutionalising the ministerial platform as a political and learning mechanism for implementing the 10-year Integrated Regional Livestock Value Chain programme to 2035, with reporting through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Biennial Review.
The platform is expected to provide ministers with a continuing role in driving investment and implementation, rather than limiting engagement to annual discussions at the Africa Food Systems Forum.
The ministers also agreed that resolving the question of who pays for animal health, alongside stronger financing, trade, data and governance systems, would be critical to attracting investment and making Africa’s livestock sector more commercially viable.