SMART FARMING: How Africa’s Agricultural Model Is Failing Its Farmers

By Chima Francis

A farmer can have land. A farmer can have the willingness to farm. But willingness and access to land are no longer enough.

When the cost of modern food production becomes prohibitively expensive because farmers must continually purchase improved seeds, fertiliser, pesticides, fungicides and herbicides, farming can gradually become economically unviable. Eventually, farms are abandoned, production declines and communities that once fed themselves become dependent on food from elsewhere.

This raises a fundamental question: How did Africa move from communities capable of producing much of their own food to a continent spending billions of dollars importing food every year?

Today, Africa’s annual food import bill is estimated at between $70 billion and $100 billion, with wheat, processed grains and other shelf-stable commodities accounting for a significant share. But there is an even more troubling contradiction.

If improved seeds, fortified seedlings and modern agricultural technologies are helping us produce significantly more food per acre, why are food import bills rising, the cost of locally produced calories increasing and millions of Africans still struggling to afford adequate food?

The usual explanation is population growth.

Yes, Africa’s population is growing. But population growth alone does not fully explain the food crisis.

Our ancestors lived in large families and communities, often with fertility rates considerably higher than those seen today. Families of 10 or 12 children were not unusual in many communities.

Yet larger populations were also productive populations. More hands meant more people working the farms, processing food and supporting local food systems.

Today, the situation appears increasingly different: population is growing, but food production per person is under pressure in many communities.

That suggests we need to look beyond population growth and examine the agricultural model itself.

The Cost of the Modern Farming Model

Much of modern industrial agriculture depends heavily on purchased external inputs. Farmers must repeatedly spend money on seeds, fertiliser and chemicals to maintain production.

For a commercial farmer with adequate access to credit, markets, infrastructure and technology, these inputs can potentially improve yields.

But for a smallholder farmer operating on thin margins, rising input costs can turn increased productivity into diminishing economic returns.

The farmer may harvest more from each hectare but earn little or nothing after paying for the inputs required to produce that harvest.

That is where the real question of food security begins.

What is the value of producing more food if the farmer cannot afford to remain in production?

From Food Production to Dependency

When farming becomes financially unsustainable, farmers leave the land, production falls and communities become increasingly dependent on external supplies.

Governments then face pressure to spend scarce foreign exchange importing commodities that could potentially be produced domestically.

The result can become a cycle of dependency: expensive inputs, financially stressed farmers, declining local production, increased imports and greater exposure to global commodity prices.

This is not simply an agricultural problem. It is an economic, social and public-health challenge.

Is Industrial Agriculture the Answer?

Modern agriculture has undoubtedly delivered significant advances in productivity, crop improvement, irrigation, mechanisation and food processing.

The issue, therefore, is not whether modern technology should be rejected.

The more important question is: What kind of agricultural technology is appropriate for Africa, and who ultimately controls the system?

Modern industrial agriculture, increasingly dominated by large agricultural corporations, can operate according to an extractive economic logic.

There is a parallel with mining.

In extractive industries, natural resources are removed for economic value, sometimes without adequately accounting for the long-term environmental cost.

A chemical-intensive agricultural system can similarly treat soil primarily as a production asset—something to be continuously pushed for higher yields through external inputs, while the long-term health of the soil receives inadequate attention.

The consequence can be declining soil health, environmental degradation, rising production costs and increasing dependence on purchased inputs.

Africa therefore needs to ask a more fundamental question:

Are we building agricultural systems that merely produce food today, or are we building food systems that farmers and communities can sustain for generations?

To be continued.

About the Columnist

Chima Francis is the Co-founder and CEO of Teva Foods, a Nigerian social enterprise working to develop more sustainable and locally rooted food systems.

Through large-scale food production and processing, climate-adaptive farming, agricultural training and the development of local food value chains, Teva Foods explores practical approaches to food insecurity while strengthening Africa’s capacity to feed itself.

His work is grounded in a simple conviction: no African should go to bed on an empty stomach, and Africa’s food future must ultimately be built on systems the continent can own, understand and control.

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