It’s time to scale up African solutions to the continent’s food and climate crisis | opinion | African Development Bank

by William Ruto, Akinwumi Adesina and Patrick Verkooijen

President of Kenya; President of the African Development Bank; CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation

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When it comes to climate change, there is no greater challenge than ensuring Africa can feed itself.

Right now, the Horn of Africa is suffering its worst drought in four decades, and UNICEF is warning that 20 million children are at risk of severe hunger, thirst and disease.

What makes this crisis particularly urgent is that it is not a freak event; it is the new normal of Africa. Rising global temperatures are wreaking havoc on the rainfall patterns that hundreds of millions of small farmers rely on. Large parts of Africa are warming twice as fast as the global average, putting half a billion people at risk.

This new normal – living with climate change – calls for new thinking and a new approach. We must free countries from the endless cycle of disaster and recovery. Instead of emergency aid, we need investment. Instead of food aid, we need climate-smart solutions for food production.

Think bigger

There are answers to the problems. Some of the best ideas are already being rolled out by young African entrepreneurs. They include start-ups like Irri-hub, founded by Eric Onchonga, which helps small farmers in the current drought with rainwater harvesting technology and solar-powered irrigation systems. Another is AgriTech Analytics, founded by Maryanne Gichanga, which uses satellite imagery, data analytics and the Internet of Things to track pests and crop diseases and advise farmers on soil conditions. Farmers using these services have experienced dramatic increases in crop yields; and better yields have allowed for better access to credit for fertilizers and seeds.

Such climate-smart solutions are already reaching tens of thousands of farmers. But to climate-resilience agriculture across the continent, we still need to reach millions more. Africa has served as a testing ground for a promising array of climate adaptation tools and strategies. What we need now is investment to roll them out to farmers across the continent.

To attract more financial support, the view of how climate adaptation should change from a means of mitigating risk to the best economic opportunity we have to secure a viable future.

Invest for success

The economic arguments for investing in climate adaptation are strong. The Global Center on Adaptation (GCA) estimated that just $15 billion a year – less than the running costs of the New York subway – would be enough to pay for better water management, infrastructure, land restoration and climate information services across Africa.

These promotions typically generate $5 in benefits for every $1 invested, according to the GCA. That’s because climate adaptation, when done well and on a large scale, delivers a cascade of positive economic, social and environmental benefits. Think of stronger crops, better yields, higher and more sustainable agricultural incomes, access to credit, healthier communities, and at the national level greater food security, lower food import bills, more balanced trade and more resilient economies in general.

Inaction, on the other hand, costs hundreds of billions of dollars every year, including disaster relief and reconstruction. Kenya alone estimates that it loses 3 to 4.4 percent of GDP annually due to the multiple impacts of global warming. Today, the continent alone imports more than 100 million tons of grains at an annual cost of $75 billion.

Disaster relief is a sunk cost. Climate adaptation is an investment in a more resilient future.

Developing a new approach

That is why Africa is trying a new approach. In 2021, the 55 member states of the African Union agreed to support a plan to accelerate adaptation to climate change across the continent. The Africa Adaptation Acceleration Program (AAAP) is an example of how Africa collectively thinks about its future. The African Development Bank Group (AfDB) has pledged $12.5 billion. It is hoped that donors and private sector financiers will match this amount. Projects are already underway.

In agriculture, the African Development Bank aims to scale up access to climate-smart digital technologies and data-driven agricultural and financial services for at least 30 million farmers. In the Horn of Africa, the bank is investing $350 million to tailor digital farm services, including market intelligence, insurance products and financial services, to the needs of smallholder farmers. The aim is to increase the resilience of farming communities and create new, 21st century jobs in AgriTech.

By scaling up investments in climate adaptation, Africa aims to become self-sufficient in food production and save the $50 billion it spends on imports each year. The African Development Bank calls these costs “unsustainable, irresponsible and prohibitively expensive” as well as “completely unnecessary”, and the heads of state of 34 African countries, meeting in Dakar at the beginning of the year, agreed.

At the Feed Africa Summit in January, they pledged to mobilize $50 billion to achieve food sovereignty across the continent. It is time for Africa to feed itself and fully unlock its agricultural potential to help feed the world.

Africa’s transition to a more resilient future has already begun. To keep the momentum going, Kenya is hosting an Africa Climate Summit with world leaders and the private sector in September. It will showcase some of the best climate adaptation projects on the ground and try to close the funding gap for the AAAP. The continent that has contributed least to global climate change is making the greatest effort to adapt to its impacts. And this certainly deserves everyone’s support.

William Ruto is President of Kenya.

Akinwumi Adesina is the chairperson of the African Development Bank.

Patrick Verkooijen is CEO of the Global Center on Adaptation.