Strategy for agricultural transformation in africa

partners for key initiatives, ensuring that there is associated 
breadth and depth in terms of partner capabilities in key 
execution areas. 
6.
 
Potential job loss 
for the smallest 
farmers as a result 
of increases in 
productivity 
The strategy aims to increase total output to achieve self-
sufficiency in a range of value chains - in these areas we do not 
expect a net decline in employment. In 2 value chains - wheat 
and soy production - there will be a reduced level of net 
employment in production, through the application of 
mechanization. The net increase in overall agro-processing and 
agro-allied industry will more than offset the reduction in 
production employment in these value chains 
 

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6.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1
 
There is a massive opportunity to reframe the current social and economic costs 
associated with the low productivity of the agricultural sector.
What has – up till now – 
been an area of relative weakness for the African continent, can be recast as an area of strength 
and, more importantly, one of the fastest options for feeding, employing, and lifting millions 
of people out of poverty. Agricultural transformation has proven to be a complex endeavor, 
but is becoming increasingly understood as pockets of successful interventions spring up 
across the continent. New technologies – especially in the ICT realm – are bringing with them 
new ways of achieving and scaling success.
6.2
 
Critical to realizing this opportunity will be shifting the development of the sector 
from ‘agriculture as a way of life’ to ‘agriculture as a business’.
The public-sector has an 
essential role to play in fostering a private-sector led transformation of agriculture. Farmers, 
entrepreneurs, and investors alike will find a way to develop thriving agribusinesses if given 
the opportunity in the form of access to sufficient and affordable capital, access to markets and 
the right overall conditions in terms of policy and infrastructure. Lessons have been learned 
from emerging successes in the African continent, as well as internationally, on how to create 
these conditions, while new technologies are opening up new opportunities to modernize 
agriculture in a particularly inclusive way. It is now for public sector actors to do what is 
possible in their power to provide these conditions and help build the partnerships necessary to 
catalyze investment.
6.3