In spite of having 65% of the worlds uncultivated arable land, abundant water resources, a youthful population with a median age of 19.7 and suitable agro-climatic conditions for commercial agriculture¹, Africa remains a net importer of food, the hunger capital of the world and a continent with the highest number of unemployed young people willing and able to work² (AfDB, 2023; WEF, 2023).

In a comparative study using an extensive review of existing literature covering DRC, Nigeria, Uganda and Zimbabwe, we find that the challenges of food security and development in Africa are not the result of lack of effort, as many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa have attempted different programs post-colonial era to boost food production and address the multivariate problems of food security, unemployment-induced poverty and economic stagnation.

For instance, Nigeria’s industrial policy has evolved from its import substitution strategy between 1960 and 1985, the liberalization policies between 1986 and 2013, to its current Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP) hatched in 2014. The NIRP seeks to diversify the economy, promote manufacturing, and enhance global competitiveness focusing on agro-processing, automotive assembly and petrochemicals. The policy thrust emphasizes attracting foreign investment, job creation, and developing strong institutions for industrialization.¹

According to the Ministry of Budget and National Planning, NIRP seeks to increase Nigeria’s share of industrial output from 4% to 10% of GDP. In spite of these lofty objectives, financing shortfalls, infrastructural deficits, policy implementation gaps and weak institutional capacity combine to impede the development of industrial agriculture in the country, with 31.8 million people facing acute food insecurity², a Global Hunger Index score of 28.8, with a hunger level described as serious in the 2024 review year (GHI, 2024).

In Southern Africa, Zimbabwe, once the food basket of Africa, remains a basket case, with widespread hunger partly induced by land expropriation policies that have dis-incentivized agricultural production. This policy fiasco resulted in de-industrialization that lingers to date. As a response, the Zimbabwe National Industrial Development Policy 2019 – 2023, was to promote the diversification of the economy, while transitioning the country from a primary producer to a manufacturer of value-added products for the local and export markets in sectors like agriculture. Although in early stages, Zimbabwe faces reputational challenges and institutional bottlenecks limiting the attraction of much needed foreign direct investment (FDI) in the agricultural sector.

In early 2024, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in partnership with the UNDP Congo Country Office, began supporting the Republic of Congo in setting up its Master Plan for Industrialization and Economic Diversification (PDIDE). According to the ECA, the country hopes that “the development and implementation of a Master Plan for Industrialization and Economic Diversification would not only increase the contribution of the Congolese industrial sector to GDP, but also make the most of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), for which Congo has adopted an implementation strategy.”³

Writing on the topic ‘Industrial Policy in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) as a tool of economic development from 2010 to 2016’ in the European Journal of Economic and Financial Research, Huguette Bura Sifa reported that “economic activities through Agriculture, Industry and Services are main tools of economic development in DR Congo.” Indicating that the three sectors have significant potential to influence or to predict the GDP, he found that there “was a strong positive and statistical significant relationship between Agriculture sector, Industry sector, Service Sector and GDP.”⁴ While agriculture accounts for 17.4% of the DR Congo’s GDP⁵ (USDA, GAIN, 2025) employing about 30.17% of the population in 2023⁶, the pervasive subsistence agricultural system in the country leaves 28 million people facing acute food insecurity in 2025 per a World Food Program (WFP) report.⁷

In Uganda, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives reports that in 2008, the government put together the first national industrial policy and strategic plan as a framework to provide strategic direction for industrialization. Writing the preamble to the revised policy in 2020, then Minister Amelia Kyambadde, stated that the vision of the 2008 policy “was to build the industrial sector into a modern, competitive and dynamic sector, fully integrated with domestic, regional and global economies. After a decade of implementation, a review was undertaken in 2017. The findings and recommendations from the review process informed the drafting of the National Industrial Policy 2020.” She further stated that the latest 2020 industrialization policy “has been aligned to the National Development Plan III, Vision 2040, EAC Vision 2050, Africa Agenda 2063, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the current trends in Industrialization within the region and globally.” It is telling that in spite of its fertile land and suitable agro-climatic conditions, Uganda still faces food security challenges classified as serious per the 2024 Global Hunger Index.

Across Africa therefore, industrial policy promoting food security is crucial, considering the continents heavy dependence on agriculture as primary economic activity and its vulnerability to food insecurity (FAO, 2023). By some accounts, agriculture accounts for 30% of the continents GDP while employing about 52% of the working population (World Bank, 2013; UNCTAD, 2022).

In spite of the strategic importance of the sector to the continent, agricultural productivity is still low, driven by rain-dependent and low-tech production and processing, compounded by infrastructural deficits that result in significant wastages across the value chain from farm gate to market. To put this in perspective, a report by Saifaddin Galal titled ‘value of agricultural exports from Sub-Saharan Africa 2007 – 2029’, published on Statista on March 10, 2025 indicated that while “the average value of agricultural exports from Sub-Saharan Africa amounted to $9.7 billion between 2017 and 2019, imports was just over $40 billion” in the review period.

Meanwhile, the Netherlands export of agricultural commodities in 2019 was “valued at just under 95 billion Euros (Statista, 2025)⁸. As the last European country to experience famine between 1944 and 1945, the Dutch government actively promoted the modernization of agriculture through land consolidation projects and investment in research and technology, leading to increased agricultural production. Furthermore, its land consolidation strategy completely transformed rural areas. Africa, with fragmented land ownership, and infrastructural deficits in rural areas, both of which challenge industrial agriculture, can take a cue from the Dutch strategy.

To be effective, we recommend that industrial policy in Africa should focus on improving agricultural productivity by investing in infrastructure, capacity building and improved farming techniques. As most of Africa’s agriculture is done by rural small holders, developing industrial zones to aggregate, store and process agricultural commodities in rural areas is essential. To catalyze the industrialization of the agricultural sector, structural reforms that make land acquisition easier while attracting private sector participation across the value chain will create the competitiveness required to support long term growth.

Our study concludes that industrial policy for agriculture and food security in Africa must address sector-specific and cross-cutting challenges. This includes easing access to land acquisition for large scale agriculture, improving productivity through investment in infrastructure, prioritizing research and development, promoting adopting of technology, and sustainable practices to mitigate the risk of climate change.

1. Feed Africa Report, African Development Bank 2017

2. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2023/02/unemployment-forecast-work-country/

3. Nigeria Industrial Revolution Plan (NIRP, 2014)

4. Ministry of Budget and Economic Planning, 2024

5. https://www.uneca.org/stories/congo-focuses-the-new-industrial-strategy

6. https://oapub.org/soc/index.php/EJEFR/article/view/389

7. https://apps.fas.usda.gov/newgainapi/api/Report

8. https://tradingeconomics.com/republic-of-the-congo/employment-in-agriculture-percent-of-total-employment-wb-data.html

9. https://www.wfp.org/emergencies/drc-emergency

10. Statista: Distribution of agricultural exports from the Netherlands 2019, by destination, April 2025