Africa’s farmers are demanding a greater say in how billions of dollars earmarked to transform the continent’s food systems are invested, warning that new financing commitments will fall short if smallholders are treated as beneficiaries rather than economic actors.
The call is emerging at the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2026 in Kigali, where governments, investors, development partners and farmer organisations are meeting as Africa begins implementing the new 10-year Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Strategy and Action Plan.
The Kampala CAADP Declaration aims to mobilise $100 billion in public and private finance for Africa’s agrifood systems by 2035, alongside a renewed commitment to invest 10% of national resources in agriculture. The strategy targets higher agricultural productivity, stronger intra-African trade, reduced food losses and greater resilience.
However, for the farmers gathered in Kigali, the question is no longer simply how much money Africa can mobilise.
It is who gets access to it, who decides how it is spent and whether it reaches the people producing the continent’s food.
In a conversation with Climate Lens news, at Kigali, Rwanda, Elizabeth Nsimadala, president of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF), says farmers are coming to the Forum with a message for governments, investors and development partners: their organisations should be treated as partners in investment and policymaking, not as recipients waiting for assistance.
EAFF represents national farmer organisations and more than 25 million smallholder farmers across Eastern Africa.
The financing gap
Smallholders account for a large share of Africa’s food production, yet accessing formal finance remains difficult.
Farmer organisations say banks frequently regard smallholder agriculture as too risky, while many farmers lack the collateral, formal land documentation or financial history required by conventional lending systems.
The result is a mismatch between the importance of smallholders to African economies and the amount of capital available to them.
A recent assessment by the Food and Agriculture Organisation and partners also highlights a broader financing problem across African agrifood systems, with small and medium agricultural enterprises struggling to access capital because they are often too large for microfinance but too small for conventional banks.
Climate finance presents another barrier. FAO research has found that small-scale agrifood systems received only $5.53 billion in climate finance in 2019/20, a small share relative to the scale of investment needs facing producers and supply chain actors.
For farmer organisations, the problem is therefore not only a shortage of money. It is also the design of the financial system itself.
Application processes for international climate finance can be lengthy, costly and complex, while financial products offered by banks often fail to reflect the seasonal nature of agricultural production.
Nsimadala argues that farmers need financing models built around those realities rather than around financial systems that assume predictable monthly incomes and conventional collateral.
“How do we take advantage of their presence here as farmers to make sure that our interests are taken care of, that we build mutually benefiting partnerships?” she asks.
From beneficiaries to investors
Farmer organisations representing an estimated 250 million African smallholders are using the Forum to push for their formal participation in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of agricultural policies and investments.
They argue that farmers are not simply beneficiaries of agricultural investment; rather, they are already investors.
Globally, family farmers are estimated to spend hundreds of billions of dollars of their own resources each year on climate adaptation and natural-resource management, while small-scale producers remain central to food production and rural employment.
In sub-Saharan Africa, family farms employ around two-thirds of the workforce, while agriculture contributes at least one-fifth of regional GDP, according to figures presented by farmer organisations at the Forum.
The farmer groups are therefore calling for smallholders and their organisations to be formally recognised as economic actors, entrepreneurs, investors and development partners under the implementation of CAADP and the Kampala Declaration.
A proposed farmers’ resilience fund
For Nsimadala, one potential route is a proposed Farmers Empowerment and Resilience Fund, which farmer organisations want to co-create with producers rather than design first and consult farmers later.
The proposal reflects a broader push to make climate finance more accessible to smallholders.
“I would like to invite all the partners that are attending Africa Food Systems Summit 2026 to join us in this journey of the co-creation of this Farmers Empowerment and Resilience Fund,” Nsimadala says.
The proposal comes as policymakers and investors search for ways to turn the Kampala Declaration’s $100 billion ambition into investments that can reach farms and agrifood businesses.
The Africa Food Systems Forum itself has placed financing at the centre of its 2026 programme, including discussions on blended finance and mechanisms intended to mobilise private capital into African agrifood systems.
For farmers, however, mobilisation alone will not be enough. The test will be whether the new capital can overcome the barriers that have historically kept smallholders outside formal financial systems.
As the Forum continues, farmers are asking governments and funders to move beyond pledges and build mechanisms that allow producers to participate in decisions about the investments shaping their livelihoods.
The demand is ultimately about power as much as money.
Africa’s new food-systems strategy has set an ambitious financial target. But farmer organisations say the transformation will not be complete if the people producing the food remain outside the rooms where investment priorities are decided.
For Nsimadala, the message is straightforward: farmers are ready to participate in the transformation, but they want to do so as partners.
“We are not seeking handouts,” she says. “We are seeking mutually beneficial partnerships.”
